05/02/2025
Does Inspirational Leadership Vary by Role?
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked a great question: Does inspirational leadership look different depending on your role?
The answer is yes—and it’s additive.
To illustrate what I mean, let me share a story.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to lead a large Quality Control (QC) laboratory and guide the strategic direction for QC labs across a Fortune 100 manufacturing network. This included:
• A central lab with over 100 team members
• 9 direct reports
• A network of a dozen additional QC labs across the organization
In this role, I needed to apply inspirational leadership at three layers, each requiring a different approach:
1. Organizational Leadership – Inspiring and elevating the broader organization
In leading the central QC lab, I focused on:
• Defining a compelling future vision
• Building a culture that could bring that vision to life
2. People Leadership – Empowering and growing my direct reports
With my core team of 9 direct reports, I:
• Encouraged collaboration and shared success
• Clarified what great performance looked like, then asked how I could support them
• Gave ownership of key initiatives to promote engagement and accountability
3. Foundational Leadership – Fostering peer collaboration across the QC network
When working with other lab leaders, my focus shifted to:
• Understanding shared challenges and opportunities to support one another
• Promoting open communication and proactive decision-making
• Co-creating plans and using simple tools to track progress and build trust
This experience showed me that inspirational leadership isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Depending on your role—whether you’re an individual contributor, people manager, or senior leader—the focus shifts, and the responsibilities build upon each other.
At Enluma, we refer to this layered approach as:
• Foundational Leadership – Inspiring peer collaboration
• People Leadership – Elevating a team of direct reports
• Organizational Leadership – Guiding culture and vision at scale
If you’re interested in developing these capabilities for yourself or your organization, I’d love to connect.
Visit www.enlumagroup.com to learn more.
Let’s build a better future together.
