Leadership

At the end of the same school year, a second intelligence test was given to the same group of students. This time the tests were actually scored by Rosenthal and Jacobson.

What do you think the results turned out to be?

Leadership

Rosenthal and Jacobson randomly picked several of the students names and gave this list to the teachers-this list was not based upon the students' actual performance on the IQ tests. But the teachers did not know this-they thought these selected students were the smartest ones in their class based upon actual test results.....

Source: "Sociologists at Work"-David Newman and Rebecca Smith

Leadership

Back in 1968, Dr. Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen published their findings regarding the self-fulfilling prophecy-"Pygmalion in the classroom". These two educators had become very concerned that teachers' expectations about lower-class and minority children were contributing to the high rates of failure among these students. They decided to test their theory-their experiment took place in a elementary school that was located in a lower-class but not impoverished community.

At the beginning of the school year, these educators administered an intelligence test to a group of students at this particular elementary school. They told the teachers that this test not only measured the students' IQ-it would also identify the students who would make rapid, above average intellectual progress during the coming school year, whether or not they were currently "good" students.

Within a few days, Rosenthal and Jacobsen gave the teachers the names of those students who, based upon the test results, could be expected to perform well in the classroom during the coming academic year.

However, there was a secret about those students' names that Rosenthal and Jacobsen deliberately kept from the teachers.....

Leadership

An employee does as well as his boss thinks he can.

This can be effectively illustrated using "The Pygmalion Effect" concept.

This idea is also known as “the self-fulfilling prophecy”. When you believe that another person will perform well, in some strange, magical way he does. And similarly, when you believe he won’t perform well, he won’t.

There is enough experimental data to suggest that the self-fulfilling prophecy is in fact true.

Let's take a look at this fascinating subject and see how it applies in the workplace...

Habits-Attitudes-Beliefs-Expectations

opportunityisnowhere

What did you see when you read this string of letters? Did you see "opportunity is nowhere"...or did you see "opportunity is now here." Which phrase describes your mindset as 2010 approaches-the first or the second? Let us all focus on the second phrase!

Human Resources-Employee Relations

Lets say that you have an employee that works for you and quits after (8) months with your company. Many experts state that the cost of replacing that employee will be equal to his annual salary.....sound too high? I don't think so-when you add up all of the training costs that go out the door with the former employee and the costs associated with finding and training his replacement-then add the administrative costs. The $ add up quickly. If Mike starts his new employees at $10.00 an hour-that is about $20,000 a year. Think for a minute about the significant amount of money that Mike's Carwash saved when they reduced turnover by 25%.

By the way, what is your annual turnover %? When an employee leaves your company, how much $ does it cost your company to replace him?

Human Resources-Employee Relations

After full implementation of this intensive management training, turnover at Mike's Carwash decreased by 25%. Next time let's see how this turnover reduction translated into more $ for Mike's. This is a textbook example of how treating employees with respect by developing their potential is not only the right thing to do-it also makes money for the employer.