Self-Actualize
Self-actualizing employees are essential to Koch for us to succeed by creating value for others and creating virtuous cycles of mutual benefit. Self-actualizing employees are motivated to contribute, create, face reality, take on new challenges, cooperate, and help others succeed.
Abraham Maslow defined this as realizing one’s potential — what he described as “everything that one is capable of becoming.” It is a deeply personal and unique journey of discovering your aptitudes, developing skills, and using them in productive ways. Self-actualizing is not about reaching the peak of a mountain, but rather a series of peaks that you continue to climb that give your life meaning. It is creating your own virtuous cycles on a personal level.
Self-actualizing goes beyond your basic physical and communal needs. It requires deliberately and persistently striving to improve, developing your aptitudes in ways that are beneficial to others. As Maslow put it: “Every person is, in part, his own project and makes himself." We must constantly learn "about our own strengths and limits and extend them by overcoming difficulties." Maslow also warned that, "If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being. . .you’ll be deeply unhappy the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capacities, your own possibilities.”
This journey is all about experimenting to discover the work in which you can make the greatest contribution and have a passion for, while being a lifelong learner so you can continually transform yourself.
Helping each employee along this path is a critical responsibility of supervisors at every level. They must respect employees as unique individuals, continually evaluate and adjust their roles and responsibilities so they can best contribute, provide meaningful work that fits their talents and passions, and give ongoing coaching and feedback to promote learning, development, and growth.
In sum, our goal is for you to be all that you can be. That is not only the secret to success; it’s the secret to a life of meaning.