McClelland’s Needs Theory From A Leadership Perspective

McClelland’s needs theory is a motivational model that tries to explain how certain acquired needs motivate people. The three needs McClelland proposes are: need for performance, need for power and need for connection. In this article, we take a closer look at these in a work context and from a leadership perspective.

In the early 1940s, Abraham Maslow created his own theory of needs. This theory identified people’s basic needs: physiological needs, needs for security, love / belonging, self-assertion and self-realization.

Two decades later, David McClelland published his book The Achieving Society. In that book, McClelland identified three motives he believed we all had: the need for achievement, power, and connection. In fact, people have different characteristics depending on their dominant motivation.

According to McClelland’s theory of needs, these motivations are acquired. This is the reason why the theory is sometimes also called the theory of the acquired needs.

Dominant motivation according to McClelland’s needs theory

McClelland says that regardless of gender, culture or age, we have three motivations and one of these motivations is dominant. This dominant motivation depends a lot on our life experiences.

The three acquired needs McClelland identified are:

• Need for achievement: People whose dominant motivation is the need for achievement are focused on setting and achieving challenging goals and they are good at taking calculated risks to achieve their goals. In addition, they constantly want feedback on their progress and achievements. They usually prefer to work alone.

• Need for belonging: People whose dominant motivation is the need for belonging always want to belong to a group. For them, it is more important to cooperate than to compete. In addition, they do not like risky challenges or uncertain situations. They usually agree with everything the rest of the group says or wants to do.
• Need for power: People with this dominant motivation want to take control and influence others. They like to win arguments, to compete and win and to be recognized and appreciated.

Use of McClelland’s needs theory

From a leadership perspective, McClelland’s needs theory can help identify key members’ main motives and thereby influence decision-making and feedback processes, as well as incentives and rewards. These motivations can also be used to assign work according to each team member’s characteristics, which can lead to improved productivity.

Need for performance

The need for achievement is when a person wants to excel with everything they do. It is the need that drives a person to work and to even fight for the result they want to achieve. People with this dominant need want to stand out and above all avoid:

• Low risk or situations with little reward.
• For difficult or high-risk situations.

Individuals with this dominant need generally have a strong desire to set difficult goals and achieve them. They prefer to work in an environment that is focused on achieving specific results and they always appreciate feedback on their work.

Those who are inspired by performance take calculated risks to achieve their goals and they tend to avoid both high-risk and low-risk situations. They often prefer to work alone. People who are strongly motivated by performance believe in a hierarchical structure, which mainly stems from performance in the workplace.

Even when it comes to feedback, people who are strongly motivated by this need appreciate balanced and fair evaluations. They want to know what they are doing right and wrong so that they can improve.

Need for belonging

The need for belonging is the need to have interpersonal and social relationships with other people or with a certain group of people. People who are motivated by this need always want to work in groups where they can create friendly and long-lasting relationships. In addition, they must feel loved by others. They like to work with others to compete with them and usually avoid uncertain situations or high risk situations.

People who are motivated by this need feel good when their own group makes them feel that they belong. They like to spend time socializing and maintaining relationships and they need to feel loved and accepted.

In addition, they tend to follow the social rules of the workplace and they do not usually try to change them for fear of rejection. They prefer to cooperate rather than compete. And they work better in places where they have to interact with other people, for example in customer service.

They love receiving personal and individual feedback. It is also very important for them that others emphasize and acknowledge them for how they have responded to the trust they have received. In addition, we must remember that these people often do not want to stand out. Thus, it is better to talk to them privately.

Need for power

The need for power is when a person feels the will to have control, have power over other people, and influence and change people’s decisions so that they correspond to their needs or desires. The need to improve their own self-esteem and reputation is something that drives them. They want people to accept and implement their views and ideas over other people’s. In addition, they tend to become strong leaders.

There are two types of power needs:

• Need for personal power.
• Need for institutional power.

If someone needs personal power, they want to control other people. If they need institutional power, they need leadership and coordination through a law to achieve a certain common goal.

What they have in common is that competition motivates them and they like to win arguments. Status and recognition are important to them, as is being the leader of the “winning team”. They have a lot of self-discipline and expect the same from their employees.

You need to give people who are motivated by this need direct feedback. In addition, they work better when the company they work for helps them achieve their professional ambitions.

Similar theories

Another theory similar to McClelland’s needs theory is Sirota’s three – factor theory, which also suggests three motivations: justice, achievement and camaraderie.

According to Sirota, everyone starts a new job with enthusiasm and with a motivation to do well. But over time, due to poor corporate policies or other bad conditions, workers lose motivation. As with McClelland’s theory, we can conclude that both of these theories emphasize that motivation is really important to workers.