Sometimes the things that co-workers are doing just don’t make any sense.

It frustrates me to the point of anger to have someone on the team who has so much potential but just never seems to perform anywhere near their capabilities.

I am sometimes baffled and confused when another person who has been a top performer on our team for years suddenly starts spending more time complaining and whining, instead of working and creating.

And how is it that the one person who used to be the “steady-Eddie” on our team now hardly ever shows up on time, goes home early and squanders much of the day surfing online?

It’s exhausting and disheartening to know that these people aren’t doing what they are supposed to, and none of if it ever made sense to me — until I realized something:

Leadership isn’t logical. Leadership is emotional, because humans are emotional.

If the equipment is broken, you call in the tech guy to fix it. If there is a breakdown in the system, you get with the programmers and tell them what you want it to do and they make the changes. If the office is a mess, then you place things back where they go. If there are emails in your inbox, you answer them with detailed instructions about what needs to be done. If there are reports that need to be completed, you collect the appropriate data and fill out the forms.

When things are broken, you fix them.

But what do you do when people are off track? What do you do when they stop showing commitment? What do you do when they stop putting in the extra effort? What do you do when they stop believing in the mission?

When people are “broken,” you have to move them.

You can move them one of two ways. First, you can move them off your team. Sometimes that’s the right solution, but more often it’s not. An important realization is that when any team has turnover, it’s not because they have a people problem; it’s because they have a leadership problem.

As the leader, you have to realize that when things aren’t working, it’s not a them problem; it’s a me problem.

When people aren’t performing, it’s almost never logical. If people don’t know what to do, then it’s logical; but when people aren’t doing what they know they should be doing, it’s always emotional.

That’s why it is the leader’s job to move people emotionally.

The big disconnect
When people aren’t doing what they know they should be doing, there is always a disconnect in their mind between where they are now and seeing how it will get them to where they want to be later. It’s the leader’s job to demonstrate that connection.

When people are saying things that don’t make any sense, it’s because there is some emotion behind what they are saying that they aren’t speaking out loud. That emotion is almost always fear. It’s the leader’s job to dig out what that fear really is and help the person move past it.

As the leader, you are the one who is tasked with the responsibility of helping people transform their emotions of fear and uncertainty into confidence and commitment. You are the one who has to figure out how they are feeling right now and move them to the place of how they need to be feeling in order to be successful. You are the one who has to do the work of finding out what is really going on in their world that is making them feel one emotion and help re-inspire them to feel different emotions.

It’s the leader’s job to move people emotionally.

Moving people emotionally is not easy, it’s not logical and there isn’t a step-by-step guide for how to do it, but it is absolutely what must be figured out — and that is what makes you the leader.

Perhaps that is why Gen. Colin Powell once said, “Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”

Looks like I’ve got work to do.

Rory Vaden is co-founder of Southwestern Consulting, self-discipline strategist and speaker and New York Times best-selling author of “Take the Stairs.”