Don't Let Halos and Horns Blur Your Expectations

What do your company's talent  conversations sound like?

If you've spent more than a few minutes managing, succession planning, or doing a performance review, you know that total talent conversations can morph into a bias founded upon a single experience. Here's what I mean.

The Halo Effect

The Halo Effect surfaces when someone has an outstanding characteristic and we allow our positive reaction to that singe characteristic to influence our total judgment of the individual. What follows is a high assessment on many traits because we believe the person is a star in one trait. We ascribe a range of related talents that simply may not now, nor ever will, exist.

We see this in the realms of celebrity and politics when a physically attractive person is presumed to have a host of other positive traits. We also see it in companies where "the smartest guy in the room" moves up the hierarchy until it's discovered that his "smartness" not only doesn't extend to other fundamental traits e.g., cooperation, teamwork, initiating communication--but the individual may actually get in the way of the flow of work.

The Horn Effect

This one, often called the "Devil Effect," is the flip side of the Halo Effect and doesn't get quite as much attention. I don't know why that is. Its organizational impact is equally profound. 

In this scenario, if a person seems particularly lacking in one key trait, then that person will often be assumed to be deficient in many other traits. A manager who is constantly overdue on  project delivery (possibly due to unreasonable work demands and a boss who won't renegotiate what makes realistic sense) is assumed to be uncommitted, perhaps a little lazy, and even negligent in their overall work life.

Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

We live up to our expectations. People who expect to be successful are more likely to succeed. People who expect failure are more likely to fail.

A manager's or supervisor's expectations about employees' performance will effect that performance. Period. Remember that performance evaluations and performance feedback will influence and mold future performance based upon the implicit and explicit expectations that managers convey.
(The same is true in families regarding the messages conveyed between spouses those between parents and children).

Today's thought: Be aware of how you might be contributing to self-fulfilling prophecies in your workplace and in your life. It's important, because you very often get what you expect. 

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But that's not all! As we were hitting the "publish" key, The Leadership Carnival--Oscar Edition went online with more than top-notch articles on leadership by top-notch leadership writers. Be sure to add to your knowledge and check them out.

Comments

[Travis Branzell]

This is a very interesting because it often occurs within our workplaces. There are those optimistic managers that only see the good in their subordinates, but neglect to observe the disruption they do or may bring to the flow of the team. On the flip-side there are the pessimistic managers that easily identify and harp on the negative traits that a subordinate displays, which neglect to identify positive traits that act catalyst and increase the flow of work. I think there is a remedy to this problem......

I do believe that performance feedback, not performance reviews or a PA system, will mold future performance based upon the implicit and explicit expectations that managers convey. I believe that performance reviews can be subjective at times and may not convey the message that you want to get across to those that are being evaluated. At times performance reviews can point out nearly all of the positive traits of an individual but not bring any of their negative traits to the surface. Drop the PA system to provide your employees with your insight on their performance. As a manager you want to point out your subordinates positive traits, but you also want to point out their negative traits or "things they may want to work on" without leaving them believing that they are worthless. Not only do you want to point these negative traits out, but you also want to give them direction to how they can improve and meet your expectations. As soon as you see a positive change in their behavior it is important to immediately commend them for their efforts. More importantly, as a manager, you should often, not once in a while, take the opportunity to point out to your subordinates when they are meeting or not meeting your expectations. Use direct feedback to mold your employees and to increase productivity, not a PA system.

[renaissance costume]

yes.. sometimes it's just wrong to judge person through 1st impression. well that is just for me. based on my experience, i encounter many people who at first i don't like, but it turns out that they are very good people.

[IMD_OWP]

"Very interesting and so commonplace at workplaces ! One needs to learn about working as a team from the Olympic gold medalist rower- Sir Mathew Pinsent.
At the IMP OWP 2010 Pinsent will share his experience from four Olympic campaigns, which resulted in four gold medals. He will highlight the importance of goal setting, communication, trust and ultimately the courage it takes to win in the toughest of conditions.
"