Wow. Beyond the Numbers: Leading with Trust and Human Potential

Maslow validates the importance of people really working in things they like, things they have conviction about, and things that challenge them—not from a logistical understanding related to feelings of happiness, but from the journey to self-actualization. Purpose beyond self, yet transcended from understanding only self, is the driving factor for need fulfillment.

Assuming Courage, Not Creating Barriers

There is a fascinating conversation with the CEO of an early tech company who was implementing Maslow's ideas of encouraging people by simply assuming they would be courageous, strong, motivated, and creative naturally—and giving them the opportunity to be those things. Rather than having a company set them up for failure right away by assuming they would not have personal responsibility.

I've seen this play out in educational institutions with overly strict attendance policies, which in my perspective, shows they do not believe students have enough personal responsibility to attend the classes they are paying for and expected to help them with their careers. They fall into the trap of setting people up for failure by not assuming they are capable, empowered humans, trusting in them—and then creating a learning opportunity if they do not prove they are capable.

Maslow argues for, in metaphorical terms, innocent until proven guilty, rather than guilty trying to prove innocence.

Let us get understand the levels of needs before we try to understand some random data.

Respect Over Love

I love the point Maslow makes: a boss and employee should both be loved and respected, but if you had to choose one, it must be respect, not love.

Belonging as a Core Need, It Starts by Leading with Trust

The most profound statement I believe he makes in this piece is how the workplace and our community of teammates should be contributing to fulfilling our need of belonging. If it is not, it is either not the right place for you, the culture is not set up in a way to do so (poor leadership), or you individually are not trying to align your goals with the goals of the workplace with lack of guidance to do so.

I am a huge advocate for holistic leadership in that we are a body, mind, spirit human being, so we must be treated and treat others as such. From my experience in the workplace, we become hyper-focused on the skill to get the result, but that is simply a byproduct of a balanced body, mind, and spiritual self in alignment with individual goals attributed to higher goals.

The Power of Community

And in summary, Maslow is really saying treat others better than how you think you should be treated, because at the end of the day, all we have is our community helping us help ourselves. Maslow studied with Native Americans to understand synergy and he discovered the best synergy comes from generosity, personal responsibility, self-awareness, and a common understanding of the needs of the collective in connection to personal needs. All of these are helping develop a piece of trust, remember, it is about leading with trust that must also give back.

The Leadership Paradox

What fascinates me the most is we know this—leaders know this, we know how to implement it, we know how to chase the ideal and get close, each and every day through practice and continuous improvement, but we don't do it. Or if we do, we get shut down, stopped, fired. From my experience, the people with the most profound ability to create change in the workplace are not the ones making the decisions, and that is where the antagonism begins.

Greatest leaders of existence did not care about data, but of the human.

Beyond Measurement

I just wonder: if we put as much time, money, effort, and care into our people driving the results as we do trying to make the results happen, would we be more successful than we already are?

But they say, "Danielle, how can we measure that?"

You know, maybe we aren't meant to. Maybe human beings are not meant to be measured against some man-made idea of logic. Maybe, just maybe, human beings transcend that into something greater than what man's mind can even understand. That energy you cannot see, but you feel. That interconnectedness that exists. The peace that comes with surrender. I can bet you, if we tried to measure that, they would no longer have the impact they naturally do.

The need to measure something as if it makes it valid with numbers—what that really is is a self-esteem issue, meaning if it cannot be measured, it does not have importance or is not productive. It becomes a way we believe our measured productivity determines how much we matter, how loved we are, and how important we are. That is an ego, esteem complex thing, not a measure to see if we hit profits this year thing.

Trust Takes Time

You can't instantaneously get the metrics you think you need (that you really don't need), but as your turnover rates decrease, more people are hitting their quarterly goals, people show up more often, better, more enthusiastic, and there is an intuitive sense of synergy, of care—the numbers will reveal themselves in due time.

It is called trust, my dear friend, but there must be conviction that this will work for your team. Without belief, you have nothing.

And in your belief, may you continue to be courageous in your work as you ascend to your next highest potential. Learn more from Maslow himself in Maslow on Management.

Let's rise,

xx

Nani

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