Sometimes you hear that as a leader, your job is to motivate people. I believe that’s the wrong way to look at the challenge. People are constantly motivated. We are in constant motion. These words, motivation and motion, are similar. We always have motivation to do something, whether it’s work hard or call in sick.

We do things all the time. For all different reasons. Sometimes we do work for money. Or the challenge. Or the recognition. Or the other employees. The people on your team are constantly doing things. It may feel like sometimes they do what you want, and sometimes they don’t. Your team always has a motivation, the question is whether you understand it.

In one of my first senior roles leading people - leading other leaders - I failed miserably at finding someone’s motivation. I managed a director of application development. When he quit, he said clearly “you can’t make me stay.” I had pushed him with directives to do things he didn’t want to do. I didn’t understand his motivation. He had enough one day, and he quit feeling that I didn’t understand him.

I’ve come to a place in my leadership where I work to understand a person’s motivation. I work to map my own goals onto the motivation that is within each person. There are times when the two don’t match. I find it’s no good to force someone to do something - over time it will only get you so far. And then that person will leave.

You can rely on a person when you understand the motivation behind their actions. You can inspire someone when their motivations mesh with your goals to achieve superior results.