Page 3 - Finnish_leadership

Preface
A few years ago, we branded the Finnish working life as part of the Working Life 2020 project. This work resulted in three narratives of skills, cooperation and safety. While leadership also emerged as a theme in the discussions, it was not perceived as one of the narratives but rather a theme cutting across the entire working life brand.
However, leadership was perceived to play such a strong role in facilitating the working life brand narratives that we wanted to revisit the topic. Among other aspects, we considered whether we have failed to utilise this important strength and competitive advantage as a result of our modesty. Could the Finnish leadership style also succeed in attracting foreign investments and experts?
This consideration led to the Finnish leadership narrative,
which is supported by thoughts and experiences we collected
from a wide group of experts. We wished to obtain an idea of Finnish leadership from those who successfully implement it in their daily work as well as those who study and develop leadership as part of their jobs.
We also set our sights on the future in the interviews and discussions. It is impossible to construct a brand narrative of Finnish leadership without the future perspective as the transformation of the working life also poses challenges to leadership. The managers of the future are expected to be increasingly present, interactive and collaborative. Transparency and responsibility is also expected from all activities. The transformation of work also provides new opportunities for renewing activities, which must be taken on with courage and agility. Leaders must be able to keep up with the rapidly changing world, preferably among forerunners.
Finnish leadership has everything it takes to be worthy of trust also in the future, even to a point that our leadership style can serve as an example for other countries.
Margita Klemetti
Project Manager, Working Life 2020
The State and Future of Finnish Leadership 3