Understanding how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Can Impact Your Business

In 1943 Abraham Maslow wrote an interesting paper entitled ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’.? In the article Maslow created a classification system to describe stages of evolution (hierarchy) in people’s lives. It has become known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Malow’s theory was that there are some basic needs every human needs before they can rise to the next level of motivation. We have all heard the phrase that the first basic need that must be satisfied is food, clothing and shelter or the physiological needs.

Physiological Needs: At the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid are the physiological or basic needs. These are basic needs that we must solved to have a foundation to work from before we can be motivated to seek out the next level of physiological need safety and security. For most of us, we have never really had to worry about these basic needs. Having grown up in this amazing country where there has been an abundance of food, clean water, and shelter. But for the less fortunate, these are indeed real struggles. It’s impossible or incredibly difficult to think about how we might have an impact on those around us if we are not sure of where our next meal will come from or if we are struggling to find shelter and water. I remember when I lived with my mother in the mountains of California after her divorce. For some reason my mother purchased a bakery in a small mountain community. I never understood why she would buy a business since she had never owned or operated a business before and knew little about a bakery. Lucky for us, the bakery came with a baker. I watched while my mother struggled to make this business work. There were some very lean times, where we lived in a mountain cabin with no insulation in the walls and very little heat. We had little money, so we ate vegetable soup night after night. I came to understand the meaning of Maslow’s first primary need needing to be satisfied before one can focus on the other needs. Until the basic needs are satisfied the majority of our activity will be at this level and the other needs will provide little motivation.

Safety and Security: Once we have solved the problem of food, clothing and shelter we have a need to sustain that environment and feel safe and secure. These are the needs that are focused on keeping us safe. Once the physiological needs are met, we tend to be more focused on our health, finding a job that pays us a sustainable wage where we can have property and perhaps raise a family, and even move to a safer neighborhood. In my own situation, my mother and I had to move to a small apartment that had adequate heat so we would not freeze in the winter, and we had to get financial help from a family friend until the business could support our needs. Up to this point we had pretty much kept to ourselves, not getting involved in the community or taking the time to develop friendships. Once we no longer worried about food, clothing, and shelter, we could focus on the next level of needs, love and belonging.

Love and Belonging: For most of us the first two of Maslow’s needs have never really been a consideration or a need but have been taken for granted. ?We grew up in an environment in which we just did not have to worry about our next meal and have advanced quickly to Maslow’s third need Love and Belonging. Here is where we developed friendships in school and in our neighborhoods, college, and work environments. Many of us met many other individuals and developed relationships, possible marriage, children and a sense of belonging, connection, and community. At this point we are free of the first two critical areas that need to be fulfilled and we can focus more on what kind of person we want to be known as or to become. Our future probably seems bright, and opportunity is knocking on our door. Our confidence grows as we accomplish more or our goals and desires moving us into the area where self-esteem and confidence excels. And with that comes our desire to be more social and get involved. While attending school in the mountain community, I tended to be loner, not socializing, or getting involved with others or any kind of groups, or group activities. I was self-conscious of my old clothes I had to wear, being extremely skinny, and more focused on keeping a low profile, then being a part of something else.

Self-Esteem: We as individuals need to feel that they are valued and contributing. As our self-worth and self-esteem grow, we develop respect for others and expect the same in return. For some individuals, status and recognition may be critical to their self-esteem. Some people even seek out fame and attention to develop their self-esteem and confidence. For others it could be participating in team sports, small group activities or clubs. ?For us to have a positive impact on others we must feel good about ourselves and who we are. It is difficult to impart onto others that which we do not have ourselves. I remember that it wasn’t until my mother, and I moved to a small apartment, and we received financial help from a friend where staying warm at night, having food to eat and some new clothes to wear was I able to feel good enough about myself to get involved with others. At this stage I started to develop my self-worth and self-esteem because I was no longer worried about the previous needs.

Self-Actualization: This is the highest level of our psychological development where we could reach our full potential and become all we can be. When our other needs have been met, we then can focus our attention on self-actualization. In this phase, we tend to accept ourselves as we are and become more accepting of others as they are. Maslow contended that self-actualized people were more motivated by health, growth, purpose, and the real issues people were struggling with. Self-actualized individuals begin to think about their legacy and the impact they will have on those around them and perhaps even the world. What kind of impact did we have? Did we make a difference?

I attended the Tony Robins Business Mastery program in London for five days. During one of the speaker programs, the speaker made a statement that rang true to me. He said, “I want to be the best me I can be.” It was like a bright light suddenly came on. These words struck home with me and were what I had been searching for. I came home and decided that I wanted to be the best me I could be, mentally, emotionally, physically, professionally, and spiritually. In order to accomplish that goal, I would have to continually work in those five areas making an investment in my education and knowledge. By so doing, I would have a greater depth of knowledge and experience to help my clients. That was my self-actualization moment.

As you read these words and perhaps you are very familiar with Maslow’s work, you may be asking yourself how does this apply to my business? If we take the same concepts and think about how we as a business owners and leaders help our businesses achieve their highest level of success or self-actualization, we must start thinking in terms of meeting the needs of those who are in our charge, our employees. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs apply to all organizations that want to achieve higher levels of success and excellence. How do we motivate others to follow our vision and direction? How do we get them to give of their hearts and minds? ?If they are struggling with their own basic psychological needs, it will be difficult to get their full participation. How do we motivate our employees to be focused and productive when they are worrying about meeting their own basic needs? It may prove difficult or even impossible to achieve the highest level of productivity and efficiency within the organization if the people working within that organization are struggling on a daily basis with the two basic needs, psychological and safety. The behavior of individuals in any particular point in time is usually determined by their strongest need at that point in time.

