Through a multi-case qualitative exploration, this article introduces the two different types of institutional leadership —maneuver-type institutional leadership and meaning-type institutional leadership, and then explores the structure, connotation and mechanism of both types of institutional leadership. Maneuver-type institutional leadership has two dimensions. One is behavioral norm and the other is feedback motivation, and its mechanism is to tackle the expected specific problems by constraining the members’ behaviors and reducing the uncertainty of their behaviors. Meaning-type institutional leadership also has two dimensions. One is mindset sharing, and the other is organization following, and its mechanism is to tackle the general problems by framing the members’ psychology (cognition and attitude) and motivating them to take agentic actions.