🔮 The Boss Who Expected More
What a manager expects of you might matter as much as what you actually do.
The Experiment That Proved Expectations Change Performance
About a decade and a half later, psychologist Dov Eden ran a version of the same experiment in a very different setting: an Israeli military training course. He told the instructors that certain trainees — again, chosen randomly — showed unusually high command potential. Those trainees went on to score measurably higher on objective performance tests than their peers.
Neither study found that belief works like magic. What it found is smaller and more useful: people who are expected to do well tend to get more attention, more challenging tasks, and more real feedback — and they perform better because of that treatment, not because someone simply wished it.
🔮 Set the Expectation, Not Just the Goal
- Say the belief out loud — tell someone specifically what you think they're capable of, not just what you need from them.
- Give harder tasks to people you want to see grow, not only to people who've already proven they can do it.
- Watch your own tone and body language — they broadcast your real expectations faster than your words do.
- If you're on the receiving end of low expectations, find one person who expects more of you and lean into that relationship.
People tend to rise or sink to the level expected of them. Expect more, on purpose. 🔮