Copy of The Pygmalion Effect: Why Expecting More Gets You More (TPL Insights #292)

By Rob Andrews

I’ve been blessed to have had people like Don Gates and Larry Gladstone in my life early on. Don Gates was the Division Operations Manager who pushed me when I was an 18-year-old Safeway management trainee, a 19-year-old assistant manager, and a 21-year-old store manager. Larry Gladstone was the 47-year-old Brown Undergraduate and Harvard MBA who took a 24-year-old supermarket kid and taught me his brand of “doing search the right way.” These guys weren’t just cheerleaders. They weren’t handing out participation trophies. They were tough, demanding, and sometimes downright relentless. They believed in me, they challenged me, and they pushed me. And here’s the kicker: they didn’t coddle me.

That’s the Pygmalion Effect in action.

What the Heck is the Pygmalion Effect?

In plain English, the Pygmalion Effect says this: when leaders expect more, people deliver more. It’s not new. Back in the 1960s, Rosenthal and Jacobson ran a famous study where teachers were told certain random kids were “late bloomers.” Guess what happened? Those kids outperformed their peers. Why? Because the teachers treated them as if they were destined for success. Expectations became reality.

Fast forward to the business world. J. Sterling Livingston’s Harvard Business Review piece, Pygmalion in Management (2003), made it clear: managers’ expectations shape performance—sometimes more than training, credentials, or even resources. When you expect greatness and back it with support, people rise. When you expect mediocrity, you get it. Every time.

Why Leaders Get This Wrong

Here’s the brutal truth: too many leaders are afraid of making people uncomfortable. They think being “supportive” means lowering the bar, softening the message, or avoiding hard truths. They confuse kindness with coddling.

That’s leadership malpractice.

The organizations I see failing are the ones where leaders are terrified of offending people, so expectations get watered down. Instead of “I believe you can hit this aggressive target,” it becomes “Let’s see what you can do.” Instead of “I expect you to lead this team,” it becomes “Let’s collaborate and figure out where you’re comfortable.”

Comfort doesn’t grow people. Expectation does.

How We Use the Pygmalion Effect in Coaching

At Allen Austin, our coaching practice is built around this principle: we believe in you, which is exactly why we’re going to push you harder than you’ve been pushed before.

When we work with executives—whether it’s a first-time CEO or a battle-scarred CHRO—we start by setting the bar high. Not fantasy-land high, but high enough to make people sweat a little. We frame coaching goals in terms of organizational impact, not just personal growth.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Explicit Expectations. We don’t hint. We don’t hope. We say flat-out: “Here’s what success looks like for you, here’s what your board or team needs, and here’s what I expect from you in the next 90 days.”

Tough Love Feedback. We give leaders the gift of blunt feedback. If you want sugarcoating, buy donuts. If you want growth, we’ll tell you exactly what’s working and exactly what’s not.

Stretch Assignments. We push clients into situations where they can’t hide—leading that board session, owning that turnaround, giving the keynote instead of farming it out.

Relentless Accountability. If you say you’re going to do something, we expect it done. Excuses don’t cut it. This is where leaders grow character, grit, and credibility.

Our coaches are believers and challengers. We believe in leaders more than they often believe in themselves—and then we challenge them until they see what we see.

The ROI of Expectation

The business case is airtight. Research shows that leaders who believe in their people see higher retention, stronger engagement, and better financial outcomes. A study in The Leadership Quarterly (Veestraeten et al., 2021) confirmed that leader expectations can directly drive performance, provided feedback and support are consistent.

I’ve seen it in real life: executives who were written off as “not ready” stepping into massive roles because someone finally told them, “I expect you to lead here.” Organizations that moved from flatlining to thriving because expectations—and accountability—became part of the culture.

And yes, we’ve also seen the opposite. Cultures where leaders assume employees aren’t capable, and people live down to those low expectations. Mediocrity spreads like mold.

The Hard Truth

The Pygmalion Effect isn’t magic. You can’t just chant “I believe in you” like a corporate mantra and hope performance skyrockets. Belief must be paired with action: resources, coaching, feedback, and clarity. Empty expectations are cruel.

But real expectations—grounded in belief, backed by support, enforced with accountability—are rocket fuel.

Final Word

Don Gates and Larry Gladstone didn’t do me any favors by going easy on me. They did me a favor by expecting more, demanding more, and showing me what I was capable of when I stopped making excuses. That’s what leaders do.

And that’s what we do in our coaching practice. We won’t coddle you. We won’t let you settle. We’ll believe in you more than you believe in yourself, and then we’ll hold you accountable to that belief.

Because expectations matter. And if you want a peak-performance culture, you’d better get comfortable with setting them higher than feels safe.

Warmest,

Rob Andrews

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Celebrating 28 years of Executive Search, Leadership Advisory, and Interim Executive Excellence

Direct: 713.489.9724/ Mobile: 713.301.6130

4801 Woodway Dr., Suite 130W, Houston, TX, 77056

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References

Livingston, J. S. (2003). Pygmalion in management. Harvard Business Review.

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Veestraeten, M., et al. (2021). Exploring the bounds of Pygmalion effects: Leader expectations and employee performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 32(6).

Entrepreneur. (2022). The Pygmalion Effect: Can the Power of Your Expectations Really Influence Performance?