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The leadership style of inspirational leadership has not gained substantial research attention. Studies have found inspirational leadership to be particularly relevant for practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the theoretical aspects of inspirational leadership and present practical steps for applying the theory.

First, inspirational leadership is defined in the context of other leadership theories, with particular emphasis on the vision that is central to inspirational leadership. Consequently, effective leadership behaviour is contrasted against management actions, to then define main areas leaders should focus on. Moreover, this paper outlines specific actions to be implemented in these focus areas.

Comparing the different perspectives on inspirational leadership theory, it becomes evident that self-awareness and authenticity are the main foundations for inspiring followers and implementing a shared vision.

A tool is presented for practical implementation that allows leaders to measure different characteristics of inspirational leadership and to assess their progress in these areas. In this context, this paper discusses the critical role of authentic behaviour and the challenge of showing the right level of authenticity as a leader. Special attention is given to authentic leadership development, and how organisations must work to avoid over-dependency on inspirational leaders.

The ideas outlined in this paper serve as a guide for leaders to practise inspirational leadership.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The review is based on “How to become an Inspirational Leader, and what to avoid” by Sarah (2017). This paper about inspirational leadership unpacks what it takes to harness and direct the energy of people within an organization, in line with a strategic, clear vision. An inspirational leader must step beyond themselves to build organizational capability by filling their people with the self-confidence that, once in play, will drive the organization’s future success. Becoming an inspirational leader is a growth process that can be learned by mastering a range of measurable skills along the way. In particular, high-level emotional intelligence must be developed to bring people together to achieve collective excellence.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

An inspiring leader is perceived by followers to be knowledgeable, enlightened and sensitive to the problems at hand. From this, follower confidence is built. Followers share with the leader common beliefs about what is wrong, beliefs that the leader articulates publicly for them. Unlike the charismatic leader who substitutes for the follower's ego ideal, the inspirational leader can represent and symbolise it.

Organizational studies fail to examine organizations in terms of the several environments in which they operate, both internally and externally. That is, studies tend to focus on climate, or time, or trust, or leadership. This chapter builds on academic research that discusses organizational environments in ways that show all of these environments are important for organizational understanding, especially for organizational leadership. In particular, this chapter offers a paradigm of understanding organizational leadership realities through multi-level understanding of the organizational environments of climate, knowledge, ethnos, and time.

The chapter first discusses five enviroscapes – climate, knowledge, ethos, time, and leadership. Each of these enviroscapes has two phenotypes – business and commerce. Each of these enviroscapes, with its concomitant phenotypes, is used differently at multiple levels of management and leadership by senior managers, middle managers, and entry-level managers. The scope of organizational reach, in terms of global, regional, and local levels of analysis, provides additional context for the use of enviroscapes. After a review of the theoretical bases for each enviroscape, the chapter applies appropriate theory and models to an extended time case study of land purchase in Indonesia.

Shares the successful experience of Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) in engaging senior leaders in developing the next generation of leaders.

Describes LRL's major leadership development programmes, and in particular the course on inspirational leadership.

Reveals that the commitment of a significant amount of time to employee development by respected senior leaders is a powerful message and model to participants. The ability to interact in a deeply personal way with senior leaders is highly motivating. The involvement of senior leaders in the design and development of programmes gives them a strong interest in later participation. Being identified as an inspirational leader and having the opportunity to influence the next generation can be personally rewarding to senior leaders.

Highlights the importance of storytelling in the learning experience.

The methods LRL has used to gain the commitment of senior leaders to developing future leaders may be valuable to other organizations.

The purpose of this paper was to examine inspiring others as a psychological construct in leadership contexts by investigating lived and personal experiences of inspiring leaders.

A phenomenological design was used to investigate leaders' personal and lived experiences of leading to inspire others. In‐depth interviews were conducted with seven participants nominated by others as inspiring leaders based on the demonstration of five characteristics (vision, openness, transparency, passion, and being somewhat unconventional).

Participant responses coalesced into five key dimensions of leading to inspire others: connecting, leading, inspiree, action, and context; enabling a functional description of the phenomenon. Furthermore, results indicated that leaders could intentionally cultivate opportunities to inspire others through interaction and effort.

Given that the paper investigates leaders' experiences of the phenomenon, further investigation into the relational and reciprocal aspects of inspiring others is required. Research has primarily focused on participants in the inspiring relationship independently of each other (i.e. either the inspiree or the leader).

Contrary to assertions in some transformational leadership studies that personal charisma is the primary component to inspiring others, these findings indicate that inspiring others requires an active process where leaders establish interpersonal connections and enable action.

Research on inspiration is at a formative stage. This paper represents an initial foray into the space where scholarly knowledge on leadership theory and inspiration intersect to provide greater insight into leading to inspire others.

This paper aims—based on past research works which have shown that transformational leadership has positive impact on knowledge sharing—to explore the impact of different leadership dimensions of transformational leadership on knowledge sharing and further to explore the mechanism through which transformational leadership affects employee knowledge sharing in China.

Based on the transformational leadership theory and the team learning theory, it is proposed that all four dimensions of transformational leadership, including intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, inspirational motivation and idealized influence, have unique impact on employee knowledge sharing. It is further proposed that psychology safety and team efficacy mediate these relationships. Then data were collected from over 400 employees from knowledge-based companies in China to empirically test the proposed relationships with the method of structural equation modeling.

The results show that psychological safety fully mediated the impact of intellectual stimulation on knowledge sharing, and team efficacy fully mediated the impact of inspirational motivation on knowledge sharing. Both factors also mediated the impact of individualized consideration on knowledge sharing. The results thus provide empirical support for the impact of transformational leadership on employee knowledge sharing in an international context.

The past years have seen increasing interest in leadership and knowledge sharing in emerging markets, yet the mechanism through which leadership affects employee knowledge sharing remains understudied. This study explores the impact of different dimensions of transformational leadership on employee knowledge sharing, and further shows that psychological safety and team efficacy mediate these relationships in a collectivistic society where knowledge sharing is consistent with cultural norms. The findings help develop more robust knowledge sharing theories in the international context and provide insightful suggestions for management practitioners in emerging markets.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of speech on transformational leadership attributions and the role of follower self‐esteem in fostering the relationship between followers and their leaders.

Survey research was used testing specific relationships. A 2‐by‐2 experimental design was conducted including treatments of leader speech and attributes with follower self‐esteem acting as a covariate.

Significant relationships between most attributions of transformational leadership and follower self‐esteem were found. Inspirational leader speeches were found to lead to higher levels of attributed transformational abilities.

It is suggested that there are contextual differences between different types of transformational relationships. Researchers are invited to distinguish between different types of charisma (social charisma vs business charisma).

Although the use of appropriate speech is an influential asset for the transformational leader, effective leadership does not solely depend on it. Organizations may benefit from inculcating communication training programs into their training agenda towards elevating their trainees to a higher level of leadership capability.

Leadership research has been heavily dominated by an overriding focus on leader attributes. This study concentrates on a specific leader impression management behavior (speech) and inculcates a follower variable (self‐esteem) into the equation towards a better understanding of the leadership phenomenon.

The characteristics which differentiate transactional from transformational leadership are discussed, highlighting the differences between managers and leaders. Four distinct characteristics – the Fours I′s – associated with transformational leadership are described with respect to their evolution and influence on follower development, effort and performance. The advantages of combining transactional and transformational leadership styles into an overall framework of leadership development for leading in the 1990s are also discussed.