“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:
… 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.
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 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.
NBA distinguishes between two types of motivation:
Organizations often focus on the first, while the second explains true engagement.
Each employee has unique motivational drivers:
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.
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:
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:
Motivation management often relies on small adjustments with significant impact.
Examples observed in the field:
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.”
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.
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.
Deploying an NBA approach does not mean transforming the entire organization overnight. Progress happens step by step:
The most visible effect? A shift in perspective. Behaviors become understandable — and therefore actionable.
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.