Recognizing the basic needs of the individuals in your team

As a manager coach, recognizing the basic needs of your staff, showcasing their contributions and celebrating success, and providing feedback, are part of your day to day missions. There are of course key times of the year when the HR processes require you to pay attention to reward and recognition, for example at salary review, or when deciding on the allocation of variable pay and performance related long term incentives. The more important, and far more meaningful, conversations on reward and recognition are not however linked to an HR process, but are in the flow of your managerial role, and should take place regularly and often throughout the course of the year.

Like the ancient pyramids in Egypt, the blocks that constitute the overall structure of your relationship are built up over time. To construct such a magnificent edifice requires effort and energy. Once in place however, a close and solid relationship between manager and employee will be like a sturdy and long lasting and symbolic monument.

Recognising the needs of your employees is not a simple feat, however, and we must scratch well beyond the superficial definition of the word “need” and delve into our psyche as human-beings. Let’s give some thought to the fundamental hierarchy of our needs using a classic psychology theory from Abraham Maslow from his 1943 paper and 1954 book. Maslow’s hierarchy, usually interpreted in management circles as a pyramid, outlines our most basic human needs at the foundation. 

Basic needs

Starting at the base of the pyramid, it can be easy to brush off the BASIC PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS as being out of the realms of the manager-coach. Sure, access to most of the core basic needs for human survival like food, air, water are not in question in the modern day workplace. However one aspect of our basic needs is sleep. Whilst thankfully in most jobs sleep deficit is not an issue, let’s not forgot that not all of us manage teams of desk-bound office workers on “regular” working hours. Some managers have teams that work nights, or long shift work, and I’m sure many managers in healthcare can attest to chronic staffing issues which lead to junior doctors and health workers putting in very long shifts to the detriment of their ability to sleep. Shift workers and rotational staff in industry, and international or trans-meridian workers who spend time working physically between continents can also experience occupational health impacts which can disrupt their sleep patterns. As a manager, recognize the occupational causes, assess and manage risks to avoid employees being fatigued at work and offer the appropriate support with reference to occupational health professionals. Be mindful of the work life balance in the team, working hours, ensure your employees disconnect from work to recharge their batteries, and recognise the physiological strains of shift work or heavy international travel.

Next up in Maslow’s pyramid comes SAFETY. Clearly recognizing that the health and safety and wellbeing of the employees in your team is paramount to your role of manager coach. Working in an industrial energy major, I’m used to safety being a core value. This isn’t so obvious in other industries, but remains equally true. Here however, the word safety needs to be interpreted as widely as possible. As a manager, recognise that your team needs to feel safe and protected in their work. Some jobs come with inherent risk to safety, and you are responsible for implementing and ensuring the use of protective measures and personal protection equipment. However in any job environment, the teams must feel personally safe (ethically treated, in accordance with their human rights), emotionally safe (non-threatening and supportive environment), financially secure (with a just and equitable pay and reward for their work), and have job security (a low probability, or risk, of losing their employment). Any risks to the employee’s safety must be accompanied with care by the manager coach. 

In recent months, almost all managers have faced the need to address their employee’s safety, perhaps in some industries for some for the first time, as the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic took grip over the world this year. Some employees have felt the financial impacts (obligatory furlough, or reduced hours, or unemployment), some face uncertain future employment with the economic viability of the business at risk, some have been exposed to the virus through their front line work risking their own health and safety to serve others. Even homeworking office workers might have experienced emotional wellbeing concerns during lockdown or on the return to work afterwards, as we came to grips with working at distance and post-lockdown pandemic protection measures of mask wearing, and distancing. Few of us felt “safe” at the prospect of returning to the office as our countries reopened, yet it was important to do so and highly appreciated to see how our employers were prioritizing our safety and reestablishing trust in our interactions with our physical work space. I consider myself extremely lucky to work for an employer that takes this aspect very seriously, implementing safety protection, flexible working, protection from financial impacts of furlough, and a robust occupational health provision for employees and their families. Let’s never take the importance of safety for granted, and as managers it is important to help our teams see the measures put in place to protect them, and reinforce the positive recognition of their wellbeing, both physically and emotionally. 

