Have you given up on your employees? Try this.

Leaders are meant to bring out the best in other people. Are you struggling with leadership skills? Do your employees have low energy levels and sound uninterested when given a challenge or difficult task?

To improve as a leader and motivate your staff to take up new challenges, try the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy, or Pygmalion Effect, provided by the American sociologist, Robert K. Merton.

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that becomes true, because of a positive feedback mechanism between the behavior of the actor (employee) and the belief of the prophecy maker (manager/leader). Here’s how it works:

Self-fulfilling prophecy works in four phases:

Belief - Believe that you or your employee can achieve the goals

Expectation - Set higher expectations of yourself or your employee

Action - Act according to the set plan to achieve the goals

Result - Get the results and analyze them

Many companies promote a culture of high enthusiasm because it is infectious. When everyone around you is motivated, everyone feeds on each other’s energy levels. Hence, a manager/leader should always be motivated/energetic.

There are four factors of the Pygmalion effect or self-fulfilling prophecy :

1. Climate - Create positive energy around your employees. A warmer/welcoming environment can be shown through verbal and non-verbal cues. Create positive interpersonal relationships.

2. Input - After setting goals, provide your employees with the necessary resources and help. Communicate your expectations to them and give extra attention to them, making them feel confident and important.

3. Response - When working with your employees, allow them to talk and listen to them. This raises their morale and raises their value in their own eyes. Remove any stereotypes and biases you may have, and trust in their worth.

4. Feedback - Avoid the use of negative words that make them feel stupid or undervalued. Constructive feedback with higher expectations communicates that they need to perform better and that you will not accept low-quality work

Bottom Line: If your employees are unmotivated, the problem is probably with you. By increasing your expectations, and trusting they will rise to meet them, you energize your people. Make them feel they’re in a company that’s going somewhere, and you’ll quickly see a difference.