Leaders Carry Ghosts: How Collective Trauma Shapes Leadership Values

Leadership isn't just about charisma or credentials. It’s also about inheritance, and not just the financial kind. Many leaders today navigate boardrooms with inherited grief stitched into the lining of their identities. We rarely talk about it, but we should: collective trauma changes the way people lead. In the mainstream discourse, leadership development tends to focus on measurable traits: communication, decision-making, charisma. But what if a deeper layer was being overlooked?

According to a 2019 study published in Frontiers in Psychology, the values that drive leaders are often shaped by transgenerational trauma, events like genocide, colonisation, forced migration, or war that ripple through time and space, affecting descendants long after the dust has settled. The authors argue that these large-scale traumatic events can shape societal norms and, consequently, the value systems of individuals who emerge as leaders within those societies.

The research paper emphasises that collective traumas can lead to shared narratives and cultural memories that influence what is considered acceptable or admirable in leadership. For instance, societies recovering from conflict may value resilience and decisiveness, traits that leaders adopt to align with collective expectations. Conversely, unaddressed traumas can perpetuate cycles of fear or aggression, potentially leading leaders to adopt authoritarian or exclusionary policies. Tcholakian et al. identify three key pathways through which collective trauma influences the formation of leadership values:

1. Social Learning: Cultural rituals, symbols, and oral traditions act as carriers of emotional memory.

2. Social Identity: Group trauma solidifies collective identity, reinforcing values like justice, resilience, and vigilance.

3. Psychodynamic Transmission: Families pass down trauma responses—sometimes unknowingly—through stories, silences, or emotional inheritance.

   
   

"Collective traumas can lead to shared narratives and cultural memories that influence what is considered acceptable or admirable in leadership"

These mechanisms shape leaders who are often more attuned to empathy, justice, forgiveness, perseverance, and community responsibility. But they also carry emotional burdens that may manifest as overprotectiveness, hypervigilance, or a relentless drive to fix systems. This turns conventional leadership theory on its head. What if some of the most influential traits we praise like resilience, passion, and justice aren’t learned in business school but inherited through pain?

Leadership is not a blank slate. It is layered with legacy—both celebrated and traumatic. By acknowledging how inherited trauma shapes the values and behaviors of leaders, we expand our collective understanding of what makes someone effective, authentic, or ethical. More importantly, we shift away from pathologising trauma and begin recognising it as a source of wisdom. A moral compass forged in fire. Understanding these dynamics doesn’t just make for better leaders. It makes for more humane leadership.

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References: 

• Tcholakian, L. A., Khapova, S. N., van de Loo, E., & Lehman, R. (2019). Collective Traumas and the Development of Leader Values: A Currently Omitted, but Increasingly Urgent, Research Area. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1009.