Motive is the deepest layer of the Blindspotting Self-Awareness Model — the hidden “why” beneath your decisions, emotions, and leadership behavior. Because motives operate below conscious awareness, they are the hardest blindspot for leaders to see. When a dominant motive goes unrecognized, it quietly drives instinctive behavior, especially under stress. When leaders gain motive awareness, they don’t change who they are. They regain choice over how their behavior shows up.
Most leaders can recognize what they do. With feedback, many can see how they come across. With reflection, some can even understand their emotional patterns.
But motive is different.
Motive is the force underneath everything. The internal driver that shapes:
As Blindspotting explains:
“Motive refers to the drivers deepest in our soul — why, at the most fundamental level, we do what we do.”
Because motive sits at the innermost layer of the self-awareness sphere, it is:
That’s what makes motive such a powerful blindspot.
When leaders don’t understand their motives:
But when motive becomes visible, leaders regain something essential: choice.
In Blindspotting: How to See What’s Holding You Back as a Leader, Martin Dubin draws on the work of organizational psychologist David McClelland to explain three universal motives that consistently shape leadership behavior in business settings.
The drive to accomplish something difficult, innovate, or succeed for success’s sake.
When dominant and operating outside awareness, achievement can create excessive pressure, impatience, and a tendency to create pressure and impatience when others cannot keep pace.
The drive for connection, belonging, recognition, or approval.
When dominant and unchecked, affiliation can lead to conflict avoidance, people-pleasing, and difficulty making hard or unpopular decisions.
The drive for influence, autonomy, control, or freedom of action—often expressed through authority or money.
When dominant and unexamined, power can show up as control, resistance to limits, or strong reactions when autonomy feels threatened.
Every leader has all three motives—but we weight and prioritize them differently. Under stress, one motive often becomes dominant.
Blindspots form when a motive operates outside awareness or no longer fits the demands of the role.
In addition to these universal motives, leaders are often driven by personal motives, deep individual needs that shape behavior just as powerfully.
Blindspotting highlights personal motives such as:
These motives are not good or bad. They become blindspots when leaders don’t realize those motives are driving their reactions and decisions.
Motive blindspots rarely look like obvious problems.
They show up as patterns under pressure, especially when a strong internal drive begins to override awareness.
In Blindspotting, real leadership stories illustrate how this happens.
Thad was hired as CTO to move fast and bring order. His drive for efficiency had fueled his success for years.
But under pressure, that same motive began to dominate. Meetings felt rushed. Conversations became transactional. Resistance grew quietly. When progress slowed, his urgency escalated.
Thad’s blindspot wasn’t personality or intent—it was an unexamined need for efficiency. Through coaching, he learned to recognize when that motive was driving his behavior and to build small buffers that restored connection without sacrificing results.
→ Read the full story: Thad — When Efficiency Takes Over
Robert was a charismatic founder with extraordinary energy. Investors trusted him. Teams loved working for him. New ventures came easily.
Robert insisted that financial success mattered deeply to him—and he genuinely believed it did.
But his behavior told a different story.
Robert consistently invested his time and energy in innovation and team experience, not in financial discipline. He loved solving problems, building products, and working with talented people. Money mattered in theory—but not in practice.
When financial realities threatened his companies, Robert didn’t adjust. He doubled down on what truly motivated him: creating something new and exciting with people he enjoyed.
Robert’s blindspot wasn’t lack of intelligence or awareness. It was a misalignment between his stated priorities and his deepest motives. His true drivers—achievement and affiliation—overpowered his stated desire for financial success.
With awareness, Robert could see the pattern clearly. But unlike others in the book, he chose not to change it. He loved his life as it was.
Robert’s story illustrates a subtle but powerful motive blindspot: when leaders believe they are driven by one thing, but consistently behave in service of another.
→ Read the full story: Robert — When Motives and Outcomes Don’t Align
Both stories point to the same truth:
That’s the power of seeing the Motive Blindspot clearly.
You may have a motive blindspot if:
Blindspotting Coaching helps leaders:
As the book explains:
“With that awareness… we can be more in control of how our motives show up in our behavior.”
Awareness doesn’t eliminate motive. It restores agency.
Ask yourself:
Strong reactions are often signals — not problems.
Your deepest drivers shape your leadership — whether you recognize them or not.
Blindspotting helps leaders uncover motive blindspots and regain choice.
→ Explore Blindspotting Coaching for Leaders & Teams
Blindspotting →Identity →Behaviors →Traits → Intellect → Emotion → Motive →
