They also want leadership they can respect, rely on, and follow. Finally, they want to know there is a God who watches over them. John L. Mariotti is President and CEO of The Enterprise Group. He does consulting, speaking, and advisory board work. He is formerly President of Huffy Bicycles and Rubbermaid Office Products.
People stick with jobs where they feel appreciated and have the capacity to do their best work.
They rise to challenges, want to learn, and have some control over their work. Theory X is a belief that people are inherently lazy and will only respond to threats. A research lab put in a time clock to stop some abuse of flextime. The result was profound. One researcher told me that she used to come in at all hours of the night to check on some of the biological experiments - shake the petri dish, check on temperatures, etc.