Which Game Of Thrones Leader Are You?
In the real world, you may not have a scene like the red wedding where leaders and key players are quite literally dying. In the business world, people leave for various reasons, good and bad. Others develop their potential beyond what we thought possible. So, which Game of Thrones leader are you?
We hope your tears have stopped flowing by now. Knowing that you won’t get to see the lovely Jon Snow or Daenerys til next year. Yes, we’re talking about HBO’s Game of Thrones (GOT). It’s been a roller coaster these last 7 seasons through the seven kingdoms and everyone’s grown (or died) and had their true colors revealed.
Business leaders come in all different forms, just as the leaders of the seven kingdoms in Game of Thrones. Just as the seven kingdoms of Westeros, every business and organization have their own distinct voice, leaders, and people. It’s up to each leader to set the tone and expectations for their people. When the time comes, will you approach these employees as Jon Snow by allowing them to find their fit in another path? Or will you take a more Cersei approach and just banish (hopefully no killing in the real world;) ) them and have a line of others waiting to take their place?
Let’s take a deeper dive into each kingdom and how their leaders approach planning and development for their areas. Which kingdom does your organization identify with best? We’ll show you that no matter the type of organization you’re running or are in, you can turn it into an effective one with the right tools and a few doable tweaks to the system.
[Psst.. if you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what GOT is ----> Go here… Also if you’re not caught up, you’ve been warned! Potential spoilers ahead!]
1. The North (House Stark- Ruled by Jon Snow: King of the North)
The North is the largest area of Westeros. It has been ruled by House Stark dating 8,000 years before Aegon's Conquest, with a lineage that extends all the way back to the Dawn Age and the First Men. The North has its loyalties with House Stark and is led by Ned Stark’s bastard son Jon Snow. Jon is one of the most idealistic and morally grounded characters in the show. Duty, morality, and honor help him to move forward and sacrifice his life and love to become the King of The North.
Leadership Style: Team Leadership
Jon’s team leadership style involves a strong goal the organization is working towards. They know where their leader is heading and what he will stand for. The leader’s vision inspires and provides a strong sense of purpose and direction.
Team leadership is about working with the people involved. It also recognizes that teamwork may not always be able trusting all cooperative relationships (in the case of Littlefinger). Jon is a king who leads by example and gets in the trenches with his men. He does what he believes is right and garners the support and respect of his men.
Through his leadership style, Jon exemplifies pathways and succession planning done well on numerous occasions. To do so, one must place their people in training pathways so that they will gain the education and experience needed to succeed and eventually take on more responsibilities. True succession planning means that there is a pathway leading to every job in the organization and every man/woman in the company is on a specific pathway, be it one leading to more responsibility or one where they are continually improving within their job scope.
When Jon leaves the wall to find a white walker, he leaves it in the hands of Dolorous Edd, his second in command at the Night’s Watch. Furthermore, by bending the rules of the Night’s Watch and allowing Samwell Tarley to train to become a maester, he demonstrates his knowledge finding the right role for each his men. Because Samwell shows a great affinity to education and a promising future as a maester, Jon uses this as an opportunity to help the Night’s Watch in a way other than bloodshed. He also uses this opportunity as a succession plan for the next maester of the Night’s Watch.
One of Jon’s most recent displays of utilizing pathways is when he allows Sansa,
his half sister, to rule over Winterfell as he departed to visit Dany and her dragons. Jon sees the importance of having a succession plan and knowing who to prepare for what position.
2. The Vale (House Arryn- Ruled by Robin Arryn/ Petyr Baelish)
Better known as “The Vale of Arryn,” it was part of a larger region known as “The Mountain and Vale”. The Andals began their invasion of Westeros 6,000 years previous to Aegon's Conquest. Making the Arryn family is one of the oldest Andal lineages in Westeros.
When Aegon arrived, House Arryn and House Stark bent the knee and were granted The Vale region. During Robert Baratheon's rule, Jon Arryn is given the title of Warden of the East and also becomes the King’s hand. In his position, Jon basically runs the kingdom for the king and is a great manager.
When Jon Arryn dies unexpectedly, the leadership of the Vale and position of Warden of the East falls to his only son Robin.
Leadership Style: Participative Style (also Succession Planning Gone Wrong)
Having employees participate in decision-making process often has good benefits to the company. Collaboration makes employees more committed to the end decision that is made by the leader. When future leaders are not trained to take over the system smoothly should something happen to their current leader, more mature “leaders” with sometimes wrong intentions may end up holding the reign of the kingdom/company.
Robin Arryn was but an immature child who was never prepared to take any leadership role. His mother ended up controlling everything in the Vale through him. Then, unfortunately for him and the Vale, he's taking counsel from Littlefinger now that his mother is gone; possibly the most conniving character in the whole show.
