Are you X or Y? 

Tags: Egocentrismo

One key factor in the success of a project is the motivation of the teams member, I think there is a common misconception in the heart of many “hardcore-techie” about the “goodness” of the team members, we cannot pretend everyone is as motivated as us, everyone will love their job just like we do or even that everyone will give their best at it.

There is a theory by Douglas McGregor called “XY” which relates to management styles (X for authoritarian and Y for participative). It distinguishes the management styles based on the image of the employees from the manager’s point of view:

Theory X: Employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can: Low-motivated, dislike work, avoid taking responsibilities, little ambition, no initiative. This management style often produces micro-managing, mistrust, and constant pressure.

Theory Y: Employees, under the  proper conditions, may be self-motivated, and exercise self-control: They enjoy working, and love doing it well, and eventually they like to take more responsibilities, they are motivated. This management style leads to comfortable, communicative working environment and IMHO way better results.

Of course X and Y are extremes and most people don’t fall exactly in one of those categories, the basic model is very rigid, and has been critiqued for it.

But… if we take it as an starting point for self-reflection:

  • How do you think your manager sees you? Why?
  • and from the bottom of your heart… are you X or Y?

 

PD: I bet that if you’re reading this you mostly fall on the Y side ;)

 
Published by Enrique Blanco  6-Apr-09
5 Comments  |  Trackback Url
 

Comentarios


David comentado en Tuesday, 7-Apr-2009
I think there´s a great gap in between. Obviously not everybody can stay constinuosly motivated, there´re lots of factors, like proyect, manager, team... And in the middle of those "letters", exactly there, appear some people that like her job but they dón´t like to live for this job, just work to live. And keep on living in consultancy world. ;o) best regards for everybody mates!

Miguel comentado en Tuesday, 7-Apr-2009
In my opinion it's very difficult to find a whole team of Xs or Ys, so you'll probably have to manage them in a "Theory Z" way, which will be a mix of both, and that's something than only good managers will be able to do. Probably it's not about managing a project, but managing people, knowing how you cant get out the best of each one of them.

Enrique comentado en Tuesday, 7-Apr-2009
There is actually a Z theory, that has to be with Japanese way of managing, empowering employees and so on, it's not an extension of XY. And I agree with Miguel regarding is not project management, its about people management, if you think about it, 85% of a PM's work is about people and communication.

David comentado en Tuesday, 7-Apr-2009
both of us are thinking in the same way, more or less. And deeping a little bit more, it´s easy to learn something about technology for everyone, but to manage people is a inherent quality, not so easy to learn and to teach.

Enrique comentado en Saturday, 11-Apr-2009
A very interesting post about A, B, C people (something like X and Y), hiring and crisis: http://blog.summation.net/2009/03/why-hiring-is-paradoxically-harder-in-a-downturn.html
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