Why has team motivation become a major managerial challenge?
“Before, I had to push the team. Today, I mostly try to understand why it no longer moves forward on its own.”
This sentence, heard from a manager recently supported, perfectly captures our times. Team motivation is no longer a peripheral HR topic; it has become a strategic issue.
According to a Gallup study (2023, State of the Global Workplace), 79% of French employees describe themselves as “disengaged” or “not engaged” at work — one of the lowest engagement levels in Europe. Why?
Remote work, constant transformation, technological acceleration, the search for meaning, and generational coexistence are rapidly reshaping professional reference points. Along with them, the way employees engage with their work is evolving.
Managers now face a paradoxical situation:
- skills are present,
- objectives are clear,
- tools are effective…
… yet employee engagement fluctuates.
Some employees are fully invested. Others do only what is required. And often, no one truly understands why.
The reality is simple: performance and motivation at work are now inseparable. Managing activity alone is no longer enough; managers must understand what truly drives individuals into action.
How does the Neurocognitive and Behavioral Approach (NBA) explain motivation at work?
What is the Neurocognitive and Behavioral Approach (NBA)?
The Neurocognitive and Behavioral Approach (NBA), formalized by Jacques Fradin, physician and founder of the Institute of Environmental Medicine (IME), provides particularly valuable insight into this question.
Drawing on cognitive neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and management science, NBA starts from a fundamental observation: we are not demotivated in the same way — because we are not motivated by the same things.
Some employees enjoy deep analysis, others thrive on rapid action; some are energized by relationships, others by structure or innovation.
NBA is based on a simple yet powerful idea: our professional behaviors are largely guided by unconscious cognitive mechanisms.
A very concrete example:
Within the same team, two employees receive an open-ended assignment:
- the first becomes immediately enthusiastic: freedom, exploration, creativity;
- the second feels stressed: lack of structure, unclear expectations.
The manager believes they motivated both. In reality, they responded to only one cognitive functioning style.
This is precisely where NBA-based management becomes powerful: understanding people before trying to motivate them.
How NBA explains motivation at work
NBA distinguishes between two types of motivation:
- circumstantial motivation (objectives, rewards, pressure),
- deep motivations, which generate sustainable energy.
Organizations often focus on the first, while the second explains true engagement.
Each employee has unique motivational drivers:
- understanding,
- security,
- cooperation,
- creativity,
- structuring,
- transmitting knowledge.
When these drivers are activated, motivation becomes almost natural. Conversely, a poorly adjusted environment quickly generates stress and disengagement.
As one manager explained:
“I thought he lacked motivation. In reality, he lacked space to think.”
Changing perception changes management.
Assessing team motivation with NBA
Evaluating motivation does not mean measuring satisfaction; it means understanding what fuels professional energy.
An NBA-based team motivation diagnosis identifies the motivational profiles present within a team.
During a reorganization, one company observed strong resistance to change. The diagnosis revealed two opposite realities:
- some employees lacked autonomy,
- others suffered from excessive uncertainty.
Same visible problem, different causes.
NBA tools help avoid a common mistake: addressing a collective symptom with a single response.
NBA identifies eight motivational profiles, each with its own engagement criteria:
- The Strategist — seeking harmony and coherence
- The Philosopher — searching for meaning and presence
- The Competitor — driven by self-challenge
- The Manager — needing practicality and efficiency
- The Participative — energized by relationships and cooperation
- The Supporter — motivated by usefulness and contribution
- The Animator — engaged by movement and change
- The Innovator — stimulated by conceptualization and exploration
Practical motivation levers
Motivation management often relies on small adjustments with significant impact.
Examples observed in the field:
- Giving experimentation space to exploratory profiles rather than multiplying approvals.
- Clearly structuring priorities to reassure those needing stability.
- Explaining the meaning of decisions before requesting execution.
- Assigning knowledge-transfer roles to employees who enjoy formalizing.
- Adapting feedback: emotional encouragement for some, analytical precision for others.
These motivational levers deeply transform workplace climate.
As one manager summarized after coaching:
“I don’t motivate my team more. I understand it better. And everything becomes simpler.”
Managerial situations addressed through NBA
Managing a disengaged employee
A previously proactive employee becomes withdrawn and less involved. The common reaction is to question commitment.
NBA perspective: the new role no longer activated their cognitive motivation drivers.
By adjusting responsibilities toward more strategic analysis, engagement quickly returned — without corrective conversations.
Re-mobilizing a team after change
After a merger, a team became fragmented. Some demanded more freedom, others more structure.
Instead of imposing a uniform compromise, management differentiated working approaches. The result: renewed cooperation and a clear reduction in tensions.
These cases show that motivation is rarely an individual problem; it is often an adjustment issue.
How to sustainably motivate a team through NBA
Implementing an NBA approach in organizations
Deploying an NBA approach does not mean transforming the entire organization overnight. Progress happens step by step:
- Raising awareness of motivational mechanisms.
- Training managers through NBA acculturation programs.
- Supporting complex situations via NBA coaching.
- Gradually embedding a shared managerial culture.
The most visible effect? A shift in perspective. Behaviors become understandable — and therefore actionable.
Toward sustainable team motivation
Perhaps the major evolution in management today lies in one idea: engagement can no longer be demanded without understanding what makes it possible.
NBA and team motivation enable a shift from intuitive management to lucid, precise, human-centered — and paradoxically more effective — management.
Because sustainable motivation cannot be decreed.
It must be built.
