PostLeadership & Culture · Mindset & Self-Leadership
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Maslow’s pyramid revisited and augmented: Self-Transcendence as leadership’s ultimate goal!
A comment on a post by Eric Partaker
Great leaders know this motivation secret:
Notice how some workplaces thrive, while others seem to drag their feet? What's the secret? Using Maslow's Hierarchy to understand your team's needs. Maslow's simple pyramid covers 5 levels of needs: 1/ Basic needs, like fair pay and work-life balance 2/ Safety needs, like job security and benefits 3/ Belonging needs,…
Read the original on LinkedInMaslow's pyramid revisited and augmented: Self-Transcendence as leadership's ultimate goal! I truly like this innovative visual from Eric Partaker for its strong visual appeal and the creative contextualization within leadership.
👉 There are 2 other intriguing aspects to add here:
1. Maslow never squeezed his ideas into that somewhat oversimplistic pyramid shape (allegedly it was Charles McDermid a consulting psychologist).
2. His work towards the end of his life suggested an additional 6th stage beyond self-actualization: Self-Transcendence!
💡Cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman's deeply thoughtful and inspiring book "Transcend" describes how he discovered this through Maslow's unpublished journals, lectures, and essays, where Maslow had begun to integrate self-actualization with self-transcendence and spirituality.
Kaufman underscores that Maslow never saw self-actualization as a selfish or purely individualistic pursuit but rather as a path that leads towards self-transcendence.
The transition from self-actualization to self-transcendence represents a shift from fulfilling personal potential to embracing values that extend beyond the self, including a deeper connection with others and the world.
❓ Now how does that relate to leadership?
While stage 5 “Self-Actualization” corresponds with “Inspirational Leadership” as we can see in the graphic, the augmented stage 6 “Self-Transcendence” would neatly correspond with Robert Greenleaf’s “Servant Leadership” or Whole Foods co-founder & former CEO John Mackey's “Conscious Leadership”.
The servant leader, whose primary goal is to serve others and who sees leadership itself as a secondary outcome of this service.
And the conscious leader that is deeply connected with a purpose beyond oneself, embodying values authentically, and having a high capacity for love and care. A holistic approach that integrates emotional, systemic, and spiritual intelligence.
Assuming that the pyramidal shape is correct in terms of the percentual distribution of people that have reached “Self-Actualization” (or even “Self-Transcendence”) it would probably suggest that visionary (or servant or conscious) leaders are comparatively rare to find.