Do people want to work?

Your perspective on something has the biggest impact on your mindset and attitude toward it.

Imagine two managers are given the same task: lead a team of new hires through a complex project.

• Manager A sees the team as inexperienced and likely to make mistakes. They think: “They’re going to need constant supervision, or this will go off the rails.” Because of this view, they micromanage, give very specific instructions, and make every decision flow through them. In turn, the manager holds all the power, and the team doesn’t have any level of ownership over their workload. Shockingly, the team exists in a very low-trust environment.

• Manager B, on the other hand, sees the same team and thinks, “They may be new, but they can learn and develop into high-performing employees.” Because of this perspective, they focus on coaching, training, and motivating the team to take ownership of the work and manage their workload autonomously. As a result of their environment, the team feels like they can trust their manager to support them.

Same team. Same challenge. Two different perspectives — and completely different outcomes.

What do you believe?

The anecdote above gives a glimpse into the different mindsets associated with Theories X and Y of motivation. While much more recent work has been done on motivation since Douglas McGregor created theories X and Y in the mid-20th century, these two theories hold a lot of weight for modern-day leaders.

Here’s an overview of each Theory:

It should come as no surprise that some people view work as a chore. Those people tend to think that others view work in the same way. However, there is a whole world of people who get genuine enjoyment out of work. And guess what? It’s not the work that actually matters but the environment that people operate within. Creating the right environment is all about your leadership mindset.

Theory X or Theory Y?

So, which one is better? Well, on the surface, it seems that theory Y is better because it drives autonomy, collaboration, and even creativity. However, do you need autonomy, collaboration, and creativity when you’re entering lines of Excel data? Absolutely not. Instead, paying someone x amount per line will garnish the best results. What happens when you pay a writer x amount per word? You get superfluous, unnecessary words used to take up space on a page because using fewer words is not as advantageous as using more (see what I did here?).

Theory X and Theory Y have their merit when it comes to motivation, but it really boils down to the type of work. If you’re a front-line leader who manages people completing manual, repetitive, systemic work, you don’t need to create autonomy. You need oversight to ensure work is completed appropriately. If you manage a team of writers, you must give them autonomy to operate creatively within their own process.

Theory X and Theory Y both have merit because there is no right or wrong way to motivate. The key is to align motivation and management with the work being done.

Reflection

• Do I assume people enjoy work or tolerate it for what it provides?

• Can I offer my employees greater autonomy?

  • Would greater autonomy benefit my employees? (Think about the work they do.)

• Do I want my employees to operate more autonomously? What benefits or risks would be associated with less oversight from me?

• What assumptions should I revisit about my employees and their attitude toward work?

Motivation is tricky, but leaders are expected to motivate their teams toward success. Very few organizations train or even discuss what it means to have a leadership mindset despite the challenges associated with motivation. As a leader, you have a great deal of individual autonomy, and you get to choose how you motivate your team. Think about your assumptions, the work your team does, and how autonomous you want them to be.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to motivation. We’ll explore this topic more next week when we discuss intrinsic motivation and how to foster it in your employees.

See you next week!

Rick