Management: MOTIVATING IN TIGHT TIMES
RULE ONE: Be a detective!
Lots of clamor lately about MOTIVATING employees, associates, and salespeople. It’s really simple…if you work at it. Some things, it’s true, really don’tever change! Managerial motivation is one of them.
The definitive theory, first published in the early 1940’s by Abraham Maslow and still taught today in university management programs, remains “MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS.”
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Maslow’s theoryviews an individual’s motivation as a predetermined order of needs. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS are the most basic and imperitive until they’re met. It’s hard to need more than food, water, clothing, and shelter, for example, if survival is not assured.
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Once physiological needs are met, Maslow said SAFETY NEEDS would rise to the top. So, now that you have enough to eat and drink and can keep warm and dry, your mind moves to the need for protecting those fulfillment’s. This accounts for concerns like air bags, insurance coverage, fences, alarm systems, locks, escape ladders, and investments.
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As safety needs are satisfied,Maslow said we move up a level to SOCIAL NEEDS. Seeking acceptance from others, giving and receiving friendship and affection are key desirables.
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With social needs met, we pursue ESTEEM NEEDS: recognition with items and actions that show appreciation and enhance reputation…things like trophies, plaques, certificates, prizes, awards, special dedications, news release mentions, etc.
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Maslow said at the top of all needs is the need for SELF-ACTUALIZATION: realizing one’s own potentialities for self-fulfillment, for continued self-development, for being a successful, creative, and balanced person who is self-satisfied and has reached a point of total accomplishment.
As we move from one level up to the next (and Maslow said we can only occupy one level at a time in any given moment), we can easily tumble back down to lower levels in an instant.
A job loss, pay loss, family death, injury, flood, fire, or hurricane are just a few of the kinds of tragic and debilitating events that can trigger someone who may be at a self-esteem level on Monday, for example, happy with being honored at a special luncheon, to suddenly find him or herself all the way back down to a physiological need level by the end of the week, or even the next morning.
Okay, so how does this work day-to-day in practice?
To motivate people in ways that are most appreciated and most productive requires the motivator to be tuned in and aware to what need level someone is at on any particular day and reward that individual at that level!
Recognition doesn’t mean squat to someone with a broken-down car or inability to pay for a child’s braces, or someone who lives where there are frequent break-ins and who needs an alarm system.
Cash doesn’t mean anything to someone who’s inherited a family fortune and is working to gain acceptance by others, or some form of recognition to brag about. You can only know a person’s need level when you can know what’s going on with that person’s life and what makes that person tick!
You don’t have to cozy-up to every employee or spend more time than you choose with them. You do need to pay close attention to the things they talk about and the ways they talk about them. It means…you need to be a detective! Go motivate!
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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116
Open Minds Open Doors
Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.
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