The Pitfalls of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

We live in a world where we are constantly judged based on our ability to perform various tasks. If you are a teacher, you have to assess your students; if you are a boss you have to evaluate your employees; if you are a coach, you have to appraise the talent on your team. All of these tasks are challenging at best, which makes it all too easy to fall into the trap of “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Self-fulfilling prophecy is when we determine the capabilities of someone and then our perception of their ability comes true. Obviously, this can have a positive and a negative outcome. For example, if a baseball coach assesses his pitchers and ranks them from top to bottom it’s more likely that the top pitcher will perform like the top pitcher and the bottom pitcher will perform like the bottom pitcher.

The same can be applied to a teacher or boss. If you give a lot of positive feedback to your top performing students or employees, then they will more likely be motivated to continue to perform well. On the flip side, the students or employees who are perceived as underperformers are less likely to be motivated to get better.

Here is where the power of positive thinking comes into play. As coaches, teachers, and bosses, if we take a new look at some of our lower performing athletes, students or employees perhaps we will see some good qualities we missed the first time around. There are a couple of things you can do to avoid the trap of a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.

First, set goals and expectations for all of the individuals you are in charge of. Assign everyone a role to play.

Second, re-evaluate at the middle of the season, school, year or fiscal year to see if everyone is performing where they should. If they are not, then you know what to work on.

Finally, watch your non-verbal communication. Sometimes it’s not what you say, but it's what you don’t say that sends the loudest message.

Because we all have different gifts and talents, it’s inevitable that we are going to perform different tasks with varying degrees of skill and efficiency. The true test of the coach, teacher or boss is to get the most out of each individual and keep an open mind about their potential.