The paper presents the entire process of running a preschool institution, with an emphasis on the complexity of the process from the director's perspective. Running an educational institution in a modern global society is a very demanding task for the director. The paper lists the differences between management, leadership and guidance, as well as different definitions of leadership. Certain chapters are dedicated to employee motivation, one of the most important tasks of every director. Without motivated employees, there is no quality educational process. Leadership is aimed at understanding and developing people, encouraging the redesign of the institution, encouraging employees to learn, creating a vision and developing the institution in accordance with the vision. For quality management, it is necessary to use motivational strategies that will encourage the development of skills and knowledge of employees. Types of leadership and motivational strategies can be combined differently in order to achieve the quality of work. By using different leadership styles, new approaches are applied in the acquisition of employee competencies with the aim of quality development of the institution. The results of scientific research conducted on the topic of leading educational institutions in countries around the world have confirmed that different leadership styles and different motivational strategies are used. In this overview, the focus is on the most commonly used leadership styles in preschool institutions in Croatia, Finland and Japan. By comparing different leadership styles and motivational strategies, the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are highlighted. The review paper also presents the results of scientific research on the topic of managing preschool institutions in Croatia, Finland and Japan. The fundamental conclusion after reviewing the available literature is that in our country, despite the increasingly complex requirements in the management of preschool institutions in Croatia and around the world, an insufficient number of researches have been conducted on the management of preschool institutions and the use of motivational strategies in that process.