Page 7 - Finnish_leadership

on cooperation and collaborative activities. Although the social order was threatened from both left and right during the early years of the republic, Finland was able to handle the threats and take steps towards becoming a democracy. Finland also benefited from its small
size: we needed one another and could only conquer external threats as well as become prosperous through collaboration. As a result, our presumed weakness became our strength. In spite of many internal political struggles, some of them harsh, the development of Finnish society, particularly since the 1970s, is often referred to as a consensus: mutual understanding and harmony. Indeed, the history of Finnish society could be light-heartedly described as a consensus coloured by conflicts.
When this history is combined with the uniform culture that has been constructed carefully and dedicatedly
in this country, it is no wonder that certain common, shared features can be detected in Finnish leadership. The fact that we have only just “come out of the woods” means that we lack the clear and old power relationships that mark the cultural background of many European countries. In the Finnish society, this is visible as a stronger equality in people’s starting points and a lack
of power distances. While it is true that Finland has had gentry and people who are better off, these groups have also been very close to the common public as a result of the small size of the country and the modest conditions from which the construction of Finland began. Equality is apt to describe the Finnish society on a global scale.
Long traditions in a uniform culture and a solid shared value basis are apparent in Finnish organisations and lay a foundation for Finnish leadership. But which features are romanticised leadership ideals and which actually correspond to today’s reality? A lot has also happened since Kekkonen’s presidency and the success story
of Nokia in the 1990s and early 2000s. The question that must be answered is, therefore: what is Finnish
leadership and what kind of leadership is there in Finnish organisations right now?
Strictly speaking, it is of course absurd to talk about Finnish leadership as a monolithic entity. Every leader and organisation is different. Whether leadership
is “good” always depends on the situation. But if
we would like to share a simplified narrative of the ”Finnish leadership” to a person living on the other
side of the world, what could we say? Could a common understanding, even a vague one, of the strengths and weaknesses and future development needs of Finnish leadership be helpful to working life in Finland and allow Finnish leaders to take their next steps forward? Could it be used to attract experts from other parts of the world to Finland?
As this is a tempting idea, we decided make an attempt. This is a unique attempt in the history of Finland – no previous efforts have been made in cooperation of networks at this magnitude. Nearly one hundred leaders, researchers, and experts have participated in the efforts to define the concept, all of them reflecting on the following question:
What is Finnish leadership of today and which is the direction towards which it should develop to ensure that Finnish organisations will keep succeeding in the future?
The work for defining Finnish leadership was carried out in the spring of 2018. The work for defining the concept included interviewing Finnish leaders and experts in ownership as well as working on the characteristics
in a workshop participated by slightly over 50 Finnish leaders, researchers and other experts. In addition, the material has been discussed in the advisory council
of the Working Life 2020 project and a working group for the Finnish leadership style. A list of experts who participated in the work is included in appendix 1. The work was facilitated by Filosofian Akatemia Oy.
The State and Future of Finnish Leadership 7