Abstract

The article illustrates findings from a larger study on the Finnish female leaders’ paths to a leader’s position. This sub-study analyzed the composition of a Finnish female leader as narrated by leaders themselves. It was studied through two specifying questions: what kinds of personal features female leaders considered important in their leadership practices and how do these women describe the emphases of leadership. This was a qualitative study in which 10 Finnish female leaders were interviewed in two phases in 2006 and 2011. According to the narratives, the important personal features were perseverance and rabidity, honesty and humbleness, as well as tolerance of criticism, adversities, and loneliness, which were analyzed in the light of the authentic leadership theory. The emphases of leadership included the dimensions of social interaction and being a bellwether. The study contributed a new narrative viewpoint to the definition of authentic leadership.

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