Malow's theory

A professional coach of any kind can make use of many techniques to facilitate his work. A renowned American psychologist named Abraham Maslow, also known as the master of the Hierarchy of Needs, created a theory of the same name that is very useful for a coach.

In his theory, Maslow stipulated that all activities performed by human beings are rooted in an innate motivation to solve all their needs, which are organized hierarchically according to their importance, in a pyramid, also called Maslow. The psychologist believed that all human beings have the intrinsic capacity to become complete, fulfilled and successful, and that as the needs of the pyramid are solved we can all reach the top of it.

The needs

As a professional coach you can use the pyramid to better prioritize your needs and those of your clients. You should rank all the needs from most to least important. Then solve them progressively, following the order from the bottom of the pyramid to the top, without satisfying the needs of the upper sections until the lower ones are completed.

You must question the level at which your enterprise is in order to cover all the needs in an organized way.

Physiological needs

For all people at the base of the pyramid are the physiological needs, among which are the most basic ones such as hunger, thirst, shelter, etc.

In many places of extreme poverty, where, although people have great intellectual potential, it can be seen that there is low performance in schools. But by using Maslow's pyramid to delimit their hierarchy of needs, it could be seen that as they did not have their lower sections covered, they could not cover the higher sections. Actions were taken to cover these basic needs, and then the children began to perform much better.

It seems simple, but human beings are driven by meeting their needs. This section of the pyramid may not apply as much to a business coach. But just think that in many jobs a breakfast is implemented before starting work, to cover that need at the beginning of the day.

Security

There is another basic need that we also need to function properly, security. In this case this refers to security of all kinds, from not living in fear that you will be assaulted or that a bomb will fall on you, to job security, with a good working environment.

For example, in a company when there are staff cuts, this leaves a permanent feeling of insecurity, which if no action is taken to address it can significantly affect the performance of workers.

When employees live in constant fear that they could be fired at any time, they will not be committed to their work and their actions will represent this. In this case what you could do as a professional coach, is to call a meeting to explain to the workers the reasons for the layoffs and that there will be no more in the future, to give them back the security that they are not going to be on the street from one day to the next.

One of your main tasks as a business consultant is to convey this assurance to employees. And although you may not be able to provide them with all of it yourself, you can at least see to it that the communication is constant, so that at least that fear is diminished. You have to prevent fear at all costs.

Belonging and love

All human beings to feel complete also need to feel that they belong and are loved. As a professional coach, the need to be loved is not so much within your real possibilities, but the need to belong is.

To show you the importance of these needs I tell you about an experiment carried out during a study on alcoholism. In this they were trying to delineate in detail the main motivators that led people to become alcoholics.

To find this out what they did was to lock a group of monkeys in a cage where they all lived in harmony, where they felt they belonged and were loved. They then began to place small glasses of alcohol in the cage, but the monkeys drank them very rarely.

What they did next was to separate the monkeys into smaller groups to make them feel more isolated, and keep them that way for a while. Then they started to do the same thing, and put the small glasses with alcohol in them inside the cages. What happened then is that the subjects of the experiment began to drink the alcohol much more frequently, there was an increase in consumption of 80%.

Thanks to this experiment, it was concluded that one of the main motivators for drinking alcoholic beverages in excess is loneliness and isolation. To apply this theory to the business world, what you should do is to create a work environment that stimulates relationships among your employees. You can do this by having employees gather in one place at lunch or snack time. Or hold social activities where you encourage them to feel connected.

It has been more than demonstrated that people have a need for connection. To encourage this, you should, as a business coach, organize events that require people to connect with each other. You can also organize offices in an open way so that there are no walls between your employees.

Esteem

The need to be esteemed has several edges, one of them is self-esteem, which is nothing more than the valuation that each person gives to himself. As a professional coach you have many tools to raise other people's self-esteem. For this you can constantly motivate employees. Don't skimp on telling them that they are doing well, that they are good at what they do or that you couldn't have done it without them. Those little motivational words exponentially increase anyone's performance.

Let me give you an example so that you can understand in practice the power of esteem as a necessity. When you manage workers you must keep in constant communication with them, because if you do not communicate with them people can feel isolated, and as we already know, this feeling produces a significant decrease in performance. By not communicating properly, people will start to create their own stories.

Let's say you have a worker who is performing very well lately, and you are very pleased about this, but you choose not to say anything to him or her because you believe that this is how all employees should act.

This will cause the worker to begin to feel progressively more isolated, as he will think that his boss is not pleased with his work, even though he is doing it very well. This will also begin to take a toll on his own self-esteem, not just external esteem.

Self-realization

Self-actualization is the highest level of Maslow's pyramid, which is when the individual functions lo