You are right, Joe, that a boss cannot motivate employees. But the boss does have the power to create highly motivated or demotivated employees, high morale or low morale.

How? All of us are motivate by the same three things - autonomy, competence, and relatedness. If the boss gives employees all three of those at high levels, employees will become highly motivated, highly committed, fully engaged Superstars who have high morale and love to come to collaborate with other Superstars to achieve excellence every day. These people are self-managed and self-directed needing only to be pointed in the right direction, making a heaven for their executives and managers.

I have created several workforces of Superstars and the methods I used are briefly presented in this article.
http://www.bensimonton.com/how-to-create-engaged-employees.html

Best regards, Ben
Author "Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed"