From Pygmalion to Golem: The Two Faces of Expectations
When I was a kid, my baseball coach pulled me aside and said, “You’re a great defensive player. I need you to be a defensive leader on this team.”
Honestly, I had never thought much about my defense, good or bad. I showed up, played where they put me, and did my best not to screw things up. But that sentence gave me a new title: defensive specialist. My mindset changed overnight. No ball was getting past me. That became my new attitude.
My coach probably did not say it to manipulate my psychology. He might not even remember saying it. Maybe it was even a polite way of telling me, “You’re not much of a hitter. You need to start carrying your load by playing better defense.” I do not know. What I do know is that the way I saw myself and the way I played changed.
Psychologists call this the Pygmalion effect: when someone’s expectations of us become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we start performing to match what they expect.
That same dynamic shows up every day in leadership. High expectations with high support is the secret sauce to success.
Verbalizing expectations is good leadership and the expectations and capabilities we see in other people should not stay in your head. Your belief in someone else will help shape their actions in the problems you trust them to solve, and the belief and confidence they have within themselves.
Where the Name Comes From
The name comes from an old Greek myth. Pygmalion was a sculptor on the island of Cyprus who carved a statue of a woman. He worked on it so lovingly that he fell in love with his own creation. He treated the statue as if it were real, talking to it, giving it gifts, praying that it would come to life. The goddess Aphrodite heard his prayer and turned the statue into a living woman, later named Galatea.
In the 1960s, psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson ran a famous study in an elementary school. They told teachers that certain students were “intellectual bloomers” who were expected to show big gains that year. In reality, those students were chosen at random. By the end of the year, the “bloomers” had made significantly larger IQ gains than their classmates. The researchers concluded that the teachers’ expectations had subtly changed how they treated those kids, more attention, more challenge, more encouragement, and that, in turn, changed how the kids performed. They named this the Pygmalion effect, after the sculptor whose belief in his statue seemed to bring it to life.
In leadership terms: the Pygmalion effect means that when you genuinely expect more from people and you act like you expect more, they tend to rise to meet those expectations.
The Golem Effect
There is an opposite force at work as well. It is called the Golem effect, and it is the counterpart of the Pygmalion story.
The name comes from Jewish folklore. A golem is a creature formed from clay or mud and brought to life through mystical rituals. In one legend a man created a golem to protect his community from persecution. The creature was obedient, but very limited. It had no soul, no ability to think for itself, and it existed mainly to follow orders and do hard labor. Over time, the word golem came to represent something strong but unformed, shaped by its creator and bound by their intentions.
In psychology, the Golem effect describes what happens when low expectations lead to poor performance. When coaches, teachers, or leaders decide that someone is limited they give smaller assignments. They offer less encouragement or disengage completely. The person on the receiving end starts to internalize the message. Motivation drops. Effort shrinks. Performance slides. And the leader says, “See? I told you so.”
Just as Pygmalion’s belief seemed to bring his statue to life, a leader’s low expectations can turn a capable person into something that looks like a golem. A competent person who is never trusted to think, lead, or grow.
Utilizing the Pygmalion Effect
As leaders we can utilize this principle. We get to decide and should be intentional about what kind of expectations we are broadcasting and therefore what kind of performance you are inviting.
A few ideas that work:
Give people titles that launch them forward.
“You’re our safety leader on this crew.” “You’re the person who makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.” “You’re the one who raises the bar on quality.” Words matter. They create a role to live into.
High expectations + high support=Success.
High expectations without resources is just pressure. High expectations with coaching, time, and tools is leadership. People will stretch when they know you are invested in their success.
Catch people doing it right.
The Pygmalion effect is not about fake praise. It is about noticing real behaviors and talent that match the standard you want and naming them out loud. “That’s exactly the kind of ownership I’m talking about.” Praise and recognition have far more impact than you think.
Just like that coach who accidentally turned me into a defensive specialist, you have more power than you think to change how someone sees themselves and what they believe they can do. I am so grateful for the people who believed in me and recognized things in me before I even saw them in myself. That is great leadership and truly how you can bring a statue to life.
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