the nugget

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Our beliefs lead others to behave in ways that confirm our beliefs.

You’ve probably heard of self-fulfilling prophecies before, but have you thought about how they may be impacting your relationships in the workplace? The challenging part of self-fulfilling prophecies is that we don’t know when they’re occurring. If you’re more supportive to one team member and less trusting of another, can you guess how that might affect their performance?

Managers often use early perceptions of their employees to categorize them into “in” and “out” groups (in their head of course).

• The “in” group receives autonomy, feedback, and expressions of confidence.

• The “out” group gets constant questions, formal management, and an emphasis on rule-following.

• Consequently, the “out” group is likely to sense the manager’s lack of confidence in them leading to self-doubt and poor performance.

the application

Have you seen Netflix’s Squid Game? If you haven’t, two things:

1. What rock are you living under?

2. You may want to go watch it instead of reading the rest of this newsletter – don’t worry we understand.

If you have, then did you notice the possible Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Episode 1? To summarize briefly, Gi-Hun’s mother gives Gi-Hun money to buy his daughter dinner on her birthday. He pleads for more money because he wants to also buy her a gift, but his mother resists, telling him that she has no more money.

After more pleading, she finally relents, giving him almost twice as much money as she originally handed over. After she leaves the room, Gi-Hun frantically searches the kitchen and finds an ATM card hidden in a tin in the top cabinet. He uses the card to withdraw cash and the rest is history.

Now maybe Gi-Hun is just a hopeless degenerate and he would have stolen the money from his mother no matter what she did. But maybe not – especially if she had been wary of the effect of self-fulfilling prophecies. Perhaps if his mother had shown more trust and confidence in him then he would’ve been more responsible with the money she did give him rather than steal the money she didn’t.

It’s a tough balancing act, especially with someone you know well like Gi-Hun’s mother knows Gi-Hun, but ask yourself, would you be more likely to act unethically if someone showed you trust and respect or if they clearly expected you to disappoint them?

the insight

Your initial beliefs about someone (employee, colleague, potential new best friend) will change how they behave around you. This may confirm your beliefs and start the cycle all over again leading to progressively worse performance (or…er…friendship).

Want to break the cycle?

Give them a chance to prove you wrong! Let that “under-achieving” employee lead a new initiative without micro-managing them. That vote of confidence may just be the nudge they need to prove that your first impression was out of character of flat-out wrong.

the ask

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