What does motivation mean to you? At work, motivation typically sets the go-getters apart from the slackers. Recent scientific research ties motivation to brain connectivity. No more blaming lack of motivation on sheer laziness.
You can, however, blame it on gender. From a brain perspective, for women in business, the pathway to motivation looks different than it does for men. Read on and discover 5 ways the mind determines motivation for women.
1. Multi-taskers unite
We all have two kinds of brain matter—white and gray. As far as the amount of white matter associated with intelligence, women have almost 10 times more than men.
At work, and in life, women are like superheroes because they handle more than one situation at a time. Their brain structure helps make it possible. In part, due to their abundance of white matter, women make excellent multi-taskers.
Men win in the gray matter category! They have roughly 6.5 times more gray matter related to general intelligence than women.
A round of applause for them and their ability to absorb information faster than women.
2. Women remember the details
Has anyone ever accused you of remembering too many unimportant details? It’s not your fault—blame it on your hippocampus and your left caudate. The hippocampus plays a role in memory. The left caudate controls communication skills. Both structures contain larger amounts of gray matter in women. That’s why women remember all the details and men focus primarily on the main point of a conversation.
Companies like PieSync, offer solutions that help you sync data (details)—and give your brain a break. Even if it comes naturally, who doesn’t appreciate a little help consolidating the details?
3. It’s about perception
The wiring in a woman’s brain gives her a unique way of perceiving speech.
Rather than using logic (like men), women use intuition and emotion. When someone utilizes logic, they hear exactly what is said. Helpful but it also means they lose out on many nuances of a conversation.
By relying on intuition and emotion, women can often pick up on hidden meanings in conversation. This is helpful when working with people who struggle with communicating about struggles with work projects. Hint: Be careful not to look for hidden meanings in every conversation.
4. Emotions and motivation for women
Women use their brains differently when it comes to work relationships. While we pick up on emotions, as mentioned above, we also use emotion as a communication tool.
Women use emotion to express empathy—considered an essential skill for effective leadership. Empathetic leaders are sensitive to their colleagues’ needs. Not only that, they’re interested in their lives and know how to listen when their employees share their struggles.
We’re not picking on the guys here but it’s not uncommon for men to experience difficulty catching on when emotions aren’t verbalized.
Motivation for women in leadership depends in part on the ability to inspire teams through a range of management techniques, but empathy is high on the list.
5. Women tend and befriend
How do you react to stress? If you’re a man, you lean toward the fight or flight response. Women take on stress using a tend and befriend tactic.
When faced with stress, women become nurturers, caring for themselves and their children. They also form strong bonds with their tribe.
What does that have to do with the brain? During stress, the brain releases the hormone oxytocin in both women and men. Oxytocin helps create calming and nurturing feelings. Estrogen enhances oxytocin while testosterone reduces its effects.
Keep in mind either gender can react to stress with flight or fight or tend and befriend. Nothing is ever simple, is it?
Interested in reading more women and business?
We’ve only covered 5 ways a woman’s mind works differently than a man in our article about motivation for women. The brain in both genders is much more complex than that. That’s why there’s an entire field of study devoted to motivation, the brain, and gender.
Our passion isn’t so much about studying the brain, but if you’d like more articles on women in business, check out our hot topics.
