When you purposely and intentionally help your employees fulfill their “higher level” needs, you’ll naturally inspire their most extraordinary engagement and performance — not to mention creativity, initiative and loyalty.
What’s the most effective way of inspiring 21st-century workers to consistently excel and perform in their jobs?
The answer may strike you as being blatantly obvious, but it’s a truth that’s been widely ignored in business for at least the past 100 years:
We must acknowledge that our employees are first and foremost human beings and that it’s our responsibility as leaders to ensure their most essential needs are consistently met.
Over a century ago, traditional leadership theory advanced the idea that we should pay workers as little as possible — and squeeze as much out of them as possible — and that abiding by these practices would yield endless riches for business owners and managers.
In an era when people went to work primarily to put food on their tables and a roof over their heads, companies succeeded despite giving little concern to employee well-being.
But, while our common approach to managing people has changed very little over the past decades, employees themselves have profoundly changed what they need and expect in exchange for their work. And, because it’s become much easier for most people to meet their most basic needs, a paycheck alone has become wholly insufficient.
Consequently, human motivation in the workplace today requires that we support employees (human beings) in meeting six additional needs, all of which were famously introduced by psychologist Abraham Maslow 70 years ago.
Here’s a list of all six needs along with some brief suggestions on how you can help your people attain them:
CERTAINTY: While there are never any guarantees in the world, feelings of safety are essential to human well-being. And, because we know that people become far more focused on their work assignments when they are made to feel secure in their jobs, assuring them that they are valuable to the success of the firm is a powerful way of anchoring those feelings. Leaders who build enduring traditions and rituals for their teams can additionally reinforce a strong and meaningful sense of continuity.
UNCERTAINTY: One of the big problems in business today is that we design work with too little variety. Anything done repetitively tends to become dull and even joyless, and this inevitably destroys engagement. The leadership antidote is to give employees opportunities to work on tasks or projects outside of their normal job scopes. Breaks like these serve to rejuvenate and make people even more committed to doing their regular work.
SIGNIFICANCE: Deep down, every one of us needs to feel important — to believe we are special in some way. So, find what’s unique in every person you lead, and tell them directly how much you value them and their wonderful talents. Be courageous and convey how important they are to you personally and to the success of your team.
CONNECTION: Next time you see your employees congregating in the halls, seemingly not working, don’t be so quick to judge. Numerous studies prove that having people at work who care about us (especially our boss) is profoundly important to how we feel about our jobs and organizations. For the same reasons, advocating teamwork and collaboration is the surest way of building organizational trust and high performance.
GROWTH: It was Maslow who said that all human beings are motivated to fulfill their full potential — what he called “self-actualization.” Today, it’s become a fundamental responsibility of leaders to actively foster the growth and development of every person they manage and to willingly teach them skills they’ve already mastered.
TO CONTRIBUTE: To Something Greater Than Oneself: It’s simply irrefutable that 21st-century workers are seeking a sense of meaning and purpose from the jobs they do. So, it’s critical for leaders (and organizations) to communicate a compelling mission and to routinely remind employees how their work directly impacts the success of the team and the firm. Service to others is perhaps the most noble of all human endeavors and can therefore be the most inspiring.