Nurturing Human Needs
Leaders have a unique obligation to pay attention to the way they treat team members and customers.
Researcher and author David Cooperrider offers this theory about three universal human needs. While others have espoused these needs in different ways, Cooperrider believes that each person has the need to:
Have a voice and be heard;
Be viewed as essential to a group; and
Be seen as unique and exceptional.
In many organizations, leaders will insist they encourage open dialogue and embrace different ideas and diversity of opinion. The company’s culture often does little to confirm these assertions.
A Costly Example
There are high-profile examples of organizations that paid a price because the need for employees to be heard and valued was usurped by a greater need for power, control or expediency.
One of the most notable took place at NASA over a period of years leading up to the 2003 Columbia space shuttle accident where seven astronauts lost their lives. In the investigation that followed the disaster, NASA’s culture was implicated at nearly the same level as the piece of foam that tore a hole in the heat shield of the orbiter’s wing.
While NASA said they believed safety was the most important concern, everyone behaved as though meeting the flight schedule was really most important.
The experience at NASA is also what happens every day in large and small organizations.
The Problem
Leader’s view reality through a particular lens, often unaware of the very different ways team members may see the same issue or problem. If trends or habits occur frequently enough, we accept them as part of doing business. We may even adjust expectations to fit this new, often warped, view of the truth.
Leaders tend to underestimate the impact of their words and actions so subtle messages may soon become facts, often with terrible consequences.
The Solution
Confronting these tendencies, or better yet embracing the three human needs described earlier, can have an amazing effect on the workplace. Employees who know their opinions matter will begin to tell leaders things about the business that can improve morale, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profits.
Words like “they” and “I” will be replaced with “we”. Everyone, regardless of position, will believe they can challenge the status quo. Arrogance and blame will be replaced with humility and questioning one’s own contribution to the problem.
Long-term organizational health depends on leaders recognizing the power they have to nurture human needs by giving people a voice, including them as integral to the group, and acknowledging the gifts they offer.
Are you up for the challenge?
Photo Credit: istockphoto.com