Psychological needs

Climbing further up the pyramid, the next level up in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that of SOCIAL BELONGING. Employees in your team, whether they are introvert or extravert, highly sociable or discreet and solitary, will nevertheless to a greater or lesser extent have the need to feel part of a group, your team and the wider organisation. Recognising this need for interpersonal interaction, and working relationships is key. Work is not all about output and productivity but the workplace is fundamentally a social environment and it is important to make space as a manager coach for opportunities to get together socially and foster good team spirit. In recent months, with mass remote working for the first time globally due to the pandemic, manager-coachs have had to adapt their normal routines to manage at distance and check in virtually with their employees and ensure they aren’t feeling isolated, socially anxious or neglected. Pandemic aside, in “normal” times, the manager coach also has a role to play here, ensuring the team works well together and preventing disagreements or conflicts that could detrimentally impact relations between team members.

Heading further towards the peak of the pyramid, and our psychological needs continue with ESTEEM. In an earlier article, I have already written about the basic human needs for different types of recognition. As a reminder these can focus on the employee as an individual, for instance existential recognition such as “I enjoy working with you as you bring a real energy to the tasks at hand”, or recognition of the way they work such as “what a great idea to try it that way, I wouldn’t have thought of that, and it’s saved us time”. Recognition can also focus on the effort and investment they have put into their work or their dedication to the task at hand, for example by saying “thanks so much for having swapped over your day off to be able to be with us today, it’s important to have you here”, or “thanks so much for putting the time into this task, I know it wasn’t easy and I really appreciate your effort”. Finally there is recognition that celebrates the result of the work “well done, you’ve achieved an excellent outcome here, above what I’d expected, I’m really pleased”. 

Ideally over time, you’ll recognize your staff in different ways, for different reasons, and these short but impactful exchanges will help your employees to feel valued as individuals and know that you recognize what they bring to your team. Shared regularly enough, these short moments of recognition will be sincere and authentic. Ideally you should try and slip them into the normal course of your dialogue with your team members, spontaneously at the time or shortly after the event. Ensure that the message is personal to you and coherent to your wider relationship and exchanges with the individual. 

It is essential that your employees feel respected in their work, and have a sense of contribution and value. Recognition belongs to what Maslow referred to as the lower version of esteem. The higher version goes further and includes self-respect, self-confidence, competency and the need for freedom and independence. 

As a manager-coach playing to the strengths of the higher version of esteem can support the growth of the individuals in your team. Helping them to respect themselves and gain self awareness through feedback and coaching conversations and offering them a mirror can help their development. Enabling them to train and master competencies also contributes to meeting their higher esteem needs, but furthermore makes them a more skilled employee to whom you can delegate more tasks, give more responsibility and autonomy, again further meeting their basic need for esteem. 

Self-fulfilment

The pinnacle of the hierarchy of needs is the realisation of their POTENTIAL, or as Maslow refers to it self-actualisation. Supporting your employees to reach this peak of the pyramid and enabling them to reach their full potential could be seen as your ultimate goal as a manager coach. Reaching the dizzy heights of this summit, your employee will have met all their lower needs, fundamental basic ones such as wellbeing and safety, psychological ones of relationships and growing, learning, achieving and being recognized, becoming self-aware and self-respecting. Moreover, they will be motivated and highly performing, which clearly helps you in terms of meeting the operational goals of your team.

An individual who reaches the top is visible, is an inspiration to others to climb, and shows that the ascension is possible. You can leverage this with other members of the team and help them too meet their needs and thrive in your team. This can only happen if you have all the foundation stones and a steady structure in place at the different steps below, block by block. 

In your role as manager-coach, are you conscious of some of these human needs? At what levels of the pyramid do you find easiest to work on? Where do you struggle in meeting the needs of your team? It would be great to hear from some of you in the comments below.

Alan Lambert is an International HR leader currently working at the Corporate HR Strategy division of a global energy major