How leader belief shapes team performance: the Pygmalion Effect

Executive overview

People don't rise because you tell them they can. They rise because they feel you genuinely believe they will. The Pygmalion Effect — demonstrated in a 1968 school experiment and later in the Israeli military — shows that expectations, positive or negative, directly shape performance.

The inverse is equally true: lowered expectations produce the Golem Effect, where performance declines. As a CEO, your beliefs about your people leak through regardless of what you say.

Conviction in your team's potential, not words of praise, is what unlocks high performance.

The research behind the effect

• Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968): told teachers random students were about to have an intellectual growth spurt
• Those students became more confident, engaged, and eager — teachers offered more challenge and support
• Students excelled because of belief in their potential, not innate ability
• Dov Eden replicated the effect in the Israeli Defense Forces — high expectations produced high performance
• When Eden reversed the experiment, performance fell: the Golem Effect

Belief leaks through — the Covey example

• Stephen Covey and his wife praised their struggling son with the right words — but their underlying worry showed
• Their son responded to the energy behind the words, not the words themselves
• The unspoken message: "we love you, but we're not sure you're enough"
• Covey realised their approach was rooted in fear, not genuine belief
• They shifted: stopped trying to fix him, began to celebrate him as he was
• Their son grew in confidence and began to thrive — driven by felt belief, not spoken encouragement

What this means for CEOs

• Your expectations set the tone and shape the culture
• False praise and empty optimism don't work — people sense the difference
• Genuine conviction drives challenge, growth, and accountability
• Hold your direct reports in the highest esteem and they will rise to meet it