Be conscious of your needs to increase contribution

Understanding our needs, and which ones we are trying to meet at any given moment, give us some clarity on our choices, and can help us to create new patterns that lead to more fulfillments.

Take the time to think about your needs. Start with the first 4 human needs, certainty, uncertainty, significance and connection.

1- Examine each of those needs and determine the ones that seem the most significant for you and the ones you are taking less care of. Ask yourself what you doing to satisfy those most important needs

Are you driven by certainty? Are you trying to avoid changes? Are you stressing when you are stock in a traffic jam? Are you trying to control every part of your life to satisfy the certainty need?

Are you driven by significance? Are you attached to your title, your sport car or mansion? Is your dress style unconventional? Are you identifying with your function? Are you usually selecting what others do not? Are you doing extreme sports to feel significant?

Are you driven by love and connections? Are you a member of many clubs and associations? Do you like to feel part of a community? Is it more important for you to know who will be on the team instead of what the purpose is?

What about your relation to the unknown? Do you like surprises? Are you avoiding routines? Do you always step in when a new challenge arise at work? Do you enjoy giving a speech in public?

2- Be conscious of the needs you are trying to fulfill when you make choices in your everyday life. Create an action plan to satisfy each of the six needs.

If you keep being conscious of those needs, you will discover the reasons for your choices, and little by little identify your personal patterns in your behavior. Once we better understand our personal drivers and how to satisfy them, we can improve our choices and our understanding of others.

3- Change the behaviour that do not serve you, and instead support you and others with empowering actions.

If you find your behaviour is not serving you, ask yourself how that behaviour is hurting you. Then identify the needs you are trying to fulfil behind the behaviour, and figure out the need you are not taking care of.

Usually non serving behaviours are only fulfilling one need at the expense of the others. When we become conscious of that fact, it is easier to change by selecting a more fulfilling alternative behaviour. Is the need for certainty preventing you from realizing your dreams? Be courageous, keep faith and step into the unknown with small manageable goals. Look to replace any dis-empowering ways of meeting your needs with things that empower you and others.

Examine what you do to fulfil the needs of others as it will likely make a difference. Create an action plan to fulfil your employees’ needs. Do the same for your customers, you might well be surprised on how much value it creates.