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Characteristics & behavior of Self-Actualized people

Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of need can not be completed without mentioning the characteristics & behaviours of Self-Actualized people. My last post was about the importance of self-actualization with regards to work situation and how marketers effectively use this theory of hierarchy of need to promote their products and offerings, while in this post I would highlight the 15 characteristics & behavioural aspects of self-actualized people.

Theoretically, every one of us is capable of self-actualization but most of us will not do. According to Abraham Maslow, only about 2 percent of people can reach the state of self-actualization. He studied 18 people he considered to be self-actualized to identify 15 characteristics of a self-actualized people. These are mentioned below: 

• They accept themselves and others as they are
• Spontaneous in thought and action
• Perceive reality and tolerate uncertainty
• Problem solver
•  Highly creative
•  Unusual sense of humor
•  Able to look at life objectively
•  Concerned for welfare of society
•  Appreciating life-experience
•  Resistance to enculturation
•  Establish deep satisfying interpersonal relationships with a few people
•  Peak experiences
•  Need for privacy
•  Democratic attitude
• Strong ethical values

Though, it is not necessary to display all the 15 characteristics to become self-actualized and not only self-actualized people will display them, yet people achieve self-actualization in their unique way and tend to share certain characteristics. Self-actualization is a matter of degree and merely involves achieving ones potential. At this point, it becomes imperative to know about the behavious leading to self-actualization which is highlighted below:

• ·  Living life like a child with full absorption and concentration
  ·    Trying off the beaten path
  ·    Banking on own feelings instead of voice of tradition
  ·    Being honest and avoid pretence
  ·    Take responsibility and ownership and work hard
  ·    Do not follow the horde

Despite many limitations of Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory, this is still very popular with advertisers and marketers all across the globe. I am not going to critically evaluate the drawbacks as my only purpose of highlighting this theory was to bring to fore the characteristics and behaviours that are shared and display by such people so that many of us can at least try to achieve what we want to achieve. 

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Need for Self Actualization – Maslow’s hierarchy theory of Needs

Have we ever realized why self actualization is so important for every individual, be it a professional or a house wife, a mid-level employee or retired elderly people? Every individual one time or other in his life span faces this situation. This is a situation of dejection, despondency, stagnancy and perhaps lack of esteem and self confidence. This happens only when we fail to see beyond our surroundings surrendering ourselves to the circumstances prevailing around. This is the time we need to delve more into ourselves and do a self realization.  This reminds me of Maslow’s hierarchy theory of needs which is a stepping-stone for motivating and inspiring individuals to attain and achieve what they aspire.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory states that people have a pyramid hierarchy of needs that they will satisfy from bottom to top. Stating from a mere subsistence to safety & security to belonging to social circle to self esteem to following your dream through self actualization.  Important to the hierarchy of needs theory is that the needs on the lower ladder have to be fulfilled in order to climb up the 5 level ladder. The levels are:

Ø  Biological & Physiological needs- air, food, shelter, drink, sleep, sex

Ø  Safety & Security needs- law & order, security (both financial & social), stability

Ø  Love & belonging needs- affection & love,  from work group, family, friends,

Ø  Esteem needs- achievement, mastery, prestige, self respect

Ø  Self actualization needs-realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment

According to Abraham Maslow, human motivation is based on people seeking fulfillment and change through personal growth and self actualized people are those who are fulfilled and doing all they are capable of. In self actualization, a person comes to find a meaning of life that is important to him.

Despite many drawbacks in Maslow’s theory, this still has a wide application in personal and work life. Many marketers and advertisers have used this motivation theory to promote their offerings and products with messages aimed at aspiring potential customers to achieve what they want to, While organizations/corporate follow this for retaining and grooming talented employees. In this post, I will restrict my discussion with regards to work life situations and marketing aspects.

The pyramid of needs is divided into two categories for work situations: deficiency needs (including physiological & safety needs) and growth needs (including belonging, self esteem and self actualization). Applying this theory to work situation, it implies that organizations have the responsibility to ensure that the deficiency needs are met first. This means, a safe work environment and an adequate wage. Secondly, it implies creating a work environment in which employees can develop their fullest potential and do whatever they aspire to be. Failure to do so would increase employee frustration which could result in poor performance, lower job satisfaction and increased attrition. There are many potential ways of satisfying employee needs. Some of these are easy and inexpensive to follow, while others are hard and costly. Also, the employees’ needs may vary. However, if organizations manage to implement at least some of them, they would be looked at as more considerate, supportive and interested in people’s welfare and this would be a milestone in setting up an example of CSR. Ultimately, every,  organization works with human and for human.  

Another wide application that Maslow’s theory of needs finds is with the marketers and advertisers. They have been using this effectively for evoking in their potential customers the feeling to achieve and do what they really want to do. One of the recent ads that remind me of using theory of needs is the one from Idea Internet Network. The ad shows a boy, aspiring to be an engineer denied admission by college and forced by his father to join their bakery business. The boy seemed dejected and

De-motivated but perhaps has not lost his desire to excel in life. Here comes one of the greatest ads from Idea. The boy found a new life in Idea Internet Network 3G, a new way to educated himself through Idea Internet. Ultimately he surpassed everyone expectations and criticism and successfully made a drone which he wanted to make. He proudly called himself the student of IIN (Idea Internet Network).This ad explicitly targeting those people who have a strong desire to excel in life despite all the odds by evoking in them the importance of self actualization.

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Target it to the right customers the right way-India Ka Tyohaar IPL 2015

Just 11 days after the Cricket World Cup came to a close, IPL 8, 2015 got going. That means more cricket for another 6 weeks. There were many speculations rife with the success of this edition of IPL as compared to the previous editions as people have been over dosed with cricket already in the form of recently concluded world cup in Australia and New Zealand.

However, the TV ratings and the Google search analytics have a different story to tell-the gist of which comes down to this- cricket is still being watched and searched like crazy. According to numbers released by TAM, the first five matches of the current IPL were sampled by 105 million unique viewers, which means a 9 percent increase compared to IPL 7 (2014). As for the TV ratings, the jump is a whopping 42 percent –up to 4.5 from 3.1. Overall 39 percent tuned to watched IPL 8.

The reason for the overwhelming success of this year IPL is the way it is marketed and advertised.  The key to success among many factors is the right targeting and with a right message. The right target-the whole of India-all demographics included and the right message-India Ka Tyohaar.

IPL theme song India Ka Tyohaar matches perfectly with the mood of country as cricket is no less than a festival here. The advertisement sees different communities; age groups, different fraternity etc get together and celebrate cricket as a line in the song goes “ Doriyan Chhod Ke, dekho dil jodh ke” . The video showcases how cricket binds India and lessens the generation gap in the process, with kids and elders enjoying the showpiece event.

So, in order to make a product stand out or to make it a brand , it should be targeted to the right customers and should backed by appropriate messages. IPL has many such marketing and advertisement campaigns in past that have managed to move, motivate and influenced people that have made IPL only a few brands from India known world over. Hope this  trends continue and we may see many more such campaigns in future.

Thank you all for reading this article. For many more such marketing related articles, please visit www.marketingexpertservices.com. Hope you have liked that. I would be coming soon with another article.