"The ability to motivate makes the difference between the manager and other employees. Employees are judged by what they do, but the manager is judged by what he can motivate others to do."

With these words Donald A. Winkler of Citicorp sums up the importance of motivational skills to the manager's role. Winkler is vice president general manager for independent commercial banks in Citicorp's Financial and Information Services Group. His mission is to create and manage a service and consulting organization serving customers for Citicorp's high-technology banking systems. The rapidly growing organization depends on the high motivation and the technical and entrepreneurial skills of its customer engineers. Each of these highly trained professionals serves as the primary representative of the whole Citicorp organization to his customers.

While motivation results from many different factors, Winkler believes that a manager's assumptions about employees in general, and his knowledge of his particular employees, are critical.

The manager's assumptions

Winkler is strongly committed to "Theory Y" management as identified by the late Douglas McGregor. Theory Y is based on the assumption that most people like work, enjoy responsibility, and possess creativity that they want to exercise. (As a contrast, McGregor identified Theory X, which is based on the assumption that most people dislike work, and have to be coerced or manipulated to perform. Winkler says:

"Theory X offers management an easy rationalization for ineffective organizational performance. Theory Y, on the other hand, places the problem squarely in the lap of management. It implies that people want to be productive and have the desire to learn. If employees are not performing up to standard, a Theory Y manager seeks improvement through constructive thinking."

Behavioral scientists find that employees tend to behave as they sense managers expect them to behave. Many managers get poor performance because they appear to expect it. They express their expectations with emphasis on tight rules, close direction, and threats for not meeting standards.

Winkler takes the opposite approach:

"I find that people perform best when you let them give their best spontaneously. Three mechanisms encourage them to do this.

"First, employees should be encouraged to expand. A manager should give subordinates a little more challenge or responsibility than he thinks they can handle. This policy counteracts the too-common tendency to underestimate people's capabilities.

"Second, employees should have room to maneuver. The manager and the employee should be in clear agreement on ultimate goals, but the employee should have broad discretion as to the methods and procedures for reaching them."

"Finally, employees should be able to participate in the decision process. There is no surer way to motivate than giving people the feeling that decisions are 'theirs,' and not just imposed by management."

The manager's knowledge

"People are not pieces of equipment," Winkler declares. "They have lives, and those lives extend beyond the plant or office. The manager who knows something of employees' concerns beyond the job will be in a better position to understand them - and motivate them."

The most effective managers are in broad agreement about what they should know about their employees, says Winkler. Areas of interest include the following: family, work, experience, the employee's own goals and ambitions and his outside interests, education or other topics he chooses.