No textbook can prepare you for being in charge of people for the first time. All the plans you made in the glow of promotion to manager collapse in those early days with the realisation that people do not always do what you tell them to do.
没有哪本教科书能让初为管理者的你做好准备。你在升任经理的欣喜中制定的所有计划都会在最初的几天轰然倒塌，因为你意识到，人们不会总是照办你的指令。
There are two accepted ways to deal with this. You can try to enforce your will or you can accept that your team know their jobs and allow them to get on with it.
处理这种情况有两种公认的方法。你可以尝试强制执行你的意志，或者你可以接受这一点：团队成员懂自己的工作，不如让他们放手去做。
Douglas McGregor called these approaches Theory X and Theory Y. You may not have heard of McGregor or his book The Human Side of Enterprise. But whether you have heard of him or not, you probably manage, or are managed, according to one of his two theories.
道格拉斯•麦格雷戈(Douglas McGregor)把这两种方法称为X理论和Y理论。你可能没有听说过麦格雷戈或者他的著作《企业的人性面》(The Human Side of Enterprise)。但不管你听过还是没听过，你管理他人或者被管理的方式，很可能正是基于他的两种理论的其中之一。
What are Theory X and Theory Y? Theory X assumes people do not particularly want to work and need to be “coerced, controlled, directed, and threatened with punishment”.
什么是X理论和Y理论？X理论假设人们不特别想工作，所以需要对他们进行“强迫、控制、指示，并用惩罚措施威胁。”
Theory Y assumes people want to do a good job. There is no need to order them about. They are naturally inventive and look for the best ways to get work done.
Y理论假设人们想要做好工作。没有必要对他们发号施令。人们自然而然地富于创造性，会寻找完成工作的最佳方法。
McGregor favoured Theory Y. His book appeared in 1960, at the beginning of a period of western belief in greater freedom and equality, and it found an eager audience.
麦格雷戈更青睐Y理论。他的著作出版于20世纪60年代，正是西方对更大的自由和平等抱有信心的一段时期的开端，因此招来了一批热忱的受众。
“Our biggest asset is our people” was a Theory Y-influenced slogan. But many employees saw through it. While many managers talked Theory Y, they practised Theory X.
“我们最大的资产是我们的员工”就是受到Y理论影响而提出的口号。但许多雇员看透了这样的口号。尽管许多经理嘴上说着Y理论，他们实际做的却是X理论。
There have always been exceptional workplaces – some, but not all, in the professional services or technology sectors – where managers gave their staff the freedom to set their own hours, work from home or find the best ways of serving customers.
始终有一些例外的优秀工作场所（有一些，但不是全部，在专业服务业或者科技业），经理允许员工自由设定工作时间、在家工作或者找到服务客户的最佳方法。
But there are many more companies where managers claim to believe in their people but micromanage, noting who leaves when, and insisting things be done their way.
但是，另一类企业要多得多，这些企业的经理声称相信员工，但在实践中事无巨细，什么都要管，留意谁在什么时候离开岗位，并且坚持要按他们的方式完成工作。
Why has it happened? McGregor did his research in the US from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, a period that culminated in a great rise in prosperity and work opportunities. People expected to have long careers with just one or two companies, as a 2003 paper entitled “A Kind Word for Theory X” pointed out.
为什么情况会是这样？麦格雷戈的研究是在20世纪30年代中期到50年代中期的美国完成的。在这个时期，美国的繁荣程度和工作机会都大幅增长。一篇发表于2003年、标题为“为X理论说句好话”的论文指出，当时的人们期望在一家或者两家公司里度过漫长的职业生涯。
Michael Bobic and William Eric Davis, the writers, accept that McGregor’s writings “revolutionised the field of management theory”, but argue that benign Theory Y management fell victim to today’s insecure working world, where companies offer their staff no loyalty and receive little in return.
这篇论文的作者迈克尔•博比克(Michael Bobic)和威廉•埃里克•戴维斯(William Eric Davis)承认，麦格雷戈的著作“彻底改变了管理学理论领域”，但他们认为，在当今这种缺乏安全感的工作环境下，企业和员工彼此都谈不上忠诚，良性的Y理论管理模式缺乏合适的舞台。
But there are other reasons things have not gone McGregor’s way. Many easy-going, creative workplaces rely on outsourced data processing and call centres. Like clothing sweatshops, these are not full of managers eager to let their employees decide their own working practices.
事情没有按照麦格雷戈期盼的方式发展，还有其他原因。许多宽松和富有创意的工作环境依赖外包的数据处理和电话服务中心。就像制衣业的血汗工厂那样，这两类工作场所没有多少热切希望员工自己决定工作方式的经理。
Even in the most go-ahead offices, the human resources and legal departments increasingly insist on the dismal completion of online forms for the most routine activities. Managers who want to run grown-up departments are ground down. We need a different type of thinking about management. If we want to find an effective way of treating our staff like adults, perhaps we should turn to an expert in dealing with children.
即使在最自由的企业里，人力资源和法务部门也越来越坚持员工对大多数日常任务填写令人厌烦的在线表格。想要以成年人的方式经营所在部门的经理受到压制。我们需要采取不同的管理思路。如果我们想找到一个把员工当做成年人看待的有效方法，或许我们应该向儿童专家求助。
Diana Baumrind is a US psychologist known for her research on good parenting. Unlike McGregor’s two management styles, Ms Baumrind came up with three ways of dealing with children: permissive, authoritarian and authoritative.
美国心理学家戴安娜•鲍姆林德(Diana Baumrind)因其对好的育儿方式的研究而闻名。不像麦格雷戈的两种管理风格，她提出了3种对待儿童的方式：宽容型、专制型和权威型。
“The permissive parent attempts to behave in a non-punitive, acceptant, and affirmative manner,” she wrote. This is like McGregor’s Theory Y.
“宽容型父母试图表现出不惩罚、接纳和肯定的样子，”她写道。这与麦格雷戈的Y理论类似。
The authoritarian parent tries “to shape, control, and evaluate . . . She values obedience as a virtue.” This is the parenting version of Theory X.
专制型父母试图“塑造、控制和评估……她认为服从是一种美德。”这是X理论的育儿版。
Then there is the authoritative parent, who “attempts to direct the child’s activities in a rational, issue-oriented manner”. This is the parent who “encourages verbal give and take”. She exerts control only at points of real divergence “but does not hem the child in with restrictions”.
还有权威型的父母，他们“试图以一种理性、问题导向型的方式引导孩子的行为。”这种父母“鼓励言语上的公平交换。”她只在真正的分歧点施加控制，“但不会用各种限制来束缚孩子”。
There are differences between parenting and management. Children cannot resign. But the authoritative parent, who sets clear parameters yet allows freedom within them, who reasons rather than rules (and makes the numbers), strikes me both as an excellent model for managers and a realistic middle route between Theories X and Y.
育儿和管理存在差异。孩子可没法辞职。但权威型的父母设定了清晰的界限，在界限之内允许自由，他们讲道理，而不是发号施令（以达到预期数字）；对我来说，这既是经理们的好榜样，也是X理论和Y理论之间一条切合实际的中间路线。