We study experimentally the collective dynamics of two delay-coupled semiconductor lasers. The lasers are coupled by mutual injection of their emitted light beams, at a distance for which coupling delay times are non-negligible. This system is known to exhibit lag synchronization, with one laser leading and the other one lagging the dynamics. Our setup is designed such that light travels along different paths in the two coupling directions, which allows independent control of the two coupling strengths. A comparison of unidirectional and bidirectional coupling reveals that the leader-laggard roles can be switched by acting upon the coupling architecture of the system. Additionally, numerical simulations show that a more extensive control of the network architecture can also lead to changes in the dynamics of the system. Finally, we discuss the relevance of these results for bidirectional chaotic communications.