Finding Your Project's Natural Rhythm
Every project has its own pulse and tempo. Project lifecycles are not just methodologies, but distinctive rhythms that can either amplify or undermine your team's natural flow.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This happens so often that it made me wonder: why can some leaders inspire innovation and commitment while others, despite higher positions, can barely get their teams to do the minimum
The Five Powers: A Garden of Influence
Think of the five types of power as different ways to grow a garden. Some give quick results that fade fast, while others create lasting growth with deeper roots.
1. Formal/Legitimate Power: The Greenhouse Effect
Legitimate power is like growing plants in a greenhouse with artificial heat and light. You can force quick growth, but the plants completely depend on your controlled environment. Take away the greenhouse, and they die quickly.
When a new manager says, "I'm in charge now," they've built a greenhouse. People follow orders inside the artificial space of company hierarchy, but their heart isn't in it.
I recently saw a newly promoted director complaining, "I told them to finish these reports by Thursday, but they're always late." Her team was acting like greenhouse plants - only performing when directly supervised, with no motivation of their own.
2. Reward Power: The Fertilizer Approach
Reward power is like using store-bought fertilizer in your garden. Use it, and you'll see a quick burst of growth and flowers. But using only fertilizer creates dependence - plants that grow fast but with shallow roots, needing constant feeding to keep performing.
Companies often rely too much on bonuses and prizes when what they really need is to build deeper motivation.
A sales team I worked with had become hooked on bigger and bigger rewards. Like plants needing more and more fertilizer, their performance would jump briefly after each new bonus program, then quickly drop, requiring yet another incentive to keep going.
3. Coercive Power: The Gardener's Shears
Coercive power is like aggressive pruning - cutting back anything that grows in ways you don't want. While some pruning is useful, a garden managed mainly through cutting becomes stunted, with plants that grow defensively rather than fully.
Teams under threatening leadership are like over-pruned gardens - they may look neat and controlled, but they produce far less than they could. Their energy goes into avoiding cuts rather than creating value.
I once saw a tech department where the director questioned every missed deadline with barely hidden threats. Like plants that grow close to the ground to avoid scissors, team members stopped taking risks, sharing ideas, or trying new approaches.
4. Expert Power: The Master Gardener
Expert power is like the earned wisdom of a master gardener who understands soil, plants, and how nature works together. Other gardeners ask for their advice not because they own the biggest garden, but because their knowledge consistently creates amazing results.
Unlike the greenhouse owner who controls through structure, the master gardener influences through wisdom that actually helps others.
I watched a senior engineer with no management title completely change his company's approach to a major product launch. Despite having no official authority, his deep technical knowledge made team members naturally turn to him for guidance. His influence came from solving real problems that job titles alone couldn't fix.
5. Referent Power: The Garden That Inspires
Referent power is like creating a garden so beautiful and productive that visitors naturally want to copy it themselves. They don't imitate your garden because you told them to, but because its beauty and abundance naturally inspire them.
Leaders with strong referent power find others naturally adopting their approaches and supporting their ideas - not from obligation but because they truly believe in them.
I recently saw a project coordinator with little formal authority transform a toxic team culture. Her consistent honesty, genuine care for colleagues, and calm problem-solving created a small island of healthy teamwork that others began to copy even when she wasn't around. Like an inspiring garden that influences neighboring yards, her example spread beyond her official reach.
The Leadership Distinction: From Hothouse to Habitat
During training sessions, I often share this scenario:
"A high-ranking executive submits change requests that double project scope without adding much value. These requests typically get approved despite being questionable. What type of power is this executive using?"
Most quickly identify this as legitimate power - the greenhouse effect where position, not quality of ideas, forces growth in a certain direction.
This shows the key difference between management and leadership. Management can work like greenhouse operations - controlling conditions to ensure predictable results. Leadership is more like growing a natural habitat where plants thrive because the environment supports their growth, not because they're constantly forced.
True leadership happens when:
- Your ideas spread naturally like helpful plants that self-seed, not because they're forcibly planted
- People seek your advice like gardeners asking someone whose soil always produces good crops
- Your influence reaches beyond your assigned area, with methods adopted by those who don't have to follow you
- People copy your approach because they want to, not because they must
- Your absence leaves people missing your wisdom, not just lacking a signature for approval
Building Your Power Portfolio: A Balanced Garden
The best approach uses multiple methods rather than relying on just one technique. Ask yourself:
- Legitimate Power: Are you depending on your job title, or can your ideas stand on their own merit?
- Reward Power: Have you created a team that needs constant prizes, or built self-sustaining motivation?
- Coercive Power: Is your team shaped mainly by fear of consequences, or by encouragement of good work?
- Expert Power: Have you developed knowledge that others seek regardless of your title?
- Referent Power: Do others want to work like you do, even when no one is watching?
While all five approaches have their uses - even greenhouses and pruning shears serve a purpose - lasting influence comes from moving away from artificial controls toward creating naturally thriving environments.
This shift doesn't just change how others see your leadership - it transforms how you experience your work. Position-based influence creates the constant worry of maintaining control. Personal power gives you the confidence of having built something that flourishes even when you're not directly supervising it.
The ultimate paradox? Those least obsessed with controlling the garden often grow the best harvests.
Related Posts
Good Fighting Makes Better Projects
Every project manager knows that moment—when the air gets thick with tension, stakeholders dig in their heels, and what should be a simple decision becomes an intricate dance of competing interests.
In the Project Management Wilderness
Four years into project management, I've learned that the PMI Talent Triangle® isn't just certification jargon—it's the difference between surviving and thriving in this field.
Made with Bullet