To address the challenges of today's competitive business environment, employees and leaders must balance the paradox of exploration and exploitation to achieve ambidexterity. One often discussed but also criticized leadership style aiming to foster ambidexterity is ambidextrous leadership. This study introduces "Inspiring-Multimodal Leadership" (IML), which reconceptualizes ambidextrous leadership from a paradox perspective, applying the dynamic equilibrium of paradoxes. IML combines dynamic opening and closing leadership behaviors in exploration and exploitation modes with consistent inspirational behaviors. Over two studies with more than 19,000 employees from 160 German SMEs, we developed and validated an IML measure and investigated its organizational impact. The first study confirmed IML's unique structure and psychometric strength at the individual level. The second study conceptualized IML as a leadership climate at the organizational level, finding it significantly predicts firm performance, employee ambidexterity, organizational energy, and identification, surpassing traditional leadership models. Furthermore, organizational decentralization and formalization, moderated by CEO visionary leadership, were identified as critical antecedents of IML climate. This research presents a theoretical expansion of ambidextrous leadership, overcoming its limitations and demonstrating IML's effectiveness in maximizing the potential of the ambidexterity paradox.
