Putting the Hierarchy of Human Needs to Work Through Leadership
In truth, you cannot motivate another person. You can provide an environment wherein an individual can become motivated. At some time in nearly every manager's career he or she has been exposed to A Theory of Human motivation, by Abraham Maslow. Too seldom are the valuable lessons of “Maslow's Hierarchy” applied effectively to create work environments that bring out the best in people.
As a leader, it is your responsibility to both seek out and create a motivating environment. A manager's job is to create the conditions (and to develop goals, plans, and procedures) in which all people have the potential for attaining satisfaction at every level of need. A need is a gap or discrepancy between what the individual has and what he or she desires. The individual is driven or motivated to reduce or eliminate the discrepancy. If there is no discrepancy, there is no motivation.
Too often, organizations rely solely on fear and incentives for motivation. Fear can be highly motivating, but not in conjunction with positive results for any length of time. Instead, people become stressed, callous, and develop a “thick-skinned” attitude resulting in defensiveness and loss of production. Incentives can be motivating, but not for sustained motivation. When a need is satisfied, it is no longer a motivator – “this year's bonus will become next year's entitlement.” Striving, achieving, and accomplishing are needs in and of themselves. Goal setting and action planning provide both the means and the end results for our needs to strive and accomplish.
Following are simple but effective guidelines for bringing out the best in people at each level of need:
Level 1 Physiological well-being: I need a break for lunch.
You can help by:
- Generally, making sure these needs are not a distraction
Level 2 Safety and security: I need to know my job is secure.
You can help by:
- Making sure individual capabilities match job demands
- Determining that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them
- Providing continuous, timely, constructive feedback
- Equating job security to performance
- Installing a fair and equitable compensation program based upon performance
Level 3 Social acceptance, belonging: I need to feel “part of the gang”, asked for ideas.
You can help by:
- Involving people in goal setting and planning, seeking their input and ideas as well as their commitment
- Involving people in brainstorming an decision making
- Involving people in their performance reviews and in frequent goal progress reviews
- Involving people in teams and team development activities
Level 4 Self-esteem, recognition: I need to know I'm doing a good job.
You can help by:
- Implementing a recognition-based program that regularly recognizes those people who have done an exceptional job or achieved a goal
- Treating everyone with dignity and respect
- Making sure that everyone knows how their work contributes to the vision and values of the organization
- Seeking ideas and opinions, and giving credit to the source when they are implemented
- Transferring ownership for work to those who execute the work
Level 5 Self-actualization and fulfillment: I need more challenges and the opportunity to grow.
You can help by:
- Help people to realize their personal development goals
- Provide opportunities for formal education, training and development
- Provide opportunities for internal growth and advancement whenever possible
- Exhibit a genuine interest in matching talents with opportunities
- Meet with people regularly to determine how well they are doing and what they would like to do
- Exercise value-based leadership with support, honesty and open communications, questions, and good listening
An the most powerful question you may ever ask of another person is: “What do you need?“
There are no natural leaders. Leaders have developed qualities that attract others. Leadership is when others follow you because of who you are and where you are going. Re-connect with the deep values and purpose that will lead you to where you really want to be. Visit http://purposeandnow.blogspot.com/
Mark A. Sturgell, CBC, is a Certified Business Coach and president of Performance Development Network. Mark coaches individuals, teams and organizations to achieve the measurable results they really want.
Copyright 2009 Mark A. Sturgell. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and give author name credit.
