Six Steps to Authentic Leadership—Findings from the Implementation of a Positive Leadership Development Program

Kristina Ström (), Sanna Wenström and Ilkka Ratinen
Additional contact information
Kristina Ström: University of Lapland
Sanna Wenström: Oulu University of Applied Sciences
Ilkka Ratinen: University of Lapland

Chapter 2 in Positive Leadership, 2026, pp 17-39 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the contemporary world, demands for ethical and socially sustainable management practices have emerged. More research is needed on ethical decision-making, but also on leaders’ personal well-being and career sustainability. This study focused on leaders taking part in positive leadership training applying the Six-Step (6xS) Positive Leadership Program as a framework. The purpose of the study was to enhance the general understanding of how leaders reflect the development of an authentic leadership identity during the 6xS program. Narrative research data was collected from leaders (N = 88) and an analysis of the narratives was conducted. As a result of the analysis two categories of description were formed: narrated meaning of self-awareness in leadership identity and narrated meaning of collegiality in leadership identity. The results of this study show that the 6xS program can support the emergence of authentic leadership identity. Furthermore, it has implications for positive leadership development programs.

Keywords: Positive leadership; Authentic leadership; Authentic leadership identity; Leadership development; Reflection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-02369-8_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032023698

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-02369-8_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().