How can you be very hard nosed without ending up as a Theory X, KITA kind of firm?
TJR- Some of the practices I describe in my book might be misconstrued as Theory X. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with being nice to people. However, I don’t believe that, for example, giving negative feedback is a Theory X practice. Giving appropriate negative feedback is really a Theory Y practice. Let me illustrate this by talking about the real meaning of self-esteem. One thing you learn from Orwell’s 1984 is that people never contradict by saying something with the opposite meaning, they contradict by changing the meaning of words to the opposite meaning. In my book, self-esteem means I have good self-worth: I know who I am and because I know who I am I can deal in a world of reality. So, for example, as a manager of a company, I can walk up to an employee with good self-esteem and I can say, “Your project is all screwed up.” The employee knows I like him, knows I value him, and that I am not threatening his tenure, but he also knows he has screwed up. This employee resp