Unsurprisingly, given his spoiled upbringing, Sweetrobin is a mess of a leader! Participative style leaders hear suggestions and take actions based on the opinions of those with a good understanding of issues. Robin's not big on effective action, preferring instead to throw people through the Moon Door and to play with falcons. Without the ability to make important leadership decisions, he is basically a puppet leader led behind the scenes by the people he should be managing.
Of course, it's not completely his fault. Robin’s mother didn't train him up on the proper leadership pathway and grow his skills! Properly developing and preparing employees for future management positions is important to company stability and growth. Robin's skills and talents were not nearly enough to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of his job and As a mentor, Lysa didn’t do Robin any favors by sheltering him and making all the decisions.
Doing nothing can have dangerous effects on your organization. By not training and developing Robin and lacking a succession plan, Lysa was setting up the kingdom for failure. She probably wasn’t expecting being “made to fly” out the Moon Door in a hostile takeover by her new husband Littlefinger, but that's the whole point of having a succession plan: it helps prepare for unexpected exits by preparing current employees for internal hiring positions and keeps the company going when there's a gap in leadership.
Like *some* (not all) Millennials and Generation Z today, Robin expects and feels entitled to his leadership position even though he has no skills and done little to deserve it. However, he is slowly making progress through the tutoring and mentorship of Lord Royce. Hopefully, proper training in the ways of the sword and bow will allow him to finally develop to become a good leader worthy of his title some day.
3. House Targaryen (Ruled by Daenerys Targaryen: The Mother of Dragons)
At one point in history, Daenerys’ father sat as the leader of all the seven kingdoms on the Iron Throne. He was a polarizing leader with a path of destruction and extreme control. He is later murdered by his own knight Jamie Lannister and the Targaryen dynasty ends.
Daenerys and her brother, Viserys were the only surviving Targaryens and they lived in exile for most of their lives. Her abusive older brother sold the timid Daenerys to a Dothraki king. This was a strategic move. Viserys hoped by having his sister as the Khaleesi or queen of the Dothraki he would align and overtake the iron throne.
Despite this plan, her brother loses control of Daenerys as she grows into a strong, independent queen. After his death, she becomes the heir to the Targaryen throne. Overtime Daenerys endures many trials including, losing her husband and her place as queen. All this time she has kept her precious dragon eggs. During the ritual burning of her dead husband, she lays in the fire with him. In the morning she emerges unharmed and surrounded with 3 hatched baby dragons.
From this point, she has now placed herself in a strategic position to rule. She declares that she is going for the Iron Throne and those who want to join her will be taken care of but she needs their loyalty and trust. She continues throughout these distant lands breaking slaves free and adding to her army. She is somewhat of a Joan of Arc in the way she unites so many different people. She can be very idealistic and dogmatic in her approach. Her lack of political experience shows her that not everything or everyone is yes or no, black or white.
Leadership Style: Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible. They set more challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performance. Statistically, transformational leadership tends to have more committed and satisfied followers. This is mainly so because transformational leaders empower followers.
Dany has built her success by having a trusted group of advisors like Tyrion Lannister, Jorah Mormont, the Unsullied, the Dothraki and now, Jon Snow. She is building her own empire by using pathways to create leaders and unite her people. In freeing the Unsullied slaves, she shows that she is loyal to those beneath her and that she is truly the matriarchal leader type. She also allows her people to take many different routes up to the top. Instead of the usual office politics or who-you-know-to-get-to-the-top methods, anyone within Dany’s kingdom can rise to the top, simply based on skill-set, loyalty, hard-work, and of course results.
People like Grey Worm who were once slaves can become top advisors to the Queen. When employees believe that there is a good opportunity for growth, they will want to work hard to stay with your company. Why don't they stay? According to Glassdoor, “The likely reason is that workers who don’t see a clear progression from their current role to a better position in their company ultimately turn to opportunities elsewhere. And that suggests an easy solution. By providing clear paths for employees, moving them through job titles on a regular progression over time, employers can help boost perceived career opportunities and limit this type of harmful stagnation.”
Dany trusts the people by her side because she has promoted them as they proved themselves and stayed loyal within the “company” in a fair manner.
By allowing Tyrion to take reign during her leave, Dany shows a succession plan for the next-in-command and leaves her empire in the hands of a few trusted advisors who have internally climbed the ranks not because of their family names but rather because of their skills and loyalties.
4. The Crownlands (House Lannister- Ruled by Cersei Lannister)
The Crownlands is one of the nine regions of the Seven Kingdoms. The Crownlands are special in that they are ruled directly by the monarch on the Iron Throne from the city of King's Landing. This means that the current ruler is none other than Cersei Lannister. Known as The Queen, then the Queen Mother, and then Shame, Cersei is very smart and a political player for sure. She is a master at manipulation and the politics of the Game of Thrones. She is a Queen mother who has lost her children in part because of her selfish actions.
