Episode 41 : In Search of Self-Actualization

Welcome to another edition of “Around with Randall;” Your weekly podcast on making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett. 

I welcome you back to another edition of “Around with Randall”, today's conversation and topic are about employees, about hiring, about being the best you can be. I've noticed over the last several weeks that going into probably six weeks, that a number of my clients have indicated they're looking for a new gift officer. Then I started actually writing down or looking at the clients that I work with and it turns out that nearly 80% are looking for gift officers. Interestingly enough, they're asking questions about, well, do you know anybody? I've begun to answer them a little differently, instead of saying yes or no, I try to challenge and say, what are you looking for? 

Our industry in philanthropic work, in particular with gift officers, doesn't have a great trend in terms of tenure for those who are the solicitors, the fundraisers in our nonprofit organizations. The average tenure in healthcare philanthropy is about 19 months, according to AHP. AFP, the Association for Fundraising Professionals says across the entire industry, probably closer to 18 months. I see a lot of resumes. I find it amazing how many people are job hopping. In a previous podcast, we talked about the importance of salaries and about how we can be competitive. We've had a conversation about some of the ideas surrounding what we should be looking for, but what we haven't talked about is the details of what a great gift officer might want to demonstrate to make themselves more attractive, or what are some of the things that a Chief Development Officer or a Director of Major Gifts, or whoever's doing the hiring and decision-making should we be looking for. I'm going to bring this into the world of psychology.

During my early college days, I took a couple of Psych classes, not because I wanted to, but because they were required as some type of arts or social understanding or liberal arts requirement of the university, but I fell in love with it. I fell in love with Abraham Maslow and his idea of hierarchy of means. I've used that concept, his construct, in so many different ways and I'm finding more and more, we should be using it in the hiring process. So, I want to start with a conversation about this idea of hierarchy of needs, and then jump into how does this make this practical for you? 

The tactical pieces, whether you're hiring or you're looking for a job. Let's start at the top. Abraham Maslow, an American Psychiatrist who created what is known as the hierarchy of needs. We'll talk about those here in about 20 or 30 seconds. Maslow himself became a college professor at Brandeis University, and then eventually at Columbia University writing many books on the subject. He is considered one of the top Psychiatrists in the history of the United States. According to psychology, so worldwide, he is the 10th, most cited Psychiatrist in academic research. This is someone who is an incredible figure in the world of psychiatry. He created this concept, what he calls the hierarchy of needs.

The basic premise is that in a visual sense, it's a triangle. At the bottom of the triangle, there are five levels starting with base level. You can't go up the levels until you satisfy as a person and an individual that level to go up to the top. The basic bottom level is psychological needs, which includes air, water, shelter, sleep, clothing, and reproduction, basic tenants of just life.

The next level up is safety, personal safety, employment, resources, health, and property. Do I feel safe in my environment? Then it's about belonging and love, the idea of friendship, intimacy, family and sense of connection. Self-esteem is the fourth. The fifth is this concept where we're going to spend most of our time today is self-actualization -- the desire to be everything you can be to look in the mirror as I like to say, (this is the Randall terminology) and be okay with you and where you're going and who you are. Maslow posited that you can't have let's say love and belonging at a high level or an appropriate level, if you don't have basic air, water, shelter, because the mind, the body, life won't allow that. The concept is how do we get to self-actualization?

Maslow also commented that human beings, just part of our nature, is to try to elevate. If we think about the history of man, which I'm not an expert at, but cave men, for lack of a better, cave people, early human beings, were very much based on the first two -- air, water, safety, personal security, you know, resources, health. I mean, it's taken us millennia to get to where we're at today.

The idea of self-actualization is really important. What I'm realizing in gift officers is the ones that are the most successful, the ones that are the ones that stay the longest or tenure, the ones that organizations want to keep demonstrates so many qualities of self-actualization. On one side is experience and I'm becoming less and less concerned for gift officers regarding experience on a resume, because if someone has six jobs in 14 years, what kind of experience did they actually have? Yet, if we look at an HR office, human resources office, they might look at it and say, well, look at all that experience that they've developed. To me, skill set is more important. The idea of what it is they do to communicate, but even more important is this idea of self-actualization. Do they know who they are? Are they able to demonstrate the skills of a sense of adequacy that engenders trust, not only from the organization, but in the donors and the prospects they're working with? 

