[August 6, 2026] A great leader I knew, many years ago, told me that it is not a leader’s job to motivate people. At the time I thought that he was crazy. His comment ran counter to everything I’d been taught in the military. And more than just being taught, we were being evaluated on how motivated our troops were.
The idea that leadership, or the study of leadership, is worthy of our close attention is the reason I began this website thirteen years ago. I’ve not been disappointed in those who are part of what I tried to do; their comments follow me to this day. And, I thank them for forcing me to clarify better what a leader does.
A leader is someone who must know where he is going. And a leader cannot lead unless he has a destination in mind, and that destination implies there is an ethic (an orienting principle) as the spirit that shapes how one decides, acts, and influences others.
That leader needs to also be able to clearly communicate that, and best to communicate it within a coherent story. The story is how people remember and become part of the direction the leader is headed.
If a leader wants to motivate people, that is not the way to think about what a good leader does. A leader shouldn’t want to motivate people, that’s manager idiot-speak. What a leader does is figure out something that is truly worth doing; so much that you would want to commit a large portion of your life to it.
The reasons for pursuing a goal must be paramount. As well, being able to clearly communicate that to others where you’re going is worth it, and in such a manner that it also appeals to other people’s sense of purpose.
It is crucial that the leader be able to communicate where he is going and its purpose is imminently justified, and more justified than anything else that we could be doing at the same time. The leader must say what’s in it for him, and also what’s in it for you, and here’s why the two of us have the goal of getting there.
The psychology behind this idea of leadership is very interesting. Many have made the claim that the system everyone voluntarily participates in is more sustainable and productive than one that people have to be forced to participate in. This is child psychologist Jean Piaget’s brilliant idea.
This is the difference between the utility of freedom versus the utility of tyranny, according to Piaget. We could say that the strong-arm leader wins out, “Do this, or else.” Certainly, that’s a way of organizing a society, business, or any group, but the enforcement costs are so high that the freedom method will outcompete the authoritarian one across time.
If you want to set up an organization, it certainly can be set up along authoritarian lines. But, you’re basically compelling people to perform with punishment and fear. It is better that people are motivated positively and the way you do that is to communicate the goal; here’s your role, here’s what this will do to add to your life, and add to your life in practical terms.
If that leader is competent, and possesses a certain amount of conscientiousness, then people will participate voluntarily. There is no need, then, to overlord them. That is the optimal circumstances under which to engage with other people.
“A leader is someone who can get people to do things they would not ordinarily do. A good leader is someone who can do this because they want to do it.” – my definition of leadership
The leader says, “Hey, we’re all in the same boat. We’re going somewhere interesting. Everyone’s got a role to play. We’re all in this together, and it’s working out for each of us well.”
And, here is another interesting angle that can get people more interested. One way is to tell people to go home and spend a few hours formulating a career plan about how they’re going to contribute to their organization. Another way is to tell people to go home and formulate a plan for their life that includes their job at this organization as a subset.
If you compare the results of this at the end of a period of time to see who’s more successful, like a year, you will see that it is those who formulated a plan for their life is the best technique. This is why Piaget’s idea is so brilliant.
Any leader who is worth their salt wants to have his people to do something worthwhile with their life that they are engaged in. Why? Because if they can’t do that for their life, then they certainly would not be able to for the leader.
The leader also wants to see how their work serves their higher-order purpose. If it doesn’t, then they are in the wrong place. If their job is running at cross-purposes with their life, then how can they be motivated? They can’t.
At least, they’re going to be stymied constantly by the internal contradiction. The leader is trying to get everyone pointed in the same direction. The group itself has a point, and everyone in that group also has a point, at least as long as their integrated points support the overall narrative.
That’s the purpose of leadership. To do so is very difficult , especially at multiple levels of effort, but that is how to build a stellar effort.
We also see that in organizations, the senior leadership builds a mission statement, sort of as a fashionable effort, and frequently that doesn’t work out well. The reason is that most of it is hand waving. And that sort of performance can make those with you very cynical if it’s handwaving.
It need not be overlooked that in larger, complex organizations those in the upper echelons need to know their purpose and maximizing success in the short-term is usually not a good strategy. And it’s also often a catastrophic medium to long-term strategy. Words bandied about like “vision” and “leadership” only make sense if you drill down into them.
This begins with orienting yourself in your life. If you plan on being effective at work, then you should first of all, be effective in your life. And even more importantly, if you have an idea of the direction of your life, and your job is serving that purpose, then instantly your job becomes motivating.
To be able to see how your work connects to the organization’s goal, and that those goals are really worthwhile, are what gets people motivated when they’re undertaking an act that’s associated with the goal that they desire.
There isn’t any motivation without movement toward a desired goal. The ideas of “vision” and “leadership,” all should be philosophical and metaphysical concepts that are only vaguely related to the practicalities of performance. That’s wrong.
They’re concrete, vital, and definable, and if you ignore them, you do so at your peril, both personally and socially.
————
Please read my books:
Dr. Jean Piaget, smart man. His study of children, and the lessons we can learn from those studies are still coming out. This is what happens when you let the studies do the talking and having interpreted them without ideology coloring your conclusions. Too much of the crazy political progressive crap influencing what we know today, and that was driven much by the perforative rhetoric from ex-Pres Obama (what a total clown that duped so many people and still does). Just look at his “library” and the dumb things he says today. Loved this article because it gave me a new perspective on what leadership can be, and the core idea that our job is to convince others the purpose of what they are doing in our company, so that their internal motivation drives them to do good. External motivation only works so far and is easy, but limited. Encouraging internal motivation works great, but is hard, and nearly unlimited. Thank you, Gen. Satterfield. Please continue these kinds of ideas about such an important topic.
Sir, you have a thumbnail showing GEN Ray Odierno, a truly great leader but sadly passed away a few years ago at a fairly young age. We lost a good one with his passing.
“Army general who commanded in Iraq dies of cancer at age 67”
https://apnews.com/article/joint-chiefs-of-staff-raymond-t-odierno-middle-east-iraq-army-7dc54d83e3a72a33643d9cf8655c8d38
I understand that Gen. Satterfield knew him. Indeed, we lost a good one with him passing away so early in his life. He is the kind of man you want involved with helping America become a better place with each good action. And yet too many Leftists — who are anti-American these days — would protest him even showing up to talk about the ideas on how to improve leadership. Good man. Great patriot.