This study aimed to examine the relationships of principals’ instructional leadership and teachers’ information and communication technology (ICT) literacy with teacher instructional leadership, with work motivation positioned as a mediating mechanism among public elementary school teachers in South Solok Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative correlational survey design was employed involving 291 teachers selected from a population of 1,190 through proportional random sampling. Data were collected using five-point Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.1.1.8 through measurement- and structural-model evaluation. The results showed that principals’ instructional leadership was positively associated with work motivation (β = 0.264, t = 4.775, p < 0.001) and teacher instructional leadership (β = 0.128, t = 2.766, p = 0.006). ICT literacy was positively associated with work motivation (β = 0.519, t = 9.773, p < 0.001) but not directly with teacher instructional leadership (β = 0.044, p = 0.374). Work motivation showed the strongest relationship with teacher instructional leadership (β = 0.709, t = 14.709, p < 0.001) and significantly mediated both the principal instructional leadership pathway (β = 0.187) and the ICT literacy pathway (β = 0.368). The model explained 67.2% of the variance in teacher instructional leadership. These findings indicate that organizational and digital resources become more consequential when translated into sustained teacher motivation. Given the cross-sectional, self-reported design, future longitudinal and multi-source studies are needed to strengthen causal inference and generalizability.