The Idea in Brief

Consider this bold experiment: A branch manager at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company assigned top agents to his best assistant manager, average producers to an average manager, and low performers to the poorest manager.

Surprisingly, the average group enhanced its productivity by a higher percentage than the top group. How? Its manager didn’t see herself or her agents as average. She told her people they had more potential than the “superstaffers”—then challenged them to outperform them.

Her story affirms a vital lesson: When managers expect the best from employees, they get the best. And when they expect the worst . . . well, they get that, too.

The expectations/behavior connection has stimulated research since 1969, when this article was first published. But evoking positive self-fulfilling prophecies is still remarkably difficult. The following guidelines can help.

The Idea in Practice

To unleash the power of positive expectations:

  • Don’t overcommunicate negative feelings. Managers often communicate low expectations far more effectively than high expectations, for example, through “silent treatments.”
  • Clearly communicate positive feelings. If subordinates can’t perceive your high expectations, they can’t fulfill them.

Example: 

When one manager tried to replicate the Metropolitan experiment, she didn’t tell the supervisor of the high-performance unit that she considered him the best. The group’s performance never improved.

  • Set realistic expectations. Subordinates won’t work to achieve their best unless they view your expectations as achievable. In one manufacturing firm, production actually declined when quotas were set too high.
  • Expect the most from yourself. Superior managers have confidence in their own ability to select, train, and motivate subordinates. Their confidence influences their beliefs about their employees—and their expectations and treatment of them.

Managers’ self-confidence gives their high expectations credibility. Subordinates who view their managers as credible consider their expectations realistic—and strive to fulfill them. Example: 

James Sweeney, Tulane University professor and computer-center director, believed he could teach even poorly educated individuals to operate computers. He selected custodian George Johnson to prove his conviction. Thanks to Sweeney’s beliefs about his own teaching powers and Johnson’s learning ability, Johnson mastered the material, began managing the main computer room, and ultimately trained new employees.

  • Seize advantage of employees’ critical first year. Your expectations exert their greatest impact during employees’ first year on the job. As subordinates mature, their aspirations—and your expectations—become colored by past performance. After year one, it’s hard to generate high expectations unless employees have outstanding records.
  • Make your best managers new hires’ first bosses. A young person’s first boss is likely to exert the strongest influence on his or her career. Put your best managers in charge of new college hires.

Example: 

The most effective branch managers at a West Coast bank were in their forties and fifties—except for one 27-year-old. His first boss had made him a branch manager at 25 because he didn’t believe it took years to become an effective banker. His talented protégé quickly excelled and trained his own assistant to assume responsibility early.

In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle explains:

A version of this article appeared in the January 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review.