How to Motivate Your Team With Choice, Competence, and Community

Everybody cares about the people they lead. Fewer leaders turn that care into behavior.

Dr. Scott Geller has spent 56 years at Virginia Tech studying what moves people to act. His research points to a simple framework any leader can use to motivate your team without micromanaging: choice, competence, and community.

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How to Motivate Your Team Without Micromanaging

In “The 3 Cs That Motivate Your Team Without Micromanaging (with Dr. Scott Geller),” Dr. William Attaway talks with Dr. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech and founder of the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) Foundation. Dr. Geller describes his approach as humanistic behaviorism: start with behavior, and bring empathy to how you influence it. Building on the self-determination research of Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, he names three drivers of self-motivation. Choice means people believe they chose the work. Competence means they know they are getting better at something worthwhile. Community means they feel supported by people who care about them. Managers can control consequences. Leaders help people feel motivated from the inside.

Feedback That Builds Competence

Dr. Geller argues that feedback is where competence gets built, and that most of us were never taught to give it. Supportive feedback has to name the specific behavior you appreciated. “Good job” is not enough. Corrective feedback works best when you ask questions and let the other person explain what they would do differently. His favorite acronym puts it together: COACH. Care, observe, analyze, communicate, help. The communicate step is the one most organizations skip.

A Catalytic Insight from Dr. William Attaway

Dr. Geller’s crosswalk research stopped me. Fewer than ten percent of students waved thanks to drivers who stopped for them. A simple sign raised it to about 25 percent. Gratitude is a behavior, and behaviors can be prompted, practiced, and reinforced. That matches what we see at Appreciation at Work®. Most people who leave a job voluntarily say they did not feel appreciated. When you want to motivate your team, start small and specific. Notice what someone did well and tell them. Give them a real choice in how they do their work. Build the kind of community where people know someone has their back. I keep a wins journal for the same reason Dr. Geller asked his students for small wins before every class. What gets noticed gets repeated.

Timeline & Highlights

• 01:01 · From cognitive psychology to making a difference
• 02:10 · Humanistic behaviorism and the role of empathy
• 04:06 · Leaders motivate by promoting self-motivation
• 05:06 · The 3 Cs: choice, competence, and community
• 08:33 · Every person matters
• 09:13 · Actively caring for people
• 10:09 · Leading people and managing behavior
• 11:30 · Supportive and corrective feedback
• 14:11 · Lessons from 56 years at Virginia Tech
• 16:54 · The crosswalk gratitude study
• 18:48 · Appreciation in the workplace
• 20:16 · Behavior-based safety and the COACH acronym
• 25:33 · The hunger for connection
• 28:46 · Wins journals and small wins

Connect with Dr. Scott Geller

Learn more about the Actively Caring for People Foundation and its research-based principles at ac4p.org.