Listen to some of the concepts or characteristics that embody someone who's self-actualized. Then tell me if you think that those are the kinds of traits you want for your major gift officers. They can tolerate uncertainty. I think that's the hallmark of a major gift officer. There's the premise of two-thirds of the people we work with never make a gift. If we use kind of a basic broad brush, that means that there's a lot of uncertainty in those relationship opportunities. They accept themselves for who they are. They are problem centered, not self-centered. So, in relationship building, they're able to figure out what are the alternatives? They're able to look at life objectively -- metrics. What is it that we're doing? What is it we're trying to do? They're quite humorous. Meaning they know themselves and actually in some ways can laugh at themselves. They establish deep, satisfying interpersonal relationships, not a ton, but with people that are worthy of that time and that investment. Gift officers, the best principal gift officers don't have big portfolios. They peak when the experience is at its height. They have a need for reflection time, time alone, privacy to reflect, and they have strong, moral and ethical standards. If you could find all of your gift officers, all of our leaders who embodied those particular characteristics, those traits, wouldn't our world be a better place and isn't that the goal?

We spend so much time and we have search firms who help us. Sometimes we have HR offices that help us that are so concerned about experience. I don't want to be someone who says there shouldn't be any experience. I just challenge that we're not looking for the right experiences. I want to help organizations find self-actualized people as Maslow describes it because they'll represent your organization well. They'll represent you well. They'll represent themselves well. They'll deal with uncertainty. They'll be creative in finding solutions. They will peak in those moments when we need them. They're able to have a sense of humor and they build deep relationships.

One or two of you might be asking and then we'll get to the tactical about this idea of self-esteem versus self-actualization. What's the difference? So that fourth level was self-esteem the highest level of self-actualization. Well, the difference really is in the idea of how they view themselves self-esteem is a reflection of their own self-worth. Self-actualization is about fulfillment of talent and potential. Someone can look in the mirror and say, I'm good with who I am and that's wonderful self-esteem but if they're capable of being more in their community, more for themselves, more for their family, or for whatever it is they believe in, then they're not self-actualized. They have maximized their talents.

One of the traits that I think as I ponder some of the best fundraisers I've ever been around, is they're never satisfied with themselves. How do I get better? I'm not here to say I'm self-actualized. There’s I like to say and there's some truth to it, I make more mistakes every day than most people do in a month, but I love to learn. I love the opportunity to be a better person, a better professional, a better husband, a better father, a better son. There are so many gaps in those opportunities. I want to find a path to get to them, which brings us right to the tactical. 

We're going to kind of look at this in two ways. Number one is what is it you can do if you're looking for the job. Number two is the idea of if you're a leader, how do you find self-actualization? So, let's start with the concept of the individual. What are behaviors of self-actualized people? What is it that they really exude? What are they trying to do?

Well, if you're trying to be more self-actualized, there's a five-step process that Scott Jeffrey put out in a book called Self-Actualization Manifesto. It's an ebook. I think you can get it for free online. It's really a nice read, that was Scott Jeffrey, the Self-Actualization Manifesto. He says there's five steps to this process. The first is to get to know what your strengths are and early on in the podcast, we talked about different types of testing you can do to find out where your strengths and weaknesses are; but find out where those core strengths are and where those weaknesses are, that you can grow. Number two, how do you stay centered? How do you stay in the moment? How do you stay true to who you are? Third is craft a personal vision. Who is it that you want to be? What plans do you have for yourself in five years? Some of the greatest people of the 20th century and then if we can go back to the 19th century, if you read a lot of history, were dreamers. Who is it that I can be? Where can I take my company? They saw things that other people never even thought of. If you think about the John Rockefeller's and the idea of how we could change the world in terms of energy or Henry Ford, in terms of the way the world moves or Andrew Carnegie, the way in which we build the world. Today, Elon Musk, how do we get to space? How do we move in terms of not using fossil fuels? There's a personal vision or the company vision or something of a vision of what can be, instead of what was. 

