The purpose of this essay was to explore how the first-line managers in eldercare motivate their employees. In addition, we intend to study how the first-line managers acquire their leadership skills. To find answers to this purpose, we asked ourselves the questions; how acquires first line managers knowledge of how to motivate their employees? What is the first-line manager’s perception of motivation against their employees? The method we used was qualitative interviews with eight first-line managers in elderly care in Stockholm area. The results were analyzed by using two theories, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Hertzberg's two factor theories. The result of this study shows how motivation is described as an incentive, which requires an inner motivation from the employee itself, but also from the manager to work with methods that will motivate their employees. In matters of the acquired knowledge many executives considered that leadership was a maturation process, combined with experience from the field and education. Our conclusion is that a mindset regarding money or the result might mislead us away from the inner driving forces where autonomy and meaningfulness is the key to motivated employees.