All people need to provide some means to pay their bills and maintain the lifestyle they have created. Therefore, most all of us must go to work.

The question is: do we work to live or live to work? What motivates us at work? It is interesting to note that money is not always the prime motivator, nor is fear.

Turn over is expensive for companies, as is change in management teams and company restructuring. Everyone deals with change differently. Change in life is inevitable, but how do companies manage that change?

Psychology plays a tremendous role in the business world. Human behavior is more complex than just seeking rewards or avoiding punishments. Human motivation has a deeper cause and a more profound purpose.

When a person desires to engage his or her talents and realize one’s true potential in life, this is called self-actualization. Once a person is self-actualized, he/she is in a position to follow his/her calling. A leader needs to lead, a manager needs to manage, an engineer needs to engineer and salesperson needs to sell. If these needs are not met, the person feels on edge and lacking something.

One of the challenges in the current business world (regardless of the industry) stems from the fact that management teams are often managing employees as though they are seeking rewards or avoiding punishments instead of accurately understanding what the needs are of each individual. Clearly, each person is an individual and is motivated by different incentives. However, most organizations do not allow a person to reach an individual’s highest potential.

Another challenge in many organizations is that management teams use the word "empowerment" too loosely. If an employee is empowered to do his or her job responsibilities, then that employee needs to be allowed to be creative and think out of the box and be allowed to make decisions. Many management teams do not take the time to evaluate individual behaviors, instead micromanaging the employee. This creates a parent-child relationship in the workplace. Most employees would be more productive if management teams managed as an adult to adult. Adults communicate to other adults; parents control children. When employees are treated as adults, this boosts moral and creates true empowerment.

We spend a lot of our time at work and it should be a positive experience. Some people have been living in a world that always told them what to do. This makes life easy for them. They never let themselves discover their weakness or failures, not to mention their strengths. One can learn from self-actualizing people what the ideal attitude toward work might be under the most favorable circumstances. These highly evolved individuals assimilate their work into their identity of self, where work actually becomes part of the self and part of the individual’s definition of self.

It is easier for each of us to be who we are instead of working towards being something we are not. This is true empowerment.

Christine M. West is the President and owner of The Business MD, LLC. She created the organization through the embracement of life, turning perceived failures into successes while rising to her destiny. The elementary ingredients that produced The Business MD encompass
Christine's professional background, blending together business, technology, sales, counseling, psychology and a splash of spirituality.