You will probably have experienced a boss, teacher, sports coach or parent who has hampered your progress in some way. And you probably have also had someone by your side who saw your greater potential and helped you grow. This is called the Pygmalion effect.
In an article "Pygmalion in Management," published in the Harvard Business Review, J. Sterling Livingston draws on the ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who created a statue of a beautiful woman who later came to life. A similar theme was used by George Bernard Shaw in his play Pygmalion, which was the basis of the film My Fair Lady. In the play, Eliza Doolittle says, "The difference between a flower and a lady is not how she behaves, but how she is treated."
Livingston presents a number of his own studies and other research to show that if a manager's expectations are high, there is also a high probability that productivity will be excellent. If, however, expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor.
We might also use the analogy of a goldfish, which neatly illustrates the impact of expectations and beliefs. If you buy a small goldfish and keep it in a small aquarium, it will not grow more than a few centimetres. Move the same fish to a large aquarium and its size will double or triple. The key factor determining the size of a fish is the size of its environment.
Many managers see people as they are and treat them as they see fit. They take a small goldfish and leave it in a small bowl, as it would be inefficient and unnecessary to place it in a larger environment. Strong leaders, on the other hand, see people as they could be and train them to expand that potential.
| MANAGEMENT (small fishbowl) | LEADERSHIP (large fish tank) |
| Commanding | Coaching |
| Solving problems | Enabling others to solve problems |
| Directing and controlling | Teaching and engaging |
| Seeing people as they are | Developing people into what they could be |
| Empowering | Partnering |
| Operating | Improving |
| Pushing | Pulling |
| Quick fix to symptoms | Search for systemic root causes |
So the question is: Are you a small aquarium manager or a large aquarium leader?
If you are interested, you can try a little quiz (in English).
Less effective managers often focus on addressing weaknesses; highly effective leaders draw and build on strengths. Finally, a quote from Doug MacKie, an organisational psychologist and author of Stress-Based Leadership Coaching in Organizations: “Coaching and positive psychology share certain assumptions in their focus on positive things, the belief that people want to learn, and most importantly that individuals contain within themselves solutions to their own challenges.”
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