It’s all about needs
You come to work to have your needs met. It might be the salary so you can feed the children and pay the mortgage or it might be for social reasons etc. If your needs are not met in the job, what is the consequence, how will it leave you feeling?
It is likely you will be demotivated, unhappy, moan a lot and when the pain gets too much you will leave. All the things you don’t want in an organisation. All the things that tell you leadership is not working.
So is leading your people and getting the best from them, about connecting with their needs?
It would appear so. The information to take your leadership to the next level is in your people, their needs.
Can people tell you their needs?
Very often people can’t articulate their needs, which of course makes it difficult to be an effective leader. So, what do we do?
Often we mind-read on what people need or worse still, we assume others have the same needs as ourselves. This is the single biggest mistake we make in our relationships, hence in our leadership. The secret to successful relationships is to treat people the way they need to be treated, not the way you need to be treated.
Understanding needs
- Are the needs the same for all of us? No, each of us has a unique set of needs.
- Are we likely to have our needs met? It is not realistic to expect all my needs to be met.
- Are our needs likely to be met with people who have similar needs? Yes, and of course people with different needs are likely to negate our needs.
What happens if my needs are not met?
If my physical needs (water/food) are not met, I die. If my emotionally needs (appreciation/trust) are not met, I die emotionally (depressed, lethargic etc.).
Do Unmet needs affect performance?
To the extent that your needs are not being met, expect people to be off focus (moaning blaming and criticising). Research indicates (CIPD) that 12 days a year are lost with people being off focus. If my needs are not met, my energy will go to getting those needs met,distracting me from doing the day job.
Quality of life
While this needs agenda is important to achieving high levels of performance, it is also impacting on the quality of our personal lives. The more your personal needs are met, the happier you will be, the more you will enjoy life. If you are unhappy at work, with a relationship or with life generally, the chances are your needs are not being met in those contexts.
Is an individual’s need is more important than the business needs?
No, the business need always has priority over an individual’s needs. Successful organisations meet the business need without neglecting the needs of people. In fact they recognise that the energy and motivation needed to achieve those organisational goals, is a consequence of needs being met.
What if you can’t meet the need?
This will often be the case but if the person senses from you, a willingness to meet their needs if it were possible, the goodwill is retained and people will still go the extra mile. It is only when I feel you are dismissing my need that I am likely to disengage.
If all people ever hear is management’s needs and the business needs, never their needs, expect them to disengage, be demotivated and under-perform.
The BP2W (“An Even Better Place to Work”) solution focuses on NEEDS. Want a free demo to experience the benefits for you team? Please contact us at: info@mcconnonint.com