… unless you’re sure you’ve provided effective leadership.
If you’re looking for the people who work for you to be self-motivated and highly productive, you can’t sensibly begin to assess whether they are or not, unless or until you’re sure you’ve provided good leadership.
Otherwise your actions (or inactions) are a bigger factor than their character.
And it’s probably not a question of just telling them what to do.
Yes, you may well need to be demanding, but the key point is, is the direction you are providing clear, or at least are any ambiguities clearly understood and balanced?
If not, the inertia caused by lack of direction will be the dominant factor.
And you won’t really know whether your people are any good or not.
And, of course, with the right leadership…
Ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.