Employer Columnist
The Science of Peak Performance
It’s very simple really, we are driven to meet our needs and your people in your organization are driven to meet their needs. Here are six of them: -
- Certainty
- Uncertainty
- Significance
- Connection and love
- Grow
- To contribute beyond ourselves
We all have the same needs. We need a certain level of certainty, we need to know that there will be food on the table, we need to know that the roof on our heads will stay up and not come crashing down. However if we were certain about everything, if we knew what’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen and when it is going to happen, what happens? We become extraordinarily bored.
Hence we have the second need, uncertainly. We need variety, we need change, one of main reasons the British came to Asia was to get spices. The British were getting fed up of their boring tasteless steaks and needed peppers and chillies.
Our third human need is our need for significance, to feel unique and to feel important, to feel that our existence is not for vain and that we truly matter. My biggest personal nightmare is to find myself on my deathbed, looking back and to realize that I did not make a difference, that I was insignificant to the world around me, that I did not matter to my family, or friends, or to the work I do. This brings us to our need for connection and love…
There was a point in our history where we were almost completely wiped out as a species. There were only 1000 of us left in the world and we bounced back to become the dominant species. The biggest contributor is our ingrained need for connection and love. Connection and love and resulting empathy allowed us to look after one another and band together to ensure survival. We still have that programming and that’s why we have a need to be liked and that’s why we fall in love. Surviving and thriving as a species also rested on the fifth human need, which is our need to grow…
There are times when I feel down, or bored, or disengaged, or apathetic. When I question myself why and look deeper into myself, I realize that it is because I was not growing. I realize this happens when I am not meeting big minded people and having mind expanding conversations with them. I realize this happens when I haven’t picked up a book for more than a week. I realize this happens when I am not expanding my business. There is a saying that if we stop growing, we start dying. It is true even for plants, when a fruit s stops growing, it starts rotting. I think we want to grow because we have an ingrained need to contribute beyond ourselves, that there is so much that each and every one of us can give to the world.
Our sixth need is our need to contribute beyond ourselves. It is hard to imagine that on my deathbed, I will ask to see my bank account statement, or my car parked in the driveway or the new toy I just got from Low Yat. Instead I will want to look back and to absolutely know that the world is now a better place because I lived.
Now here is my question to you as a HR manager, are you meeting these 6 needs of your people within your organization? Are they given the opportunity to meet all 6 needs? The peak performance happens when your employees are allowed opportunities to chase after and meet all these 6 human needs.
Edmond is a qualified civil engineer who has been working in the engineering field for 5 years. Switching career in motivational speaking and training, he was the performance consultant at the Malaysian chapter of Dale Carnegie Training. His love of motivating and inspiring people prompted him to starting up Education Republic with a few others.
He can be reached at edmond@edurepublic.com
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