As illustrated by the following story about a Chicago public school teacher, expectations do indeed play a significant role in the results we create.

Mary Daugherty was faced with a sixth grade class that was full of misfits who were so intractable she suspected they had learning disabilities. In desperation, she broke a school rule and looked at her students' files where their IQ scores were stored.

And she was amazed by what she found.

Most of her students had IQs in the high 120s and 130s. That's pretty close to genius.Her students had not been challenged because it was presumed they were not capable enough. Armed with her newfound knowledge, she decided they needed more, not less, challenging assignments. She upped the amount of homework and doled out stern punishments for misbehavior.

By the end of that semester, the turnaround was dramatic. Her class was one of the best behaved and most successful in the entire sixth grade. When a very impressed principle asked Mrs. Daugherty how she had engineered such a turnabout, she confessed her raid on the IQ files. Based on such dramatic success, the principle decided it was best to overlook her rule-breaking.

But he did have some additional insight into the experience. As she turned to go back to her classroom, he said, "By the way, I think you should know: those numbers next to the kids' names? It's not their IQ scores. It's their locker numbers."

What we expect of others does influence the behavior and the results. And what we expect of ourselves plays a significant role in what we achieve—or don’t achieve.
When we were growing up, many of us were advised not to have too high an expectation so we wouldn't be disappointed. We were told we, "shouldn't get our hopes up."

I think there can be a happy balance here. I think you can be optimistic and realistic at the same time. I believe in high expectations without an ATTACHMENT to the expectation.

The truth is, we don't really know what we or others are capable of doing. And all too often—like the students in Mrs. Daugherty's class—we need to be challenged and encouraged. We need to challenge, encourage and believe in ourselves. Set high expectations for yourself. Have high expectations of your team. YOU can do it.