Words affect performance. What you say and how you say it can lead to someone performing at their best or failing to achieve their potential. Performance tends to conform to the expectations you set for it.
Stereotype Threat: when you’re told that expectations for someone like you are low, you tend to perform poorly. Just mention to a young woman about to take a difficult math test that girls are bad with numbers and she is liable to do worse than if you’d said nothing at all.
The name comes from research done on students taking the Graduate Record Exam at Stanford. When the test was represented as measuring intelligence, black students did worse than equally qualified white students. When the test was presented as a way for researchers to observe problem solving, equally qualified black and white students scored the same.
The old and incorrect stereotype that blacks are less intelligent that whites affects results when mentioned even with such subtlety. Merely mentioning stereotypes leads to them being fulfilled. Keeping your prejudices to yourself allows true ability to come through.
Think of the impact on results if you banish such ways of speaking and replace them with words of encouragement. Think about the different result you’ll get if instead of mentioning how girls are bad with numbers you mention how wonderful it is that women are such great mathematicians and are doing so well in fields requiring these skills.
Express your satisfaction at seeing how everyone in the company is exceptional in their skills and able to successful complete the most difficult tasks. Share your expectations of superior performance from everyone. Improve your organization’s performance. Leave everyone you touch better off and confident they will succeed.