Coaching and Maslow’s Hierarchy
A useful way of evaluating how coaching can be empowering, is to consider how coaching outcomes align with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Abraham Maslow was a humanistic psychologist who focused on personal development and the realisation of one’s full potential. Many ideas in coaching, such as potential, strength, purpose and creativity have been strongly influenced by Maslow’s work.
Maslow felt that development occurred in successive stages, each related to the realisation of one’s needs. He famously described a hierarchy of needs, which is often presented as a 5-tiered pyramid. At the lower levels of the pyramid are basic needs, which encompass physiological and safety needs. In the middle level of the pyramid are psychological needs which include social and esteem needs. At the apex of the pyramid is the need for self-actualisation. Self-actualisation needs are about growth and the achievement of personal potential and fulfillment. Maslow later expanded this original five stage model to include cognitive and aesthetic needs. Originally the last stage in Maslow’s hierarchy, self-actualisation, moved from the fifth to the seventh spot. He then added transcendence needs as the last stage. This eighth stage is about transcending our personal needs by helping others on their journey towards self-actualisation.
So, how can coaching help meet these needs? When we support a coachee to set goals to improve their relationships at work, at home or towards building a cohesive social network, we can directly address their social (stage 3) needs. Inspiring a coachee to set goals that increases their self-esteem, sense of achievement or mastery, or their sense of empowerment, supports them to meet their esteem (stage 4) needs. Guiding a coachee in the discovery of new knowledge or making meaning about their experience satisfies their cognitive (stage 5) needs. Aesthetic (stage 6) needs may be fulfilled by helping a coachee achieve more balance and appreciation for beauty.
These all lead towards the seventh stage involving the realisation of one’s potential and becoming a fulfilled individual. Coachees who set more altruistic goals or engage in the mentoring of others may be entering the transcendent (stage 8) needs.