1-5RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP ANDHUMAN BEHAVIORLearning Objective: Recognize the five basic levelsof human need.Are leadership and human behavior related? The twoare definitely related. Actually, human behavior dictatesthe way you lead your people and also determines yoursuccess. Without an understanding of human behavior,you cannot be as successful as you could be as a leader.As a petty officer and a leader, study your personnel;try to get to know and understand them. People’s needsor desires dictate how they act at specific times. Forexample, suppose one morning you notice one of yourtechnicians seems depressed. You know that is not theSeaman’s normal behavior. As a leader you should callyour technician aside, show your concern, and try to helpsolve the problem, if there is one. However, do notassume total responsibility for the problem.Your concern for your people is important. If youkeep the lines of communication open between you andyour Sailors, you cannot help but succeed as a leader. ASailor with an unresolved problem will not work to fullpotential.Leadership and human behavior work hand in hand.To be a successful leader, you must understand yourpeople and work with them to resolve their problems.Each of us has needs, and we direct our energies to meetthese needs as we see fit. Helping your people resolvetheir problems will result in a unit that will operatesmoothly and be highly productive.HUMAN BEHAVIORHuman behavior is the result of attempts to satisfycertain needs. These needs may be simple to under-standand easy to identify, such as the need for food and water.They also may be complex, such as the need for respectand acceptance.Why do people act the way they do? Why do somepeople have an easy time while others have a hard timeadjusting to shipboard life? Why, with an upcomingextended deployment, do some crew members lookforward to visiting foreign ports, while others prefer tostay with the familiar homeport?Finding the answers to these questions is not easy. Infact, a whole branch of science and psychology has triedto answer such questions but has found no hard-and-fastanswers. In general, you could say people behave the waythey do for a reason. However, the reason may not beclear; in fact, it may not be logical or rational either toyou or to the person in question.By observing human behavior, you can gain theknowledge you need to better understand yourself andother people. You can learn why people act and react incertain ways. You can learn how to identify the varioustypes of behavior and needs of people. You also canlearn how to influence the behavior of people so that theycan see how meeting the needs of the command willsatisfy their own needs.Don’t take lightly human behavior and its appli-cation to the areas of leadership and supervision. Howwell you understand and apply the basic concepts coulddetermine, to a great extent, your success in the Navy.All successful petty officers must have an understandingof people’s behavior. If you understand the needs of yourpeople and help them to satisfy those needs, you willsucceed as a leader.We can reasonably determine an individual’s needsby understanding basic human needs. We all have fivebasic levels of need. Our needs are in order ofimportance, such as our need to relieve pain (survival) ismore important than a need to be liked by coworkers(social belonging). If we satisfy one level, then we workto satisfy the next level of need. This need satisfaction isan ongoing behavior that determines our everydayactions.Now look at the five groups, or levels, of needs andthe definition of each:1. SURVIVAL—The survival level consists of thebasics we need to sustain life itself; for example, oxygen,food, water, sleep, and relief from pain.2.SAFETY-SECURITY—The safety-securitylevel involves the need for protection from possiblethreats, such as violence, disease, or poverty. It alsoincludes the need for the security of an adequate job andmoney in the bank.
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