It would be important as leaders and managers to understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and what are the needs of those who report to them and how are they being met? The first two needs, psychological and safety tend to be an individual’s strongest focus until they are satisfied. Until these first two needs are met it is unlikely that the other needs will provide any kind of motivation. Are those who report to you having these two critical needs met? How do you know? Maslow’ hierarchy of needs may not be an all-encompassing explanation of an individual’s motivation but can be useful in predicting behavior.

Psychological needs: The bottom of the pyramid is food, clothing, shelter, and sleep. If these basic needs are not met, it will be difficult to have a focused and highly efficient work force. They may be there physically, but mentally they most likely will be worried about other things. As employers we must pay our employees a sufficient wage that they do not have to worry about where they will sleep that night or if they have enough food to eat. To perform at their best, they need enough sleep, shelter, water, and food to have the strength every day to perform at their best. They also need some of these needs met in the physical workplace such as plenty of air to breath, water to drink and rest or breaks to recharge. When these basic needs are not being met, employees have little motivation to perform at a high level. I have always felt that if we pay our people just above the current market rate, we will be more competitive and be able to retain our employees. Employees rarely leave a job for less money, but they will always leave for more money and better treatment. The satisfaction of the psychological needs is often satisfied with money, with money being a means to an end, of meeting the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.

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Safety and Security: As employers it is our responsibility to provide a safe and secure place for our employees to perform their duties. No employee should have to worry about their safety and security when coming to their place of employment. This means they should be protected from violence, harassment, intimidation, unsafe work conditions and the emotional stress that comes with those types of environments. When those conditions exist in the workplace it is extremely difficult for an employee to give their all to the job at hand. What about medical insurance for employees so they do not have to worry about how they will pay their medical bills should something happen. Some employers even go as far as providing short-term and long-term care insurance as well as retirement benefits. When an employee is being paid a living wage, has a safe and secure workplace they then are free of the mental stressors that would prevent them from performing at their best. They also become more loyal employees.

Love and Belonging: This on the surface may appear to be more difficult then meeting the first two needs.? How can an employer provide love and belonging for their employees? This is where company culture comes into play. In toxic cultures the tendency is for employees to keep their heads down and focus on their area of influence often creating silos where no one interacts of shares with each other. People are by nature social animals, most of us like to interact and be with others where we feel we belong. Work environments are a great place to foster such feelings.

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Changing the company culture from a toxic environment is difficult but comes with great rewards. People want to come to work and enjoy their jobs and employees like to have fun while working. The tone of the work environment is often set by leadership. If leadership is positive rather than negative, promotes interaction and group involvement and camaraderie it is possible to have a culture where people feel loved and feel they belong. This must start at the top with leadership. Leadership sets the tone. I have heard that as much as 64% of people leave their job because they do not like their boss. And why is that? Because they don’t think their boss cares about them. If that is indeed true, showing that you care, that you are concerned about your employee’s well-being, and encourage group and family involvement will create a positive culture of love and belonging and productivity will improve as a result. It may sound simple, but when dealing with individuals, feelings, and emotions, it can actually become quite complex.

Self-Esteem: Maslow’s fifth level of motivation has to do with an individual feeling confident and having a high degree of self-esteem. As employers we have an opportunity to help our employees develop high levels of confidence and self-esteem. As a business owner or leader, we often are focused on what is not going well in the business rather than what is going well. And in my experience, there is always more going well than not. The key is to make a conscious effort to focus on what is going well and recognize individuals for the work well done and for their accomplishments. By acknowledging individual and group achievement we are building self-confidence and self-esteem with our employees. As Stephen Covey commented in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, everyone has an emotional bank account and making positive compliments and acknowledgement of success makes deposits in their emotional bank accounts. It is important like any bank account that the deposits outpace the withdrawals. In any work environment not every employee will be doing excellent work 100% of the time and there will be times where corrections or firm communication may be necessary which is a withdrawal from their emotional bank account. As employers and owners, the deposits should outweigh the withdrawals causing self-esteem to grow within our employees. Our employees need to feel supported and that we care.

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Self-Actualization: As an individual self-actualization is reaching a point where we are focused on being all that we can be, and we have the desire to accept ourselves and accept others for who they are. Our personal growth has risen to a high level, and we want to help others rise to a higher level as well. This self-actualization can also occur in the workplace with our employees. Employees who reach this level of motivation often feel like they have autonomy in their job and the opportunity to help determine how their position will look so that it can bring maximum benefit to the organization and the individuals they are working with. They feel listened to and a part of the vision and direction of the company. They are no longer just an employee but an integral part of shaping the current and future company environment and culture. This requires ownership and/or leadership to let go and allow for the creative aspects of individuals with a higher purpose wanting the best for everyone, employees, and customers. Think of how powerful this type of culture could be in causing the organization to execute at an extremely high level potentially making the competition, who isn’t performing at this level, irrelevant.

As leaders and business owners we are always looking to improve productivity and increase efficiency and effectiveness. But we need focused and engaged people to turn that into a reality and if individual behavior is focused on lower-level motivations, they will not be able to understand, or perform at the higher levels of motivation described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. We need to understand what it is that our employees want and need and what motivates them. We cannot just make assumptions that we know what those needs are. Even asking our employees may not result in an actual assessment because our own perceptions or interpretations of reality may get in the way of truly understanding. The greater understanding of our own perceptions of reality and how we see the world through our own set of lenses made up of our past experiences, the better opportunity we have for understanding our employees and what it is they need and want to be successful. There again, it begins with us, and our own hierarchy of needs being fulfilled before we can help others to meet theirs.

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