Every leader is playing a character. The question is whether you scripted the role, or whether your inner critic did it for you.
In my book, The Story Code for Leaders, the second Overwrite stage of the CODE process asks you to identify your Codebreaker Archetype: the true character you are versus the one perhaps you’ve evolved into playing.
There are seven of them, and I have met all seven in boardrooms, on stages and, if I am honest, in the mirror: The Hero, The Mentor, The Navigator, The Futurist, The Optimist, The Critic and The Phoenix.
Where the idea comes from
Carl Jung reckoned archetypes live in our collective consciousness: shared symbols and story patterns we absorb from art, religion, folklore and myth. Joseph Campbell had a name for one of the most important beats: "meeting with the mentor" – that moment you instinctively know someone is going to be an important, positive influence on your career.
I've found that when people discover their personal archetype, it's transformational, because leaders begin to understand themselves within the context of universal story patterns. They intuitively know how that archetype could or would respond in situations they find themselves, making it easier to layer their “best selves” into lived scenarios.
Narrative therapists Michael White and David Epston built an entire practice on a simple, powerful idea: by recognising we can choose alternative narratives, we can re-author our lives. Instead of thinking of yourself as "broken" or "stuck", you can shift towards a positive, empowering identity. I'm a helper, and I'm becoming a mentor.
Screenwriting theorist Christopher Vogler puts it more simply again: archetypes give us a language of possibility and hope. We start to discover who we can become.
There's a neuroscience angle too. Inner speech researcher Francesco Fanti Rovetta argues our "personal narrator" constructs a coherent, meaningful story of our lives. I love that idea, because it means we can all develop a director's eye for the big picture of our own story.
My take: Codebreaker Archetypes are built to work with that mechanism, not against it.
Here are my seven Codebreaker Archetypes outlined in my book – which one resonates?
The Hero
The Hero is on a quest. This is the central character, the one we root for, the one who lays the path ahead. In leadership, the Hero is often the senior leader or the CEO who steps up and rescues the organisation from a difficult situation (p. 98).
The key insight is that every hero in every story finds themselves in a tricky, even desperate situation before they recover. If you are in the thick of it right now, that idea alone can give you hope in dark times (p. 98).
The Mentor
The Mentor is generous with their knowledge and confident in their experience. They are the vision setter, the guide, the one who offers wisdom or performance notes at exactly the right moment (p. 99).
Think Gandalf, Yoda or Dumbledore. In the workplace, the Mentor is often a coach or a senior leader, or that inner voice that reframes your limiting beliefs into empowering truths (p. 99). If you are receiving wisdom from a Mentor, my advice is simple: open your ears, ask questions and take action.
The Navigator
A Navigator is a friend, supporter or team member who makes things happen. They embody community and shared effort, and they bring dreams to life with clarity and determination (p. 99).
Navigators love helping people. Acts of service are one of their primary love languages, and they would rather stay out of the spotlight than steal it (p. 99). They remind us that no one succeeds alone.
The Futurist
The Futurist sees obstacles and dangers before others do, but also opportunities. They are the ones who announce that change is coming and help everyone see the way forward, an ideal partner for the Hero (p. 99–100).
Bold, insightful and exacting, Futurists matter because they bring hope, optimism and endless possibilities (p. 100).
The Optimist
The Optimist brings humour, disruption and lighthearted energy to a crisis. They challenge assumptions, think differently and make the ordinary memorable (p. 100).
In leadership stories, the Optimist is the one who asks, "Why not?" Sometimes bold and out the front, other times a quiet team player who steps up to encourage the team at exactly the right moment (p. 100).
The Critic
The Critic represents the darker side of storytelling: the villain, the antagonist, the destructive force. In personal narratives, the Critic shows up in burnt-out, disengaged people, and in toxic cultures where it is not safe to speak positively (p. 100–101).
They are not always obvious. They can be charming, even helpful, but underneath they sap energy and derail progress. Entire teams end up building elaborate workarounds just to keep them from getting in the way (p. 101).
The Phoenix
The Phoenix is strong, courageous and inspiring, forged by some form of crisis, suffering or hardship that forced a reckoning (p. 101).
Leaders who have recovered from loss, company collapse or tragic circumstances often identify with the Phoenix, not just because of the hardship but because it speaks to the power of rewriting your narrative with hope, resilience and renewed clarity (p. 101).
Which one are you?
You’re probably not just one of these. Most of us carry two or three archetypes at once, but one tends to lead in many or most work scenes. Are you partway through your Hero's journey, answering a call to adventure? Or are you slipping into the Critic's mindset because you are overworked and burnt out (p. 102)?
Once you know your Codebreaker Archetype, you can decide how to script your new lead character. Maybe nothing needs to change. Maybe everything does. More likely, you will land somewhere in the middle. Whenever I do this work for interactive keynotes or more commonly, a workshop, it always unlocks really insightful feedback that also works to build understanding across team dynamics.
None of these archetypes are a permanent identity. They are an invitation to name the role you play in this current chapter, so you can start writing the next one on purpose in your authentic voice.
Onwards.