Spring 2025: The Three Basic Psychological Needs and Positive Leadership Strategies
In previous blog posts we have explored emotional abusive coaching (see: Tough Coaching or Abuse and Educating Coaches on Abusive Coaching Practices) as well as the importance of creating psychological safe team environments (see: Establishing Psychological Safety). This blog post, with a theoretical foundation in self-determination theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan, 1984; Ryan and Deci, 2000), will identify some specific positive leadership (i.e., coaching) strategies that are in direct contrast to emotionally abusive environments.
SDT is a psychological theory that explores how individuals become and sustain motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1984; Ryan and Deci, 2000). Specifically, motivation exists on a scale. At one end, there is no motivation (called amotivation). In the middle, there is extrinsic motivation, where people are driven by rewards or avoiding punishment. At the other end is intrinsic motivation, where people do something because they enjoy it or find it interesting. Deci and Ryan (2012) also define two types of motivation: autonomous and controlled. Autonomous motivation happens when people are driven by their own values, enjoyment, or by outside reasons that feel meaningful to them. Controlled motivation happens when people do something only to get a reward or avoid punishment. Ultimately, coaches should cultivate a team environment that builds and sustains autonomous motivation.
Studies show that when people are more intrinsically or autonomously motivated, they tend to do better and feel better overall (e.g., Ryan and Deci, 2017). But to build this kind of motivation, the environment must cultivate three basic psychological needs: (a) competence — the feeling of being good at something and improving, (b) autonomy — the feeling of having control over your actions, and (c) relatedness/belongingness — the feeling of being connected to others. When these needs are met, people are more likely to sustain motivation and improve.
In elite performance environments, there are simple ways to create an environment that cultivates these three basic psychological needs; the following examples will be given in the context of coaching.
To create feelings of competence in a team, team and individual goals should be process-oriented and within one’s control (e.g., take an additional 100 shots after every practice) rather than outcome-oriented (i.e., win the championship). If an athlete’s sole goal is to win, then there will be many times that they will fail at this goal and thus not feel competent, compared to if a goal is to improve a skill, then they can realistically achieve this goal each game or practice which ultimately helps them win. Another way to ensure an environment of competence is to create practices where drills are not easy, but they are also not overly difficult, so that athletes feel a sense of achievement and competence. If practices are too easy and the athlete always succeeds, they will fail to build confidence in their ability to overcome challenges. However, if an athlete is constantly failing in practice because the demands are too steep, an athlete may become demoralized and give up before trying.
To build a sense of autonomy in a team, the leader does not need to give over all decision-making power, but does need to give individuals control of their actions and allow them to face consequences accordingly. Within sport contexts, there is evidence that allowing the team to choose their warmup music or getting to pick one drill to run each practice can create a greater sense of autonomy and improve performance. Coaches can find small ways to instill a sense of autonomy within the scope of their guidance by allowing for choices within guard rails. For example, give athletes the choice of what to work on in practice from two different options, etc. Further, establishing a sense of autonomy may increase an athlete's sense of ownership over outcomes - therefore, cultivating more critical thinking rather than blindly following which creates more “coaches on the court/field, etc.”.
Finally, there are small ways to enhance a sense of relatedness or belongingness. For example, hosting team dinners, participating in fun team building activities, and even having matching shirts can increase feelings of belongingness. However, many times there may be a misconception that belongingness is only established in “extra” tasks as mentioned previously (e.g., team dinners, etc.). However, belongingness is best established in everyday interactions (e.g., language that is “we” centered, high touch points throughout practice/games through high fives, fist bumps, etc. particularly reinforcing process/effort centered achievements even when athlete’s ultimately fail to achieve the desired outcome, etc.) within the scope of the team environment and then supplemented with additional out of practice activities.
Overall, if a leader focuses on cultivating competence, autonomy, and belonging in team environments, individuals will be more intrinsically motivated and improve their overall performance.
References
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Plenum.
Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. (2012). Self-determination theory. In Van Lange, P. A. M., Kruglanski, A. W., and Higgins, E. T. (eds.) Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, Vol. 1, pp. 416–437. SAGE
Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68.
