3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis

3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis

Anne M. Brafford and Richard M. Ryan | Harvard Business Review

As we flip our calendars to yet another month of our large-scale Covid-19 remote-work experiment, it’s no wonder that motivation, performance, and well-being are flagging for many. Months in, managers need new tools to reenergize their teams, to accurately identify and diagnose recurring struggles, and to empathetically help employees address their problems.

A large part of a leader’s responsibility is to provide structure, guidance, and regulation; yet many workplace studies point to the fact that the most important gauge for a healthy work environment isn’t a strong external framework, but whether individuals can foster internal motivation.

Using a well-established theory of motivation called self-determination theory, or SDT, we have identified three main psychological needs that leaders can meet to help their employees stay engaged, confident, and motivated.

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3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis, Anne M. Brafford and Richard M. Ryan, Harvard Business Review, 2020

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