I’ve come to believe there are two kinds of people in the work world: those who believe there is a limited pie and those who believe in making a bigger pie.
Limited Pie people believe there is a pie that is a certain size. They are concerned with how much pie they get. They want to get as much pie as they can. If anyone else gets any pie, that takes away from their piece of pie. So they have to cut people off from access to the pie, from the table where there is pie, and from enjoying any pie. Someone else’s success – getting some pie – takes away from their own success – size of pie slice. The words “me,” “I” and “mine” are operative here – the Limited Pie person is concerned about his or her own good, not about the good of others. Limited Pie people tend to think or want to prove they are the smartest and best, and superior to other people. Not only do they hog credit, but they have a hard time tolerating someone else’s approach to a challenge. Often they are micro-managers, too. They may focus on the goal, but equally they focus on ensuring that people achieve the goal in the way they think is appropriate.
Bigger Pie people believe we can always make a bigger pie, so everyone can have some. “We” is a key word. Because Bigger Pie people believe that collaboration with others is key to building something bigger. By building something bigger, the Bigger Pie person can get more at the same time as other people getting some. The Bigger Pie person is concerned about themselves and others at the same time. Bigger Pie people know there is more to learn, more to do, and more ways to do things. They appreciate other people’s perspectives and methods, and both welcome and celebrate other approaches to a situation or challenge. They tend to delegate effectively, focus on achieving the goal.
In the work world, I recognize the Limited Pie people as those who criticize others, take credit for work even if others participated, unnecessarily edit other people’s writing, cut other people out of a process, limit access by others to resources and even co-workers.
Today I heard two stories about Limited Pie Executive Directors. The first criticized a senior staff person for collaborating with other staff, as it looked like she was asking for too much help and thus showed that she didn’t really know her stuff. When another staff member asked if he could participate in a specific project, my client said that while she would love his input, she believed it would be better for her to do it on her own so her boss wouldn’t think she needed his input to do the work.
I was horrified. The nature of the work my client does is collaborative – she’s a community organizer. What her boss said indicated that she does not understand the work my client does, nor does she appreciate the value of collaboration. Collaboration improves most things. “Two heads are better than one” is a common saying for a reason. When I work by myself, my project only has the benefit of my own experience. When I work with one or more people, my project benefits from those people’s experience, too.
This woman’s failure to appreciate the value of collaboration is a sign to me that she is a “Limited Pie” person. Needing to belittle someone and limit their options is a sure sign that this leader is afraid of abundance and cannot appreciate or celebrate a different way of doing something. There is only her way. Any other way is “less than” and somehow deficient.
The second example involved a client whose boss is convinced that only she can craft a good proposal – despite the fact that my client has been writing successful grant proposals for many years, securing tens of millions of dollars for organizations, and despite the fact that this woman hired my client.
Again, this is a Limited Pie person, who needs constantly to be the smartest, most talented, and best. It’s demoralizing for my client, who now realizes she is in an untenable work situation. She thrives when her abilities are appreciated, where her contribution is valued, and where it’s OK to do things her way. Of course she wants to learn other ways to write proposals and of course she wants to make sure she is communicating effectively with funders, as well as meeting her boss’s expectations. That’s not the point. The point is that her boss has devalued her contribution by saying “I’m the only one who can communicate effectively with donors, and all you can do is pull basic information together and proofread.”
A Bigger Pie boss would say “I like the way you pull all the information together, and how you captured so much of what we need to convey. I have some questions, and I also have some things I’d like to make sure are in here.” And then they’d have a conversation.
As you may be able to tell, I was a Bigger Pie boss. I didn’t start that way – for a long time, I operated as Limited Pie boss, hoarding credit, and thinking I was the only one who knew how to do things right. My focus was on getting things done, and I was so afraid of failing or not measuring up.
I was fortunate to have a life-altering experience where I realized that the quality of my relationships with others was more important than getting things done. And soon I saw that when I had good relationships with people, we got things done. And we got things done better than ever! Plus we had fun and enjoyed ourselves working together. Fear was gone, replaced by confidence in my own abilities and even greater confidence in the abilities of others.
As a non-profit leader, I came to recognize that motivating people to work for a cause required treating them with respect, and valuing their contributions. And because I worked in the anti-poverty field, I came to believe that abundance for all was both necessary and possible – as long as we grew the pie. Microfinance, economic development, education – all are ways to grow the pie and make sure more and more people have economic opportunity, health and well-being.
Fear of losing what we have or of not getting what we want is the root of Limited Pie perspective. Confidence that we will get what we need and that helping others helps ourselves is the root of Bigger Pie perspective.
