The current study is an attempt, in two separate surveys, to explore the role of motivation to lead, which has rarely been introduced into academic leadership research in Korea. For the survey and statistical analysis, the population is defined as the employees working in Korea. The motivation to lead is considered important in practices since without it any leadership development interventions show less possibility to succeed. The motivation to lead was defined in terms of three dimensions as in affective motivation, socio-normative motivation, and non-calculative motivation(Chen & Drasgow, 2001). The study then empirically explored the potential relationships between the three dimensions and leadership styles. Specifically, such leadership styles as transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and self-sacrificial leadership behavior have been correlated to motivation to lead. In addition, using regression analysis, the explanatory power of the motivation to lead on various dependent variables were investigated. As a result, the three dimensions of motivation to lead, that is, affective, socio-normative, and non-calculative motivations each were found to have strong correlations with transformational, transactional, and self-sacrificial leadership, as well as with other criterion-related variables such as organizational commitment and trust. Limitations of the current study, along with future research directions were also discussed.