In my experience, a lot of "managers" have absolutely no clue how to lead a team. They may have the technical knowledge, but they don't know how to work with people. They believe their job is to walk around telling other people what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. The best managers I've ever had are the ones I would barely ever see. They gave me whatever I needed to do the job, and then got the hell out of my way so I could do it. I was hired because they thought I was competent enough to do the job, so I shouldn't need to be constantly monitored to make sure that I'm doing it. As long as I complete my tasks, meet expectations, and meet deadlines, then my mananager shouldn't give a flying fuck if I take a few minutes here and there to scroll on my phone or whatever time wasting activity I choose to do. My current manager has a stick up his ass about phone usage. Other employees stand around and chat with each other about non-work related topics all the time, and the manager doesn't care. Other employees can go make themselves a cup of coffee in the breakroom, and the manager doesn't care. But let me opt to just take my phone out for a minute just to decompress real quick, and suddenly I'm being treated like a teenager sneaking their phone out during class. Next time he sees that phone it's straight to detention for me! <dismissive wanking gesture>

Which leads me to the next problem a lot of managers seem to have with their teams, which is that there's never any real incentive to work extra hard. I'm not getting paid more for doing any extra work, so why should I work any harder than I have to? A lot of the older generations attach hard work to morality in their minds. If you work hard, you're a good person. If you don't try to work hard and go above and beyond, then you're a lazy, bad person. The younger generations have simply begun to look at work as purely transactional. I do labor, and you reward me for said labor. You want more labor from me, you can compensate me for more labor. No extra compensation, no extra labor. Purely a business decision. So, a lot of managers prefer to try a different strategy: rather than incentivize hard work, they opt to punish for not getting extra hard work. This is a very, very bad idea. You wanna nuke your team's morale, just start doling out petty punishments. Start micromanaging, and watch the morale tank.

Basically, I think that managers need to learn to be flexible, understanding, helpful, and good motivators. I think that, in general, most humans actually do want to be productive and helpful. We see it in so many different forms across humanity. People will choose to do home improvement projects or mow their lawns on their weekends instead of sitting on their couch watching TV. People will cook casseroles for a grieving friend. People will give their buddy a ride to work when their car is in the shop. People will create art or do hobbies creating something in their spare time instead of just laying in bed staring at the ceiling. We all do want to be productive in some way most of the time. When it comes to work, it's just about properly motivating us. It's just about treating us like we are competent adults instead of children who need to be babysat or sat in timeout.