The Expectation Effect: How a Coach's Beliefs Shape a Player's Behavior

The expectations you hold for others are never neutral. In this episode, we break down the Pygmalion Effect (also known as the Rosenthal Effect) and the classic 1968 study with school children that revealed how important expectations can be. If you're a coach, leader, parent, teacher, or anyone in an authority position, and you want your people to grow, it starts with what you expect from them (and how you show it).

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I want you to think of one person who's believed in you so much that it significantly shaped the person that you've become today. Who's that person in your life that's trusted you maybe before you actually felt ready yourself? Or who's the person that saw something in you that maybe others didn't see, or that maybe even you couldn't see in yourself? When we have someone like this in our lives, whether it's conscious or not, we start to show up differently. We express more confidence, we're more inclined to stay committed and persistent despite challenges. All of us have been transformed over the course of our lives by others, and much of this is rooted in that other person's expectations of us. Expectations are powerful because they not only shape how we feel about ourselves, they also influence our beliefs and subsequently our actions. So today on the podcast, we're going to discuss the power of expectations and introduce an important concept for any coach or leader known as the Pygmalion Effect. Hey coaches and leaders, I got a quick question for you. You spend a lot of time building game plans for those you lead, but when was the last time you built one for yourself? If you're looking to sharpen your leadership skills, strengthen your team culture, or find better ways to support and challenge your athletes in the mental game, I'd love to help. I'm offering a free coaching call where we can talk through your current challenges and create a simple game plan for what might move the needle most for you, your players, and your program. Most coaches I know obsess over developing their team, but they neglect the person in the mirror. This call is a chance to invest in you because a better you is going to produce a better them. And if that sounds helpful, you can grab a time at Callenly.com slash Zach Brandon. That's Callenly.com slash Zach Brandon, or just check the link in the show notes. I'd love to connect and explore how I can best support you. So today's episode again is about the Pygmillion effect. It's also known as the Rosenthal effect, which comes from two researchers by the name of Rosenthal and Jacobson and a groundbreaking study that they did in 1968. So the way their study took place, it was in a school setting, and at the beginning of the school year, teachers were told that certain students in their classroom had been identified through testing as intellectual bloomers, meaning that they were expected to show significantly more academic growth and be the top performing students in the class. But the key detail here was that all of the students were randomly selected. There was actually no difference at all in their ability, their background, their intelligence, or potential between them and their classmates. The only difference was the belief that the teachers held about them through the expectations that were handed to them at the very beginning. So over the course of the year, researchers tried to pay attention to and observe whatever happened next. And teachers, without realizing it, began to do things differently based on their expectations. They started to give those students that were intellectual bloomers more attention. They offered more detailed and constructive feedback to them. They showed greater patience when they were struggling. And they also just provided more opportunities to participate and to respond in the classroom. And by the end of the year, those same students, who were no different to begin with, demonstrated significantly greater academic gains than their peers. These kids though weren't actually more gifted or smart, but there was no question that they were treated differently. And this groundbreaking study reinforces something simple, but also incredibly important. Our expectations don't just reflect our potential, they actually can help us develop it. The term Pygmelion itself comes from a story in Metamorphosis, and Pygmelion refers to a sculptor who creates a statue that's so beautiful that he begins to fall in love with it. And over time, his belief and devotion is so strong that according to the myth, the statue comes to life. It's a metaphor for what we believe, how it can shape what becomes actually real for us. The importance of expectations is, I think, a really popular topic in the realm of coaching and leadership circles. It's often discussed on a regular basis. And I actually discussed it in detail in my very first guest interview on this podcast with former World Series MVP, national championship winning head coach, and current athletic director Scott Brocius. In case you missed our original conversation back on episode 51, here's what Scott said about the role of expectations for players.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

One thing that I think I learned too was whether I was coaching little leaguers, coaching college, or you know, the professionals, whatever, I always felt like as a coach, players will meet your expectations. So in other words, if you set high expectations, they'll meet them. But if you set low expectations, they'll also meet them. You know, so as the coach, you're kind of the driver of where this team goes.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

I really love that idea and reminder that as a coach, you're the driver of how things go for your players. And what's important here, though, is that expectations aren't just something you say. They're something that you exhibit in your actions. They show up in your behavior. Expectations are expressed in how you speak to someone, or even when you choose to remain silent and not say something. They're emphasized in how you challenge them or how you encourage them to become maybe more than they think that they're capable of. Expectations are expressed in how you allocate your time and your attention, and also who gets opportunities, who gets a voice, etc. Expectations are expressed in who get who you decide gets opportunities or who gets a voice at the table. Every interaction becomes a signal. And over time, those signals start to answer a question that every player is asking. Do you believe in me? And players don't just hear your expectations, they're actually going to experience them. So here's a couple of invitations for anybody that's leading others who wants to be more intentional with the expectations that you're communicating. The first is to extend responsibility before someone fully proves that they're ready. Now I'm not encouraging anybody here to be reckless with this, but I do want you to be intentional. It's incredibly valuable for people to put them in moments that can stretch them. That there is a ton of research that talks about the optimal environment is this appropriate blend of support and challenge. So um I've seen this play out in baseball where if you move someone up in the lineup, for example, if they're hitting earlier in the lineup, it can signal to them that you believe in them, that they're an important component, again, this is sometimes even just psychologically, to the team's success. And so even just bumping them up in the lineup can make a really big difference, giving them a bigger role or extending to them greater responsibility within the team uh or the locker room, trusting them in leverage situations or key moments, all of these decisions communicate that, hey, I believe in you and I believe that you're capable of more. And when players or staff members step into those opportunities and then succeed, even in small ways, it can dramatically boost their confidence. Now the second thing is to audit where you might be holding others back with low expectations. In particular, this is where I think it's incredibly important to pay attention to the labels that we prescribe to others. Pay attention to how you label them, not only out loud, but even internally. This player isn't good at X. She can't do Y. The best leaders that I've been around, they don't spend their time pointing out what players can't do. That's not the job. The job is to help them grow into what they can do. And it's essential that you monitor and audit when you're giving energy to producing or feeding labels on others because those will start to influence how you treat them. And then subsequently, whether or not they reach their full potential. So, all this to say, every day, whether you realize it or not, you're setting expectations. And those expectations, they are 100% shaping the behavior of those you lead. So the question here is are your expectations empowering others to become something greater? Or are your spoken or even unspoken expectations holding them back? Everyone you lead wants to become the best version of themselves. And sometimes we forget this can also start with how our expectations align with that image that they have of themselves. It's up to us to maintain those high expectations and standards with the right support so people rise to what's consistently expected of them and ultimately what they're capable of.