Physiological needs- Need to have food, water, warmth, shelter and other things necessary for survival. Your team members will not feel anything, if these needs are met but can cause them discomfort, sickness and pain if these needs are not full filled. So as an event manager it is your job to make sure that all the physiological needs of your team are met from time to time. Just imagine how a team member who hasn’t eaten anything all day will perform his duty in the evening and you will get my point.

Safety needs- It includes need to be safe from physical and psychological harm. It also includes job security and financial security. As an event manger you have to ensure safety of your team especially women. A person can’t give his best in an unsafe environment. To protect your team from psychological harm, make sure there are no internal conflicts (like ego clashes, altercations, conflict of interest etc) among team members. If there are conflicts, then resolve them judiciously. Providing job security to your team is also very important. At no point any team member should feel that his job is under threat either by your actions or by someone else actions. Take care of your team beyond the work place. If any team member is facing a financial problem, then help him as much as you can.

Social needs- It is the need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance. Need to love and be loved by friends, intimate partner, family and social groups like your team. To fulfill this need, there must be cordial relationship between you and the team and among the team members. A team member will not perform his best if he has considerable family problems. Try whatever you can to reduce his family problems. If you can’t do much at least accept his problems and empathize with him. Try to reduce his stress by giving him a day off or engaging him in the sport he likes the most. Ask you team members to be as supportive to him as possible. All this will help. People who have strong social needs should not be placed in a job where they have minimum interaction with people. They are the best for marketing or PR type jobs.

 

Esteem needs- It is the need to get respect, recognition, fame and status. Some people have stronger esteem needs than the other. You will have to identify those team members who have strong esteem needs and then find ways to fulfill those needs. For e.g. if a person is working very hard to get recognition among the team members and you are not giving him the recognition he deserves (by openly praising him or giving him promotion) then sooner or later his motivation level will go down and he will not give optimum results or worst will not perform and quit.

Cognitive needs- It is the need to understand, learn, discover and explore. People who have strong cognitive needs should not be placed in a job which is monotonous and which doesn’t offer any possibility of intellectual growth. Frankly speaking, people with strong cognitive needs are not suitable for event management jobs.

 

Self Actualization need- It is the need to be the best. It is the need to become everything, one is capable of becoming. Very few people have such type of need. If you have some one in you team with this need, then you have both advantage and disadvantage. The advantage is that you can always expect optimum results from him. The disadvantage is that he will tirelessly seek for the position of leadership and if he didn’t get it, then he will leave you soon and may even become your competitor.

Understand Event Team formation

As an event manager you must know how a team is formed and you must share this knowledge to all your team members. This will help you and your team to understand how a team grows, tackle problems, face up challenges and deliver results. Every team goes through four phases: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

Forming- This is the first stage of team development. At this stage team members get to know each other and work quite independently.

Storming- This is the second stage of team development. At this stage some team members try to show there superiority over others. This results in ego clashes, internal conflicts, altercations and sometimes even physical fight. If there are considerable number of mature people in the team, then the team can move out of this phase otherwise the team will break.

Norming- By this stage team members know each other plus and minus points and adjust themselves accordingly. During this phase team members begin to trust each other and truly start working in a team.

Performing- By this stage team members know each other very well and produce synergy in team work i.e. they give better results when they work as a team than when they work individually.

It is important to remember that, even high performing teams go through these stages several times whenever there is change in circumstances. For e.g. a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms of the team.

Event Manager Leadership Qualities

As an event manager you must have following leadership qualities:

1) Highly positive, full of energy, passionate
2) Seek solutions rather than complain or finger point.
3) Ability to adapt to dynamic situations
4) Ability to listen and resolve issues quickly
5) Ability to motivate
6) Ability to focus
7) Ability to take on responsibilities and work under pressure.
8) Ability to take initiative
9) Commitment to excellence
10) Ability to get the work done in the most efficient and timely manner.

(Further Reading: Leadership qualities - Ten ways to identify a leader)