ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the sociolinguistics of family and work in leadership stories told by professionals in different socio-cultural contexts, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa and North America. Focusing on this largely overlooked aspect of leadership and taking a narrative as social practice approach, this chapter analyses and critically discusses several stories told by those in leadership positions which make family and work an issue for leadership. By challenging traditional views of leaders as white males, these stories problematise and resist global hegemonic masculine Discourses of leadership, which often contribute to a marginalisation and exclusion of women. Drawing on leadership stories that occurred during mediatised interviews and TED talks, this chapter explores how the storytellers through recounting their own experiences in geographically and culturally different contexts not only navigate gender stereotypes but at the same time sometimes reinforce and at other times challenge and resist globally valid hegemonic (and typically masculine) notions of leadership.
