You’re Doing Maslow’s Hierarchy All Wrong

In recent years, I’ve been delving deep into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and I’ve come to an important conclusion: we’re doing it all wrong.

When we think of Maslow’s pyramid, we often see it as a rigid, step-by-step framework for human motivation. Basic physiological needs at the bottom, followed by safety, love and belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualization at the top. Many people assume that these needs must be met in this precise order before we can ever aspire to higher-level goals like self-actualization or personal growth. However, my research, rooted in examining leadership dynamics and Maslow’s actual work, reveals that this is not how human needs or motivation truly function in real life.

Firstly, Maslow himself never intended his hierarchy to be a strict linear progression. In fact, later in his career, he distanced himself from this common interpretation. Needs can overlap, fluctuate, and vary based on an individual’s situation and environment. People can pursue self-actualization and personal growth while still grappling with unmet needs in other categories, such as belonging or security (Kapisi et al., 2022; Bridgman et al., 2019).

This leads us to the crux of the problem: we treat self-actualization as something you achieve once you’ve “earned” it by climbing to the top of the pyramid. But in many cases, this pinnacle state doesn’t wait for us to perfectly align our basic needs before manifesting. Peak experiences — moments of deep fulfillment or joy, as Maslow later theorized — often arise when we are still navigating other needs (Maslow, 1998). By waiting for perfect conditions, we deny ourselves these transformative experiences.

From my study of toxic leadership and its impact on women in leadership, I see an even more pressing issue. Many women in leadership roles are trying to thrive in environments where their psychological safety and belonging are undermined by toxic leaders. Yet, despite these obstacles, many of these women still manage to find ways to self-actualize, grow, and achieve remarkable feats of leadership (Herbst & Roux, 2023; Özkan et al., 2022). This further challenges the traditional, rigid interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy and suggests that people can actively work on higher-order goals even when foundational needs are unstable.

Criticism from cross-cultural studies as to how Maslow’s work with the Blackfoot people, challenges the very structure of his hierarchy (Stone Brown, 2014). For the Blackfoot, the emphasis is not on individual self-actualization at the top of a pyramid but rather on collective well-being. This highlights another critical misinterpretation: Maslow’s hierarchy, especially in its Westernized form, doesn’t account for communal needs and the interdependency of personal growth and community health.

So, what should we take away from all of this? It’s time we stop thinking of Maslow’s hierarchy as a fixed ladder that we must climb. Instead, we need to see human needs and motivations as more fluid, interconnected, and dependent on context. We should acknowledge that self-actualization isn’t some distant reward at the top of the pyramid — it’s something we can experience along the way, within our community, and even amidst challenges and unfulfilled needs. I argue that Self-Actualization is not possible unless it is in relation to others and the world around you.

In leadership, workplaces, and even our personal lives, it’s time to rethink how we nurture both basic and higher-order needs simultaneously. Only then can we fully understand and unlock the potential of human growth and well-being.

References:

• Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Ballard, J. (2019). Who Built Maslow’s Pyramid? A History of the Creation of Management Studies’ Most Famous Symbol and Its Implications for Management Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 18(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2017.0351
• Herbst, T. H. H., & Roux, T. (2023). Toxic leadership: A slow poison killing women leaders in higher education in South Africa? Higher Education Policy, 36(1), 164–189. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-021-00250-0
• Özkan, A., Kartal, H., & Çamlıca, T. (2022). An analysis of the effect of nurse managers’ toxic leadership behaviours on nurses’ perceptions of professional values: A cross-sectional survey. Journal of Nursing Management, REFERENCES, 30(4).
• Maslow, A. H. (1998). Toward a psychology of being (3rd ed.).
• Stone-Brown, S. (2014). Native Self-actualization: Transformation beyond greed. BookPatch.
• T. Taneva. (2023). Revisions to Maslow’s Hierarchical Model of Basic Psychological Needs. Trakia Journal of Sciences, 21(Suppl.1), 222–230. https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2023.s.01.038