Motivation and leadership

I’m in the process of reading a book on leadership and project management.  The author mentioned Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs and its five levels: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, Self-actualization. 

Our work environment fully satisfies physiological and safety needs; people are far from going hungry or homeless and are in no physical danger.  I think we also handle well the love/belonging needs as team members are generally friendly, respectful, and welcoming

Where I believe we might have problems is with esteem and self-actualization.  Going back to the book I’m reading, the author mentions the usual “esteem” related items; acknowledgement, rewards, and compensation.  Acknowledgement and rewards we could be better at but in the current economic climate compensation is pretty much a taboo subject.  Knowing that our people are far from being in any kind of hardship, what would you do to motivate someone who appears to have only one driver; more $$$?

Regarding self-actualization, the author includes in this level items like people’s interest in professional and personal growth, the will to outperform, and ambition as in climbing the hierarchy.  In the somewhat flat organization we work in the latter is not really an option.  Going back to my underlying question about motivation, what would you do with someone that appears to have stagnated and be happy in that stagnation?

In the past I have had to cajole some people with the hope of getting them to raise their game which in turn gives leverage and justification for rewards and increased compensation.  I have also had success in getting some to better themselves which better our organization at the same time and leaves them with a more marketable product (themselves).  Those who would not move either on productivity or skills have been shown the door.  By this I don’t mean fired but I’ve had to explain to them that their needs could not be accommodated in the mid to long term. 

I’d really like to her from all of you on this topic.  What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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Comments

[Narendra Khanna]

I don't think you can motivate people much more than say 10-15%.

Anything else/ more comes from within them - and you probably start motivating them after you see them trying hard, which means they initiate the motivation.Even financial incentives are offered to people after you see them trying.

Sometimes, they plateau, like in a workout sort of way. There, the PM might offer guidance/ support but that is also a function of the personal relationship.
Of course, I'm writing in from India, a developing economy, which would rank differently on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

[Patrick Richard]

Narendra,

Thanks for your comment. If I read you right, motivation should come from within, which happens to be my view.

That would mean that, given proper indication of where a company or project wants to go and proper indication of where needs lie, team member should pick an areas of improvement ad expect rewards only after goals are reached. I would agree with this too.

I guess this leaves us with the so-called Jack Welch approach of refreshing 10% of the human resource pool every year as a way of weeding out underperformers or those who have stopped progressing. My experience is that small companies do not want to pay the price of training 10% new hires per year except if it is to support growth.

On the subject of working in an emerging economy, have you noticed people leaving a company even for a minimal increase in rewards or compensation? I have been told that this happens quite often in India and I have heard of it happening in Latin America or the old Eastern Bloc.

Regards,

Patrick

[Nlongson]

Patrick,

According to Maslow, people do not care much about the higher need in the hierarchy until the lower needs are fulfilled. Esteem is about compensation and rewards, while self-actualization is about knowing yourself. So, according to Maslow, until we have problems with compensation, bonuses, we cannot address the self-actualization needs of our employees.

However, there are many other motivation theories address this weakness of Maslow theory, for example, I prefer ERG theory
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_alderfer_erg_theory.html

[Nlongson]

What I like in this theory is that while it is similar to Maslow hierarchy of needs, the order of its elements may be individual for each person, and you can address these needs simultaneously. As a PM, I mainly address the growth needs of my project team members: new kind of activities, new opportunities to learn etc.

http://pmreviews.org
@nlongson

[Patrick Richard]

Son,

First, thank you for the comments and link. I did browse it and it is a different spin on motivation.

I do agree that a move can be made on more than one level of need at any given time; sticking with Maslow for a moment, nothing says that you cannot improve on safety needs at the same time as on esteem needs. After all you don't want ending up praising the dead or injured if that can be avoided (the injury or death, not the praise).

Where I don't see how ERG differs from Maslow is in the Self-Actualisation/Growth areas. Both require self-motivation and, if the only motivation a person has is $$$, the absence on that self motivation hints at failure.

Regards,

Patrick