Our perceptions of leadership and who can become a leader often have distinctly cultural roots.  This was underlined by a recent study from the University of Vaasa in Finland that examined the growth stories of various Finnish leaders.

The stories from real-life leaders were compared to the stories that appear in the novels of noted Finnish author Väinö Linna, which the researchers used to illustrate the country’s cultural heritage.  The hypothesis being tested was that the leadership narrative used by leaders is rooted in their cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage

By assessing the way leaders talk about their journey, the researcher is able to demonstrate that the way we narrate our leadership journey most definitely has its roots in our cultural history, albeit with subtle differences between the literary world and the real world.

It was common for leaders to utilize culturally established forms and elements in their personal narrative, with these elements acting as a template that shapes the way we not only talk about leadership but conceive and live it too.  It’s a finding the author believes could have a number of applications.

“The results of my doctoral study can be used for instance in counseling-based leader development methods such as executive coaching, occupational therapy, or in workplace development activities,” they say.

Inner narrative

Central to the hypothesis is the illustrative inner narrative, which is the story we tell ourselves when we describe our life and experiences. This internal dialogue is said to explain our core beliefs and is strongly linked to the bigger picture of our “story” all the way from childhood to the present time.

A dozen leaders were interviewed to gauge their personal stories, with Linna’s books Reconciliation and Unknown Soldiers used to understand the cultural heritage of leadership, due to the strong leadership development stories within each book.

After using narrative analysis methods, the author was able to identify key themes and features from the two books that enabled an ideal-typical leader development narrative to be constructed and compared with that from the real-life leaders.