In his book Coaching for Performance, John Whitmore
discusses the mindset needed of the manager in the workplace. He states that the manager needs to
think of people in terms of their potential, not their performance. In order to
get the best out of people, we need to believe that people do have the capacity
to perform at high levels, and that their best can be drawn out of them.
Whitmore’s belief that this is the case is based on personal experience of
discovering inner resources that he did not know he had, and seeing other
people do the same.
He points out the evidence that belief in
the capability of others influences their performance. In one experiment,
teachers were told that a group of average students were either scholarship
candidates or had learning difficulties. When tested, the pupils’ results
reflected the teachers’ belief about their ability. This is an extraordinary
finding, demonstrating how the attitude of the teacher (or a manager) can
influence the performance of those in their charge.
Simon Pimenta
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