Put together a personal development plan, where are the holes? How can you keep learning? It doesn't mean you have to go back to school. It may be reading or just identifying those holes and then learning about how you can be better at those areas where there's weakness. Finally, walk that path as Scott Jeffrey talks about towards the idea of self-mastery, how do you make yourself to be the best? So, get to know your core, strengths and weaknesses. Learn to stay in the moment. Learn to think about kind of a center of who you are and stay true to that. Number three craft a personal vision. Number four create a plan development. What am I going to do to be a better person, a better whatever? Thirdly, walk that path to self-mastery. 

If you're on the hiring side, there are some things you can do to ask some questions and look at behaviors, to see who is self-actualized. Some of the behaviors that a person who is self-actualized, just to tick off a few is they experience life like a child. They're into full absorption. As one author puts it, the idea of I'm going to just encompass this moment at its fullest. They're willing to try new things. It doesn't mean it's not hard. They're just open to it. They're listening to their own feelings. They're being honest with themselves and with others. They're prepared to be unpopular. Gosh, if we had more leaders like this -- prepared to be unpopular, even if the majority thinks a different direction or something different. They take responsibility and they work hard, and they try to identify the defenses of others and have courage to work through them with people and to give up their own defenses so they can be vulnerable. 

So, you could ask questions around this if you're looking for the right employee. Are they self-actualized? What is it in your development or professional career that you've overcome? How did you do it? How did it make you feel? What were the challenges? Tell us a time you felt most fulfilled. What is your greatest accomplishment? What are you most proud of? Tell me a time when you were aware of your own emotions and how that caused you to change what you did? Whom do you serve? Who loses when cheating occurs? What are you scared of professionally and how are you going to overcome that?

I do enough interviews. Sometimes clients ask me to interview some of their candidates, which I'm glad to do. My interviews aren't like most. Number one, I have very few questions about a resume. I figure if they wrote it. I can read it. We've covered that ground. I want to figure out number one, are they self-actualized and number two, at least half the time or more, I want to hear what questions they have for me.

If they don't have good questions, that means they haven't thought about it. They're not self-actualized. I'm asking questions about how they got to where they are and where they want to go. What will this job do to help them meet those opportunities that they view as their development, personally and professionally?

The more self-actualized people we have, the less turnover we're going to have. I would also venture if we hire the people with the right skills, the more resources we will develop for our non-profits to serve our community. If you're looking for someone, whether it's an assistant or a chief development officer, and you're on a board, think about self-actualization. If you're looking for a job, think about how you can describe how you want to continually be a better person and a better professional.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate those that listened to the podcasts. I have a great team that surrounds me. I don't ask for numbers of how many people are listening or watching, but I know that there's some activity and I've had some people reach out and say, thank you or say they enjoy the podcast.

I want to say thank you for listening. If you find this helpful in some way, shape or form, please share it with a friend. We try to make it tactical, so there's some practical pieces that you can use almost immediately. You can watch this on YouTube. You can download it on a podcast on whatever platform. Subscribe, leave a comment, leave a rating. If you want to contact me that's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com, or if you want to complain about something that I said or disagree, that's reeks@hallettphilanthropy.com. I also post blogs, 90-second reads at most, about current things going on in the world, mostly non-profit world or things that I'm seeing that maybe of interest to you. While you can find those on the website at hallettphilanthropy.com.

 This is tremendous profession. There are wonderful opportunities in our world to help others. That's why nonprofits and charities exist. We are trying to fill the holes of our community. You're trying to do good. You're trying to do things to help others, which brings me to my favorite saying. “Some people make things happen. Some people watch things happen. Then there are those who wondered what happened.” I hope you feel as if you're someone who's making something happen and you have the ability to look at yourself and look at self-actualization about how you can even be more for yourself, for those you love, and for your organization, because there's a lot of people out there wondering what happened, and they're looking to you and your organization to be people and a person who can make it happen for them. I don't know a better way to serve our humanity or to enjoy a professional life. I hope you feel the same. I appreciate your time today. We'll see you next time right here on “Around with Randall” and don't forget, make it a great day.