It’s Not Your Job to Motivate People
I work directly with many founders, owners, CEO’s, Presidents, and their leadership teams. It is an absolute privilege. Nothing frustrates them more than people who lack drive and motivation.
Trying to motivate someone is like pushing a car with a dead engine. You might get it to move a little, but it’s exhausting, and the moment you stop, it goes nowhere.
The best people don’t need external motivation. They already want to do the thing. When you work with them, it feels like driving a car with a powerful engine. Your job isn’t to push; it’s to steer.
If you spend time motivating people, you’ll never get very far. That’s because motivation isn’t something you can create in others. It’s an internal thing.
You can create conditions that might ignite it—by setting clear goals or offering meaningful challenges. This is called leveraging their motivation. But you can’t light the fire yourself.
The mistake is thinking that leadership is about motivating people. It’s not. Leadership is about finding people who are already motivated and helping them plug into the environment they need to thrive.
This might sound harsh, but it should be freeing. You don’t have to spend your energy dragging people forward. Instead, focus on working with those already moving in the same direction.
Lesson Learned: Motivation isn’t your job. Finding the right people is.