Motivation is complicated. Like motivating a child to do chores. Or motivating employees to show up on time. Or motivating yourself to write a book.
Motivation is a drive toward behaviors that help you meet your goals. And the experts say this is fueled by factors like personal values, needs, and desires. External incentives may also play a role, like promising a cookie to a child after they wipe down the dinner table. Or the paycheck employees get when they perform. Or the sense of accomplishment you get when your draft is done. Experts differentiate intrinsic motivation (sense of accomplishment) versus extrinsic motivation (the promise of a cookie). But how do you convince someone else they don’t need the cookie?
When I was tasked with helping design a course in project management for scientists, I thought teaching the management process is easy, but helping motivate teams to want to follow the project management plan is hard. I figured a discussion on the differences between leadership and management might help.
Five Differences Between Leadership and Management
Managers create plans. Leaders share a vision. A project manager needs to create a plan and manage that plan. But to be a true leader they need to share the project’s vision with the team. So, if my project is to find out why there has been a decline in prairie bird populations, the project manager in me would develop and implement a systematic plan with a color-coded sample collection schedule. But the leader in me would share how important the project is to prairie ecosystems. Having a hand in saving bird populations might be more motivating than a color-coded spreadsheet.
Managers focus on process. Leaders focus on goals. As managers, we do set goals, but we also are trained to apply good processes and best practices in the planning and execution of our projects. With the focus on process, we can sometimes get mired in the technical issues and lose sight of the original project goals.
Managers control change. Leaders embrace change. As a project manager it is important to control and manage change. However, leaders recognize that change is not only inevitable, but may be desirable. We can control the direction of the change and embrace the change at the same time.
Managers are rational. Leaders are passionate. Being rational and analytical are good qualities for a project manager (or anyone) to have. However, leaders inspire and encourage their teams with excitement and passion about the project and goals. For scientists in my agency this comes pretty naturally as we are all enthusiastic about our science and my writer friends are all passionate about their stories.
Managers mitigate risk. Leaders take risks. As a project manager, you anticipate and mitigate risks that could adversely affect your project. But leaders understand that great goals can be accompanied by great risks, and need to work with their teams to conquer those risks. Developing a tool for estimating environmental toxins or trying a new writing style might be time consuming and risky, but the payoff for success could be huge.
Ideally, project managers would be good at both management and leadership. Managing a process comes easy to me. Motivating others, not so much. Leadership and motivation are complicated and while there are stacks of books written on these subjects, they are hard to teach. So, as I continue learning about leadership and motivation, I am going to perform an experiment. I am off to buy ingredients to see if the teenagers will be motivated to bake their own cookies.
Bake their own cookies 😂