Motivators Controlled by the Project Manager – Part 2

In Part 1 of this two-part series on project team member motivators, we examined the first three of seven key motivators that they project manager has control and influence over:  challenge, recognition, and skill variety.  In this Part 2, we’ll examine the next four:  task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.  Let’s look at each of these more closely….

Task identity. People need to know what they are working on. This idea is especially true for contracted team members. The project manager should help them understand their work in relation to the entire project. Knowing that their task is on the critical path will affect their attitude and the quality of their work.

Task significance. In assessing a task’s significance, workers ask themselves questions such as these: Does it make any difference if I am successful? Will anybody notice? Just how important is my work to the overall success of the project? Am I just doing busy work to pass the day? Team members need to know whether their effort and success make any difference to the success of the project.

Autonomy. Professionals want to know what is expected from them—what are the deliverables? They don’t want to hear every detail of how they will accomplish their work. Systems people are rugged individualists. They want to exercise their creativity. They want freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling their work and determining the procedures they will follow to carry it out.

Feedback. Good, bad, or indifferent, professionals want to know how effective they are in their work. Paying attention to a professional is motivating in itself. Having something good to say is even better. When performance is below expectations, tell them. If you can convince them that they own the problem, then ask them for an action plan to correct their marginal performance.

Bottom line…project managers can’t control everything.  Far from it.  And would we really want to?  Well, yes, actually…but that’s a pipe dream.  But we can control or at least have solid influence over the motivators for our skilled project teams if we so choose.  Let me know your thoughts on this topic – we’d like to hear them.

Information for this article was derived, in part, from Wysocki and McGary’s book entitled, “Effective Project Management.”

Related posts:

1. Motivators Controlled by the Project Manager – Part 1
2. Managing Expectations Between the Project Manager and Team – Part 2
3. Selecting the Right Manager for the Project
4. Managing Expectations Between the Project Manager and Team – Part 1
5. The Project Manager as a Consultant