In George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle explain: "You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she's teated.
I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady and always will."
Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that leads to superior performance. But most manager, like Professor Higgins, unintentionally treat their subordinates in a way that leads to lower performance than they are capable of achieving.
The way manager treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them. If manager's expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If their expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused subordinates' performance to rise or fall to meet manager's expectations.
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