Head nurse as a leader is one of the contributing actors that can lead to the better of nursing care, with increasing motivation to work among nurses. Most of the nurses who work in-patient department RSUP Prof. Dr. Kandou Manado thought that communication from the head nurse may increase the work motivation. Communication as the core of leadership style, the nurses needed to motivate subordinates based on leader as a partner in the organization. This study aims to identify the relationship between leadership style of in-patient department head nurse with work motivation for nurses, with quantitative correlational design and cross-sectional approach. The population used are the nurses who work in department of in-patient with 182 people as a sample. The data obtained through a questionnaire, data processing and analysis performed with SPSS calculation. The results are 0 % Laissez-faire leadership style, and then 9,4 % Autocratic leadeship style, followed by 31,3 % Participative leadership style, and the highest is the Democratic leadership style that is 59,3 %. There is high work motivation on 97,4 % of respondents. The leadership style that has a correlation with work motivation is the Autocratic leadeship style, shown by p value of 0,000. Recommendations for the hospital is to provide training or workshops about leadership, so each of the head-nurse can fully understand the importance of leadership style to the achievement of the task for nurses.