You can copy a successful initiative’s strategy, processes, objectives, contacts and data. You may even work with members of the same team.
But can you copy the passion that made people persevere when the results were still years away?
In my work at Merck Foundation, I have seen how much it takes to build specialist healthcare capacity. Scholarships and partnerships are essential, but so are the conversations that encourage a healthcare provider to keep studying, and the conviction to stay with a long-term investment when a quicker result would be easier to celebrate.
This is why I believe inspirational leadership is often underestimated. A leader’s judgment, commitment and ability to help others believe in the mission give the strategy its soul.
Someone can study a successful organisation and believe they have found its recipe. They can follow the same strategy, adopt the same processes, pursue the same objectives and use the same data and contacts. They may even work with members of the same team.
Yet they may still be unable to produce the same results.
Why? Because the recipe records what was done. It cannot fully capture the passion, inspiration and judgment of the person who brought it to life.
A strategy does not make decisions on its own. A process does not persuade someone to keep going when the work becomes difficult. An objective does not inspire a partner or a team to care deeply about achieving it. At every stage, a leader makes choices that no document can fully prescribe: how to inspire, when to insist, when to adapt, when to say no, whom to encourage, which obstacle to challenge and how long to persevere before results are visible.
These choices can look small from the outside. Together, they shape the outcome.
I have thought about this often in my work at Merck Foundation. Our approach to building healthcare capacity, for example, can be described clearly: identify gaps in specialist care, provide scholarships, support healthcare providers through their training and work with partners so their new skills can benefit patients.
Someone could follow every step. What is harder to reproduce is the conviction behind it.
Specialist training demands years of study and effort. Some healthcare providers need encouragement to begin or complete their training while managing the pressures of their existing work. Some partners would prefer a contribution whose impact they can see immediately. If I looked only at what was easiest to deliver or quickest to celebrate, I might make different choices.
I continue to invest in people because I believe deeply in what a trained specialist can make possible. That belief affects the conversations I have, the obstacles I am willing to work through and the patience I bring to results that take time. It is part of how I inspire others to understand the value of the work before they can see its full impact.
This is what I mean by the soul of a successful initiative. It is also what I mean by inspirational leadership: a purpose the leader believes in strongly enough to pursue, an energy that helps others believe in it too, and a personal commitment that holds firm when following the plan is no longer easy.
Of course, passion needs structure. Inspiration cannot replace expertise, sound processes or accountability. But structure alone cannot create passion either. Two leaders may have the same plan and resources, yet respond very differently when they face resistance, delay or disappointment. Over time, those differences can turn an initiative into a lasting impact and, eventually, a legacy.
The same is true of a team. You can bring together talented people, including those who helped achieve success elsewhere. Their experience is valuable. But they also need a shared reason to give their best to this mission, in this moment, under this leadership. You cannot assume their previous results will reappear simply because the same names are in the room.
So when we admire a successful initiative, we should learn from its strategy, understand its processes and study its results. But as leaders, we should also ask ourselves a more difficult question:
What will make the people working with us care enough to do the hard work, year after year?
You may be able to copy the entire recipe. To achieve something meaningful with it, you must bring your own passion, inspiration and soul.
Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej
CEO of Merck Foundation