Monday. 09:15. Manolo walks in with the face of a self-help guru and I brace for the worst...
—Jose, these people don't motivate themselves.
—What people?
—Mine. If I'm not on top of them, they do nothing.
—And how do you know that?
—Last week I was away two days at a training and nobody had made any progress.
—And had you told them what to make progress on?
—Well… in general terms. To move things forward.
—Manolo, "move things forward" is not an assignment. You are certainly no Gerard Butler in "300".
—It's this generation, they have no commitment. They want to get paid without making an effort.
There it is. The theory. The one Manolo doesn't know has been repeated since 1960 — it didn't arrive with the millennials.
Douglas McGregor described it in The Human Side of Enterprise.
He called it Theory X: the silent assumption that people are lazy by nature, avoid work, and only respond to fear or money. Against it, Theory Y: people want to do good work if you give them context, autonomy and purpose. Manolo has spent fifteen years being Theory X without knowing it. And like every self-fulfilling prophecy, he has spent fifteen years collecting evidence that he was right.
—Manolo, do you believe people are lazy by nature?
—No, no. But the ones I've got? Yes.
—You've managed four different teams in twelve years. And you always get the ones that "don't perform"?
—Bad luck, I guess.
—No, Manolo. There's one constant. It's you.
—Jose, you always go straight for the jugular, damn it.
—Remember Sergio? The one who "wasn't up to the level."
—He left two years ago.
—He's Head of Engineering at a scaleup. Last year they gave him the internal award for best manager.
Silence.
—And Cristina? The one who "wasn't a cultural fit."
—She left too.
—Director of Operations at a multinational. They've just made her regional vice president.
—They're exceptions.
—Two out of two are exceptions, Manolo? Or is it that what you called "not being up to the level" actually meant "not performing under me"? And that, I'm telling you in all seriousness, is not Sergio's flaw. It's the flaw of the manager who confused the two.
—They just didn't perform with me.
—Exactly. With you. That's the key word you've spent twelve years not hearing.
—So what do I do then? Let everyone do whatever they want?
—No. Theory Y isn't anarchy. It's assuming people want to do things well if you give them context. Clear objectives, criteria, the whys. And then disappear. The first time someone makes a decision without you, don't ask "who authorized you?". Ask "how did it go?".
—And if they get it wrong?
—They will get it wrong. Just like you do. The difference is that when you get it wrong, you call it "a hard decision in an uncertain context." When your team gets it wrong, you call it "lack of judgment." That asymmetry is what kills them.
—So it's my fault?
—It's not fault. It's responsibility. Fault is what you carry with shame. Responsibility is what you take on to change things.
He stares at his notebook and starts fiddling with the Mont Blanc we gave him for his 25 years of service.
—I'll think about it.
—Think about it this way, Manolo: what you've spent years calling "my team's problem" is actually called "my management style". And that, unlike people, you can change.
He leaves.
And I know that on Friday, when someone makes a decision without consulting him, Manolo will say "you have to give notice before making changes." Out of habit. Out of fear. Out of inertia.
And in two years, when Pablo leads a team of forty people at another company, when Laura is Head of Operations at a scaleup, and when Marta ends up in charge of security for an international group, Manolo will say what he always says: "strange, they weren't up to the level with me."
And never, ever, will he ask himself the only question that matters: if everyone who leaves my team blossoms somewhere else, what does that say about them… or what does that say about me?
Because Manolo isn't Theory X out of ideology. He's Theory X out of habit. And habits, in management, are the most expensive form of identity there is. They define you without you noticing. And they build exactly the team you already expected to have.
A self-fulfilling prophecy. Paid out in lost talent.
And always, always, at someone else's company.
Thanks for reading.
I'll also take the chance to wish you health, love and family.
The rest doesn't matter that much… trust me.