Daniel Pink says that to have motivation you need three things: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Mastery and purpose get virtually no pushback from managers. Every manager wants their reports to have mastery and purpose in spades. It's just a question of *how* you get the employees to have them. Autonomy though... it's a little tricky! You definitely prefer [[Barrels vs Ammo|barrels]] with autonomy. But sometimes, people who underdeliver will still ask for autonomy. They'll resist [[Managers need to Whitebox|whiteboxing]]. They might claim that the causation is reversed: they are underdelivering *because* they don't have autonomy. And [[Theory X and Theory Y|they might be right]]! So how do you cut the gordian knot? By tying *autonomy* directly with *accountability*. * Agree on the desired results, the "what". * If a team member delivers, then great! They keep/increase autonomy, the "how" doesn't matter. * If they don't, the responsible manager will step into the how, and guide them to success. This low-autonomy way of working is only a band-aid, as it sucks energy from the manager. The goal is to let the report to slowly gain back the autonomy and accountability with coaching. If they don't show that promise, then separation is probably the best for all involved. #published 2025-02-12