What Really Drives Leaders?

Discover why drive -- not just grit or charisma -- is a key ingredient of leadership success. This Five-part series unpacks how leaders can harness drive for lasting IMPACT.

Why do some people push through resistance, take initiative when no one’s watching, and follow through when others stall out? The answer isn’t charisma or grit alone -- it’s drive, and it can be  an underappreciated trait in your leadership pipeline.

Drive is the internal engine that powers sustained action. Unlike fleeting motivation, drive is a predictable, measurable personality trait -- and one of the strongest predictors of leadership emergence (the process by which individuals are recognized by others as leaders, even before they hold a formal role) and long-term leadership success. Self-aware leaders can cultivate drive within themselves and also learn how to recognize it in others.

This post is the first in a five-part series on drive, where we’ll unpack what it is, why it matters, and how leaders can leverage it for performance without tipping into burnout for themselves and their teams.

What Is Drive?

Drive integrates three key elements: motivational energy, persistence, and volitional control -- one’s intentional self-direction and ability to align resources toward goals. Put simply, drive reflects an internal motivational capacity, which differs across people and is separate from what specifically motivates them. Here, we’re talking about how much someone can be motivated and how this shows up in organizational life.

Research shows drive spans across behavior, emotion, and cognition:

  • Behaviorally, highly driven leaders appear industrious, persistent, and achievement-oriented.

  • Emotionally, they bring optimism, enthusiasm, and confidence to their work.

  • Cognitively, they generate ideas, take courageous stands, and bring insight to complex problems.

Drive vs. Grit vs. Need for Achievement

Drive is related to -- but distinct from -- other concepts you may have heard of:

  • Grit is about perseverance and self-discipline. Leaders with grit stick to their goals, but grit doesn’t fully capture the energy and intentionality of drive.

  • Need for Achievement is outcome-focused -- the desire to set high standards and accomplish excellence. Drive is the fuel directed toward those outcomes.

Since the 1930s, psychologists like Gordon Allport have noted that striving itself can become embedded in personality. Over time, the act of being motivated evolves into self-sustaining habits. This makes drive not just a passing force, but a consistent, long-term predictor of behavior.

Why Drive Matters for Leaders

Understanding drive is a competitive advantage for anyone in a leadership role -- or aspiring to one. It helps you:

  • Spot future leaders whose drive may be hidden beneath the surface, beyond charisma, resumes, or LinkedIn activity.

  • Gauge your own limits, catching early signs of stagnation or burnout.

  • Balance team dynamics, preventing mismatches when a leader’s high drive outpaces a team’s energy.

  • Build culture intentionally, keeping persistence focused on the right priorities and mitigating a sense of overload and chaos.

Without this awareness, leaders risk burning out themselves -- or burning out their teams.

The Infrastructure of Ambition

Drive isn’t just a quirk of personality. It’s the psychological infrastructure of ambition -- an internal engine that sustains activity and performance over time.

This post is just the beginning. In the coming posts in this series on drive, we’ll explore its evolutionary roots, how it fuels positive impact when well directed, and the risks of what happens when it overheats. Stay tuned so you can learn more about what really powers ambition in yourself and in those you lead.

Key References:

1.     Li, N., Liang, J., & Crant, J. M. (2010). The role of proactive personality in job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior: A relational perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(2), 395–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018079 studocu.com+14scirp.org+14proquest.com+14

2.     Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 765–780.

3.     Siegling, A. B., & Petrides, K. V. (2016). Drive: Theory and construct validation. PLOS ONE, 11(6), e0157295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157295

4.     Deeper Signals. (n.d.). The Core Drivers Diagnostic. Deeper Signals. Retrieved August 27, 2025, from https://www.deepersignals.com/documents/the-core-drivers-diagnostic

5.     McClelland, D. C., Atkinson, J. W., Clark, R. A., & Lowell, E. L. (1953). The achievement motive. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

6. Allport, G. W. (1937). The functional autonomy of motives. American Journal of Psychology, 50, 141–156.

 

Ginevra Drinka