How Leaders Learn

Chapter 16

Round Up on People

Learn to trust in positive intentions

I’m a Theory Y leader all the way.

Back in 1960, Douglas McGregor, a management professor at MIT, described two leadership outlooks on human behavior in his book The Human Side of Enterprise. Those who fell into the Theory X category believed that employees had to be coerced, controlled, and threatened to do good work or take responsibility. Those who fell into Theory Y believed that people were generally creative, ingenious, and ready to take on responsibility, if they were treated accordingly.

I believe in running an organization based on the assumption that 99.9 percent of people want to do good, not bad or even mediocre, work. I trust in their positive intentions.

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