Why Managing Sucks and How to Fix It: A Results-Only Guide to Taking Control of Work, Not People

Chapter 2

Motivate Me

No Pizza Party, Please

As we were thinking about writing the sequel to Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, we realized that we could take a number of directions. But in the end, we knew this book had to be about how to truly make a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) come to life—and, perhaps most important, how to be a successful manager in that environment. The word manager comes with so much baggage that it’s going to take a lot of work to emerge from under all of that and get centered around a new framework for “managing” that will truly allow members of organizations to succeed in ways we might never have imagined. There have been many management theories and fads. This chapter will simplify some main points so you’ll understand them to be able to put them into practice and reap the rewards.

When you think about that word—manager—there’s usually a negative connotation associated with it. For decades, we’ve been associating that word with annoying characters from comic strips (think the Pointy-Haired Boss from Dilbert) and the “bad guy” in work-related movies (think Bill Lumbergh from Office Space: “I’m gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Saturday”). But for the person (maybe you) who is the manager, it doesn’t start out this way—at least not right at the very beginning. People are usually at least temporarily excited to get into a management role because it probably meant a promotion, more compensation, and/or the subtle message of “the organization ...