Abstract: There has been no detailed research on the instruments of impact of the teacher as a leader upon the formation of competent teamwork with the students, using the interplay of motivation and preferred leadership role. The subject of this article is the correlation between motivation and preferred team roles among university students. The formation of teams during the education process, selection of the preferred roles by the participants for the joint achievement and effective realization of goals, expert survey, questionnaire and self-esteem, generalization of psychological experiences; R. M. Belbin’s test “Team Roles”, V. E. Milman’s diagnostics “Personality Motivation Structure”, and A. Mehrabian’s “Achievement Motivation”. For accomplishing the set task in the context of the Federal Targeted Program for the Development of Education for 2016-2020, the university professors of various disciplines require extensive knowledge in the area of establishment of effective teamwork within the groups of students. Lately, a substantial range of studies with regards to formation of teamwork has been conducted. Such studies examine diverse approaches towards structuring of education system aimed at the formation of competent teamwork of the students. The author is first to empirically examine and describe the character of correlation between motivation and preferred team roles among students.