Taking a look at workers’ basic psychological needs
According to Harriet Meyerson on The Confidence Center website, if you want to boost employee morale, it can be helpful to take a look at your workers’ basic psychological needs. In order to do this she recommends reviewing the needs hierarchy developed by the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow.
Maslow’s theory included a hierarchy of five basic human needs. As a manager, asking yourself how your workplace is providing for these needs in terms of your workers could dramatically increase workplace satisfaction and the bottom line. Here are Maslow’s needs:
- These are the basics.
Are your pay levels providing employees with enough money for food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, etc? If not, then it’s probably safe to say that your workforce is not going to be happy. If your company is not providing for these things, is it realistic to think that significant change will occur in the near future? If not, you will also be likely to become unhappy in this environment, and a change might do you good.
- Safety.
Are you providing a structured, safe, predictable environment for your employees? A place where they feel comfortable expressing their needs and where they feel they know what the rules are, feel the rules are fair, and are able to accomplish what is expected of them?
- Social acceptance/belonging.
Are co-workers supportive of each other? Is there a positive feeling of camaraderie in the office? If not, why not? Are workers working against each other or together? Are most workers happy to be part of the group in your division, in the company as a whole?
- Esteem.
People need to feel they are recognised for what they do. They need to feel they are respected and important. This provides for the human desire to feel adequate, confident and competent.
- Self-actualisation.
Is everyone given the chance to reach their fullest potential - and to support others in reaching theirs?
So how is a manager supposed to use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to motivate the troops? First realise that every worker you have has these needs and they are extremely important to the individual. Then, sit down and think about each of your workers. What could be improved to move the person along his or her own path? Then periodically check yourself and each worker against this list of needs. Ask the questions and answer them honestly. Do what you can to make improvements, and then take note of any progress you observe.
This is not a simple way of managing, because you have to treat each worker as an individual, and that takes time. But you will likely achieve the results you desire much more easily and quickly than by using other methods that ignore basic human needs and stymie personal growth in the workplace.
Need to give feedback? Try these tips
Have you ever given feedback to someone, and that person pulled back from what you were saying and fell into a defensive mode? If so, then you know giving feedback is an important, but complicated process - especially for managers - because it can affect morale and the bottom line.
According to “A Deeper Look at Coaching: Meeting Your Challenges” in the Leading Effectively e-Newsletter, the most important factor in giving feedback is to give your coachee the opportunity to learn and develop.
Sloan R. Weitzel in Feedback That Works: How to Build and Deliver your Message, says there are several ways to ensure that you give feedback in the most effective way:
- Be specific when you describe the situation and behaviour.
- Tell the coachee what effect this has had on you.
- Once you give your feedback, then be quiet and give it some time to sink in.
- Stay away from blaming words, and frame your feedback in “I” statements rather than “you” statements. Be sensitive. What you are saying could potentially be painful to the coachee.