A leader must be authoritative but fair, neither tyrannical nor soft, because teams exploit extremes. Real motivation comes from rigorous accountability, not icebreakers or team-building exercises. A systematic workflow keeps people productive without burning them out.
As far as leadership goes for your marketing agency and for your small business, building a strong and motivated team, there is no real secret, there's no real science. Number one, I think you need to be an authoritative, good leader. That doesn't mean being an asshole. It also doesn't mean being soft because people will pick up on that and they will take advantage of you. But holding people accountable is going to be the biggest thing that you can do to build a strong and motivated team. Icebreakers, fucking getting on a meeting every week and doing a kumbaya and getting to know people, or just stupid shit like that is not going to build a strong and motivated team. A strong and motivated team is going to be built upon you holding them accountable, them holding their team members accountable. And then obviously from there you have a team that's fully functioning, working, not overworked, but is working in a systematic flow. And obviously that is going to turn into a successful business.
