Larry Bird talked trash to adversaries, admonished his team mates to work harder and got away with it because he worked his butt off and delivered. Ditto, MJ who did a lot of extra training to reach his level of achievement. You have to live your values or you won't be respected. Most of all I admire that you seem to understand that you are never done trying to understand. Add on Rule 49.a.
Leaders lead, no matter what their current job description is today.
Given any position on the old line and staff organizational chart, leaders will emerge. Leaders are change junkies. Let's face it status quo is boring and for most problems, there is no such thing as the only one right answer. Leaders are aware of their impact on others. Always send thank you notes.