Good morning, Purposeful Hearts! Today’s leadership theory exploration takes us on a journey deep into your personal motivations for work. Why? Well, according to MacGregor, your own beliefs about whether people like to work or avoid work will affect how you lead them. Let’s dive in!
To get started, let’s do some philosophical thinking about human behavior for a few moments. If I asked you whether people, in general, dislike work and do what they can to avoid it or actually like work as an expression of their personalities and gifts, what would you say?
If you assert that people typically dislike work, then you’d view them as using work as a means to an end; if they do their jobs, their salaries support their leisure activities. They don’t actually want to be at work, they’re simply punching the clock to gain access to what they really want to be doing. If this is your view of human behavior, MacGregor would label you as a Theory X leader. He says that this belief about humans and their work causes leaders to recognize the dislike, control and direct the work behavior, and even incentivize the job. (The term “micromanaging” could often be applied to situations of Theory X leadership.)
On the other hand, if you assert that people actually enjoy their work and that it’s a natural form of self-expression, you’re what MacGregor would call a Theory Y leader. Since you believe that people like to work, desire responsibility, and seek out a challenge, your leadership style would reveal behaviors of empowerment, delegation, and trust.
As we discussed last week, context matters. While we’ll all have a natural leaning toward being a Theory X or Theory Y leader, it is possible to flex our styles to accommodate the needs of our followers. For example, you don’t need to control or incentivize an intrinsically motivated spirit! In fact, you’d actually create job dissatisfiers for your highly motivated employees by insulting them with such controlling measures. On the other hand, inexperienced followers aren’t ready for delegated tasks; rather, they need the authoritarian, directive style of Theory X until they’re ready for more responsibility.
Take some time to reflect on your personal views of human behavior and the working world. Are you more Theory X or Theory Y in your beliefs about what drives your employees? Does this belief cause you to apply the correct leadership style for your followers’ needs, or should you adjust and experiment? Your employees’ motivation levels might depend on it!
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