This paper offers an empirical study of the role of work motivation in mediating the effect of education-training and leadership style on the performance of Ministry of Education employees in Timor-Leste. Data were obtained from 86 employees as samples through questionnaires. We applied the SEM-PLS to analyze the proposed relationship model. Empirical results show that work motivation mediated the influence of leadership style on employee performance, but not for educationtraining. The results can provide valuable insight for public service management.