How to Keep Your Most Talented People

In 1943, social scientist Abraham Maslow outlined a pyramid that showed what he called the human beings hierarchy of needs ! "eople start with a desire for basic physiological needs# food, clothing, shelter $ thats the bottom of the pyramid %nce they&e achie&ed those, they see' safety, and then social interaction and lo&e, and then self(esteem )inally, at the top of the pyramid, is what Maslow called self actuali*ation! $ the need to fulfill ones self, and become all that one is capable of becoming In the early days of the study of management, )rederic' +inslow ,aylor wrote that what wor'ers most want is high wages $ which would help them fulfill their basic physiological needs -ut its fair to say today, most wor'ers $ and particularly your best wor'ers $ ha&e made their way to the top of Maslows pyramid Ma'ing a li&ing is no longer enough,! wrote management guru "eter .ruc'er +or' also has to ma'e a life ! If you want to 'eep good people, their wor' needs to pro&ide them with meaning $ a sense they are doing something important, that they are fulfilling their destiny At the end of the day, these psychological needs are li'ely to be as important, and perhaps more important, than the salary you pay ,o 'eep your best people, then, you need to ma'e sure they are personally committed to the goals of the organi*ation, and that they feel those goals are worth achie&ing And you need to ma'e certain they feel they are playing a suitably significant role in reaching those goals ,hats a comple/ management challenge, not easily summed up in a few simple rules or guidelines %ne good description of the comple/ social and psychological elements that go into creating a satisfying wor'place is in ,racy 0idders "ulit*er "ri*e(winning boo', ,he 1oul of a 2ew Machine ! Mr 0idder s'illfully records the human drama, and, ultimately, the magic that moti&ated a team of engineers at .ata 3eneral 4orp in the 1956s to de&elop a new generation of computer ,he .ata 3eneral team wor'ed with little formal encouragement from the companys top management -ut they came to belie&e in what they were doing At the end of his boo', Mr 0idder compares the people on the team to the stonemasons who built the great cathedrals# ,hey were building temples to 3od It was the sort of wor' that ga&e meaning to life ,hats what 7team leader ,om8 +est and his team of engineers were loo'ing for, I thin' ,hey themsel&es li'ed to say they didnt wor' on their machine for money In the aftermath, some of them felt that they were recei&ing neither the loot nor the recognition they had earned, and some said they were a little bitter on that score -ut when they tal'ed about the pro9ect itself, their enthusiasm returned It lit up their faces Many seemed to want to say that they had participated in something :uite out of the ordinary ! ,hat is the magic of managing talented people