Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the leadership behaviors teachers find motivating, focusing on transactional and transformational leadership behaviors. It also planned to investigate the contribution of the prevailing transformational and transactional principals’ leadership behaviors to teachers’ motivation. The research design used was the descriptive survey. The target population of the study was 685 full-cycle primary school teachers of Jabitehnan district of Ethiopia. Stratified sampling techniques were applied to select respondents.  Accordingly, 116 sample teachers were selected to fill questionnaires. From these, 106 teachers were properly filled and returned the questionnaires. The Principal Leadership Questionnaire of Leithwood & his colleagues, and   teacher motivation questionnaire, developed by McNeil (1987) based on Frederick Herzberg’s Motivation- Hygiene theory, was partly adapted and used to gather data from participants. The study revealed that teachers preferred more transformational principal’s leadership behaviors. The study also identified that principals’ transformational and transactional leadership behaviors had significant contribution to the variation (R²=0.285, F=14.98, P<0.05) in teachers’ motivation. The study recommended that principals should exhibit the appropriate leadership behavior that suit teacher motivation.