Multiple Intelligences & Motivation and Productivity–Tapping the Full Potential of Your Business Team

Probably the most well-known mapping of what motivates us comes from the famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow. He called it the “Hierarchy of Needs”. The basis of Maslow's theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.

For example, if you are hungry and thirsty, you will tend to take care of the thirst first. After all, you can do without food for weeks, but you can only do without water for a couple of days! Thirst is a “stronger” need than hunger. Likewise, if you are very very thirsty, but someone has put a choke hold on you and you can’t breath, which is more important? The need to breathe, of course. On the other hand, sex is less powerful than any of these. You probably won’t die if you don’t get it!

Maslow took this idea and created his now famous hierarchy of needs. Beyond the details of air, water, food, and sex, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological needs, the needs for safety and security, the needs for love and belonging, the needs for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.

I have reworked the hierarchy a bit under five basic categories:
• Physical needs (which is Maslow’s physiological needs)

• Emotional needs (where I have included the need for safety and security)

• Relational needs (Maslow’s needs for love and belonging)

• Cognitive needs (including needs of esteem)

• Spiritual needs (Maslow’s needs for self-actualization)Understanding these basic human needs is at the core of any effective business coaching and deeply motivating your business partners to produce. In some ways, success in motivating people to succeed in your business this is like what's involved in coaching kids in sports:

1. You've got to insure they have fun;
2. You've got to help them develop the skills needed in the game;
3. You've got to focus on their individual growth, then show them how to be members of the team; and
4. You've got to do everything in your power to help them win.

However, equally important is a person’s “intelligence profile”. An intelligence profile reveals the Eight Kinds of Smart as they show up in a one’s personal and professional life It reveals intelligence areas which are more highly developed than others.

Once you have a picture of another person’s profile you at the same time have some very powerful information for dealing with and relating to them. You also can see areas which can be strengthened and empowered. It gives you powerful clues to help each team member “be all that they can be”.

When we have a sense of this, we at the same time have a sense of what it will take to motivate them, which, as I mentioned earlier results in greater productivity.
When you approach your business partners from the standpoint of The 8 Kinds of Smart, most of your problems with motivating them will vanish. This is because you are dealing with them in ways that are “in synch” with who they are at deep levels of their psyche.

Following are several examples of multiple intelligence strategies you can use to motivate people who have different intelligence profiles.

As you work with these strategies, remember that each person possesses all eight intelligences. So motivation strategies from just one area will likely not work by themselves. But chances are that when you’re working with someone whose dominate intelligence is ImageSmart, for example, you’ll be far more effective in your communication with them and in successfully motivating them if you use some of the ImageSmart motivators.

SoundSmart people are sensitive to all manner of sounds in the environment. They usually have a love of music and rhythmic patterns and might work better with music in the background.

Examples for motivating SoundSmart team members:
• Encourage suggestions on the musical-rhythmic aspects of your advertising.

• Ask for suggestions on how to manage unhelpful or distracting sounds.

• Watch how you say whatever you say in conversation – the sound of your speech may communicate more than the actual meaning of your words.

• Play music during meetings or performance reviews to help set or shift moods and to make transitionsWordSmart people generally have highly developed skills for reading, speaking, and writing. They are likely precise in expressing themselves and irritated with others are not.

Examples for motivating WordSmart team members:
• Offer free and open access for conversation with supervisors when needed.

• Give them articles to read and ask them to write executive summaries to share the information with others.

• Get them involved in writing sales copy for your products or services.

• Ask them to write press releases, industry-specific articles, or reports for publication.SelfSmart people are generally self-reflective and self-aware. They tend to be in tune with their inner feelings, values, and beliefs.

Examples for motivating SelfSmart employees:
• Frequently ask them to “go inside” and be aware of their feelings, intuitions, reflections, and thought processes.

• Give them independent work assignments.

• Provide them time to reflect before having to produce something or give an answer to a question.

• Talk with them about their personal goals and how they see them fitting in with the goals of the company.Once you have figured out what motivates your team or business partners, you at the same time have some very important clues for helping them be more productive. Use the multiple intelligence motivation strategies to create a plan for dealing with an team member based on his or her “intelligence profile”.

For example, plan your daily relating and mentoring / coaching strategies based on their more dominate intelligences; take their more developed intelligences into account when planning training and development; and remember these stronger intelligences when conducting any kind of planning or performance reviews.

The goal should be to tap perceived intelligence strengths "on-the-job" (whether one is working from home or from a traditional office), and come up with plans for enhancing those intelligences which “need some help”

You CAN tap the full potential of your business team!