MOTIVATION IS A CYCLE, NOT A SPARK

More than a decade ago, I wrote a research paper on motivation for a postgraduate course called People and Leadership. I did well in it. At the time, I understood it intellectually. I understand it differently now.

What the research said

Great project leaders are not just task drivers. They are motivators, culture builders, and energy multipliers. Motivation follows a cycle — forming, storming, norming, performing — and the leader's job is to keep that cycle moving without breaking the people inside it. I wrote that. I believed it. Then I filed it away and got on with work.

What Angela Ahrendts said

Years later, listening to Angela Ahrendts on Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman, something clicked.

I worked at Apple during her time there. I watched her bring not just fashion sensibility but human-centered leadership into a company already known for precision. She once said that before you build a relationship with your customers, you build one with your employees first.

That is exactly what my research paper argued — I just hadn't lived it yet.

What I know now

Building Elel Studio has turned theory into daily practice. The cycle is real. Motivation is not a one-time spark. It is a system, a story, and a shared belief in something worth building.

Every design decision, every product interaction, every piece of feedback I give or receive runs through that same frame: does this help people grow, or does it just get things done?

When people grow, everything else follows. That is the standard I hold for leadership, and the reason our products are built around meaningful progress and delight rather than pressure. The research paper earned a High Distinction. Building the actual thing is a harder exam.