You may have heard a leader asked, “What’s your WHY for leading?”
The premise behind the question is simple but profound: it matters deeply what is driving a person to lead. Over time, a leader’s motivation always reveals itself. The invitation is to anchor that WHY in something meaningful—often something that calls the leader toward a higher vision beyond themselves.
Most leaders are motivated by more than one thing. Healthy motivations often include self-interest (vocational alignment, career growth, providing for loved ones, or personal impact), organizational interest (positioning the organization for a strong future or solving meaningful challenges), and people-centered motivation (developing others, helping team members flourish, and seeing direct reports achieve their goals). Leadership motivation is rarely one-dimensional.
Problems arise when leadership becomes driven by self-interest alone, or dominated by it. Over time, this erodes trust and commitment. While followers often want their leader to succeed, that desire grows strongest when people know the leader is equally committed to the flourishing of the organization and the well-being of the team.
Unchecked self-interest repels commitment.
A grander vision cannot be faked—at least not for long.
In 1 Kings 3, we see a newly appointed leader stepping into expanded responsibility. In this pivotal moment, the focus is not on privilege, prestige, or power, but on clarity of heart and capacity to serve well.
King Solomon prays:
“Here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great that they are too numerous to count. Give me an understanding heart so that I may govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:8–9, NLT)
Self-interest, in some form, is present in every leader—and it can be a healthy part of a leader’s motivational structure. Self-interest alone isn’t enough. Solomon models viewing leadership as responsibility, leading to service. What’s the greater purpose of my leadership’s impact on others? Is our self-interest rooted in a higher calling?
The deeper question for leaders is this:
What is the higher WHY for your leadership—beyond yourself?
When you look at leadership through God’s eyes, what changes?
When leadership becomes transactional, people and resources are subtly reduced to tools—things to be exchanged: If you do this for me, I’ll do that for you. But leadership offers a higher calling.
There is an opportunity—today—to examine the deeper motivation that meets us at our core. A motivation that ignites our hearts and orients our leadership toward lasting, even eternal, impact in the lives of those we are privileged to serve.
Q:
What do you notice when you consider how your motivation to lead is shaping your leadership today?
What is different in your leadership when you access the higher, eternal motivation for your WHY?
