Page 108 - Getting to the Heart of High Performance

How does this work?

First, your positive stance makes the other person more
willing to try. Second, high expectations send a positive
message implying that the person has the ability to

deliver. You affirm the individual. This inspires hope,
builds confidence, and brings more potential into play.
Your high expectations fuel greater effort and nurture a
can-do spirit.

Research proves that expectations create a self-fulfilling
prophecy. A classic study by Harvard psychologist Robert
Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson involved IQ testing of stu-
dents in a San Francisco elementary school. 12 The

researchers told the teachers that some students had
scored very high on the test and would “bloom” academi-
cally. The so-called high IQ students were actually picked at
random, but the teachers were not aware of this. Teachers

for the other student group, operating without this false
information, presumed that their students were just nor-
mal. Follow-up IQ testing eight months later revealed that
the “bloomers” had, in fact, blossomed. The mean IQ of

92 DEEP STRENGTHS