People - Part I The 6 Basic Human Needs

People. People, People, People. You hear companies say it all the time. “Our people are the best.” Or another favorite is “Our people are the most important thing.” I even worked with an operations leader once who used to refer to our people as ‘people assets’. He was Detroit bred so he gets a pass from you touchy feely crowd. But unfortunately statements like these are more often buzz words without concrete meaning. I will be writing a series of blogs on people in the coming weeks and months because I believe now more than ever in corporate history there are opportunities for people to make a difference and for companies to differentiate with their people. And I fundamentally believe we can use the learnings from the dynamics of people management in the business world in our own personal interactions with people, be it family, friends or perfect strangers.

So where to start? The subject of people is as broad as the philosophical question ‘Why?’ Did you ever get that question as an essay in philosophy exams? I was fortunate to come across it twice in my academic days, once in high school and once in college. As my classmates scribbled away hundreds of words in response (this was pre-laptops in the class room sadly) I answered the question ‘Why?’ with ‘Because!’ the first time, and ‘Why Not?’ the second time. I won’t disclose my grade just yet but here is a hint - both teachers gave me the exact same grade. Now you might ask what does this little story within a story have to do with people? Okay, to bring this all back to the subject I have to tell you my grade to both those questions…I got 100% on both exams. As shocking as that may seem looking back, the point I’m making is simple, to the point and concise are almost always the best way forward. The same should be applied to people.

So how do you take one of the most complex, sophisticated and arguably intelligent animals in the universe and make them simple? I have always believed the answer lies in understanding what the fundamental needs of a human being are, and then catering to those needs. Its that simple.

I’m going to digress one more time by talking about me – I have a diverse background and my career is similarly broad. My experience can be described as a general manager with core skills in sales, business development (yes the two are different), operations and customer delivery. I am also a consultant in several areas of expertise. I am really good with customers and I am a very compelling salesman. But my biggest spike is people. That is what I do best. I assemble the right team of people and I make them perform at the highest levels. It has become a passion for me and to try and be as successful as I can with people I have studied the question ‘Why do we do the things that we do?’. I want to understand how does the brain work and why do humans act the way they do? (I’d like to pause here to call out one of my readers, lets call him Larry which is not his real name. Larry has become my ‘grumpy old man’ reader, like those two guys from the muppet show. He always writes me after my blogs to voice his opinion and I truly welcome and value them. I have asked him to post his comments but he is a bit shy I guess. Anyhow, Larry wrote me after my last blog to say I always talk about myself in my posts so I wanted to apologize to Larry up front for talking about my passion for people. Sorry Larry.)

So let me wrap up this first posting on people by saying this – to manage people successfully its not enough to set up a people culture in your organization and be positive all the time. In business there are times when we have to do hard things and say hard things. To get this right in the heat of battle its important that leaders and followers understand what makes people tick. I believe this means understanding the 6 basic human needs that the brain has. I’m not talking about sustenance or water, but rather the basic intellectual and emotional needs that each human being has, no matter how old, what nationality, what profession, where they live etc.

The 6 basic human needs are:

1)          the need for certainty;

2)          the need for uncertainty;

3)          the need to be significant;

4)          the need for love and connection;

5)          the need to contribute;

6)          the need to grow.

Think about these 6 and tell me if you think the list is incomplete. But I warn you, its not. We will dive deeper in understanding the 6 basic needs in my next People posting. Until then, be good to yourself wherever you are today…I’m boarding my plane to Newark. Cheers!