Welcome to Minute with Mallon!

Something I Taught:

I was recently watching a program on Amazon Prime called "NFL Icons." If you're into football, it's excellent. There are 3 seasons and 20 episodes so far. Each episode celebrates a different person, some of the biggest names in football.

I was watching the episode on Jimmy Johnson, the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Towards the beginning of the episode he began talking about how he looked and communicated with each of his players.

Johnson adopted a psychological theory that would become the way he coached his players and his creed for life. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy called the Pygmalion Effect.

“Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. But treat a person as if he were what he could be and should be and he will become what he could be and should be.”

A little history:

The term “Pygmalion Effect” was coined by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson in their famous 1968 study “Pygmalion in the Classroom.” In their research, they demonstrated how teachers’ expectations of students could significantly influence the students’ academic performance and intellectual development.

Essentially, the Pygmalion Effect is a psychological principle where higher expectations lead to an increase in performance and achievement. In other words, when people believe in someone's potential and treat them accordingly, that individual is more likely to meet or exceed those expectations.

This is very useful for leaders when communicating with the people they lead.

One leader I was recently working with told me about one of his direct reports who "just wasn't cutting it." "I'm just not sure if she is going to make it," this leader told me. As we went deeper, it became apparent that his thoughts about her were not as positive as they could be – he had basically written her off. As we kept digging, he became aware that this belief was most assuredly coming through in the way that he spoke to her, but more importantly, it was also apparent in his body language and tone. No doubt she was picking up on his lack of confidence in her.

So we began to talk about her potential instead of her shortcomings and how to positively speak with her about that more optimistic future vision for her.

He told me he'd try it.

On a call a few weeks later, he told me that he had had the conversation with her.

"As we spoke and I told her that I believed in her, her eyes started to water. She visibly became emotional and told me that no one she remembered had said such nice things to her."

And her performance had begun to improve!

So think about this: in your role as a leader, do you typically treat your folks as they are, or do you treat them as they could be? Be honest with yourself.

And how about in your marriage, or with how you treat your children?

Embracing the Pygmalion Effect in leadership and in your relationships can transform individuals and teams, leading to higher performance and achievement.

Take Jimmy's advice!

Something I Learned:

A good friend of mine named Tim Knight recently recommended a book called The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. Tim is a very successful developer and intelligent person, so when he recommends things, I check them out.

It’s a tremendous book and I'd recommend it to anyone! I noted a lot of highlights and am going to sprinkle a few of them in over the next few newsletters just to get you thinking.

Your personal experiences with money make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world, but maybe 80% of how you think the world works.

John F. Kennedy was asked by a reporter what he remembered from the Depression. He remarked: I have no first-hand knowledge of the Depression. My family had one of the great fortunes of the world and it was worth more than ever then. We had bigger houses, more servants, we traveled more. About the only thing that I saw directly was when my father hired some extra gardeners just to give them a job so they could eat. I really did not learn about the Depression until I read about it at Harvard.

This is not a cut at JFK. He was born into wealth, so that is what he saw. The point is that we are all influenced by the way we have grown up with money and the philosophies that our parents had about money.

But those beliefs we grew up with may not be as true as we think. This is one of the points of the book: how to think about and work with money in a way that actually makes money a tool for you.

Something to Ponder:

"Talent is God-given. Be thankful. Praise is man-given. Be humble. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

Tony Dungy

Something I Saw:

Valentines Dinner Table ready for our ladies! ❤️

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Hope you have an incredible week!

Robert

Minute With Mallon: Unleashing Potential: The Pygmalion Effect