Building Your Team: Maslow

When we are looking at building a team, it really comes down to what motivates people. The simple answer, the answer from the 1920s is that people are motivated to work because they need the money. It’s still almost impossible to live without that paycheck, but there is more to motivation than that. Motivation may be different for every person on your team. In order to drill down to what is important, let’s take a look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

This hierarchy is basically a linear evolving of each individual. As one need is fulfilled, the next becomes the most important. However, before a lower need is fulfilled, the next level is not important at all. Let’s look at it step by step.

According to Maslow, the lowest of the needs is the Physiological Needs. Most of the people on your team will be beyond those needs, but it is worth a look, regardless. This level is the need for food, water, sleep, and the most very basic things to sustain life. Suffice it to say that if one does not have food and water, he or she cares about little else. Those needs must be satisfied first.

The next level of needs are the Safety Needs. People need to have some level of safety in their home, their family, etc. They need to have at least some level of safety in that their living situation is not about to go through some great upheaval beyond their own control. This relates to the work environment, too. They want to know that their employment will not be swept out from under them without warning.

Once those two levels of needs are satisfied, the individual comes to the Love and Belonging Need level. People are social beings. They want to feel as though the belong in their interactions with others. In team building, these individuals want to know that the team cares about them and that they are important to the overall success of the team. Effective leaders are able to pull their team members through this level fairly quickly. Everyone needs to feel as though they belong where they are in order to contribute and be successful.

The next level of needs is that of Esteem Needs. Many of our team members in the workforce today are at this level. They are comfortable with themselves, their security, and they feel as though they belong. At this level they are looking for confidence and the respect of others. These people allow team leaders to delegate with confidence. These are the people who are looking for more responsibility. They are ready to take on challenges and prove their ability to make things work. This may be the level at which a leader finds most of his or her team members. However, some of them will surpass this level to Maslow’s highest level of needs.

The highest level is the need for Self-Actualization. At this level, people are looking to truly prove themselves and show their worth. Many of these people will become team leaders themselves. A leader’s ultimate goal would be to cultivate each team member through each of the levels so that each member may reach this goal. This may not always be possible, but it is the ultimate goal. People at this level are looking to use their creativity and unique personality to solve problems that have not been solved my traditional means. They have learned to be very open-minded and accepting of different opinions. They are simply looking for the best solution, no matter how creative or untraditional it may be.

These are the five levels of needs as put forth by Maslow. Most learn of this hierarchy in psychology class early on, but then soon let it fall by the wayside. However, it does have real implications in the workforce. It will allow managers and leaders to cultivate a successful team that will get behind the company’s vision and help it to stay one step ahead of the competition. That is, after all, what makes a successful team, and a successful company.