Leadership Style: Autocratic Leadership
Cersei manages her “employees” with an iron fist and has become a shell of her former self, even slowly losing the affections of Jamie, the one person who has ever loved her. Cersei knows what needs to get done and makes it happen through secrets and manipulation. Queen Cersei is a great example of how pathways could immensely help an organization. Because Cersei has lost so many people in her army, her counsel and her family, she needs to implement pathways and have more people working on similar pathways towards the same position so that replacing people won’t be as hard as creating a zombie-monster-bodyguard. Remember, often times you can’t change the leader but you can change how to do things to make such transitions easier on your employees and organizations as a whole.
Leaders like Cersei are political masters and micro-managers – they rise to power and keep it by knowing who, what and when needs to be manipulated or eliminated. However, with this method, you will run out of people to trust. “Many companies fail to think about the long run in their hiring process. They have an immediate need or problem, and their solution is to find someone that will serve their purpose for that need solely.” This is Cersei’s main issue. Because she lost her family and the support of her people, she lacks a succession plan. So what should she do in such an organization? The best thing to do is to be highly organized in succession planning. More often than not, your employees are there for a few reasons:
1) the brand name of your company
2) fear of losing their livelihood
3) they have no other options
4) they have the personality to thrive in such a harsh environment.
You can help alleviate those pains by ensuring there is an organized succession plan and that you are constantly training them for more responsibilities. This will help them be confident in their jobs and feel that there is a possibility of a future if they persist and do well. A clear pathway will show them how to do well in the organization and prevent too many terminations due to expectations of the management not met. Clear pathways and organizational structure will also help minimize politics in the office, clearing the path for those who may not be great at the games but amazing at their work.
5. The Stormlands (House Baratheon- Ruled by Robert Baratheon
The Stormlands rest to the south of the Crownlands. Ruled for centuries by House Durrandon, their kingdom at a point in time extended to the roots of the Vale mountains, far into the central area now claimed by The Reach, and down south into the marshes of Dorne.
Chaos narrowed their kingdom down the area it covers today when Aegon arrived. When Argilac the Arrogant refused to bend the knee and was defeated, his daughter was married to House Baratheon.
Leadership Style: Lassez-Faire leadership
Under Robert Baratheon, the kingdom was united and he ruled from the iron throne. Although a terrible leader, he surrounded himself with talented employees that covered his weakness as a ruler by basically running the kingdom for him. This hands-off approach gave authority to his subordinates. Employees knew their roles and House Baratheon was able to keep the kingdom in peace.
After his death by boar hunt, however, everyone started fighting for a piece of the kingdom starting the long war that spans 8 TV seasons! This is what happens when you are “too hand’s off” and don’t have a clear succession plan set in place!! Without good leadership and a defined successor, nobody knew who was next in line for the Iron throne and everybody started proclaiming themselves king. Not only that, but you get a lot of unqualified and under-trained replacements who don’t meet the requirements of good leadership trying to manage the kingdom. (Could you imagine working for King Joffrey? bleh!)
If there was a King pathway that Joffrey could have been on from when he was a kid, perhaps he would have been better prepared to be a king and know how to handle things more maturely and with emotional intelligence instead of cutting off heads and overall being a terrible person.
On the other hand, if Stannis had a promotion pathway in place, he wouldn’t have felt all excluded and resentful over in Dragonstone. Things would have been better if he knew what requirements he had to fill to be a king, or at least have a chance to be promoted up the ranks. Instead, he let his emotions get the best of him because he was overlooked and his younger brother got promoted over him. For that reason, he joined in on the war of the five kings with everyone else.
6. The Riverlands (House Tully - Ruled by Edmure Tully)
Just east, the Riverlands covers central Westeros. Most of the early GOT seasons outside King's Landing takes place in the Riverlands. (Riverrun, The Twins, Harrenhal and even the Bloody Gate are grouped near one another.)
House of Tully of Riverrun is overseen by Edmure Tully. The land itself covers central Westeros and has stayed under their control for quite some time. Edmure Tully had to take over the responsibilities after his father’s passing. He wasn’t quite prepared to lead his house and has been seen as more of an affiliative leader gone wrong.
Leadership Style: Affiliative Leader Gone Wrong
Edmure Tully wasn’t prepared to be an outstanding, bold leader. His house is more of a middle-class house and there wasn’t much planning from his own father. This isn’t to say he was incompetent but not the greatest leader. As his sister Catelyn points out he would have been great in a time of peace.
He genuinely cares for the people he rules over. However, he lacks proper authority to establish pathways or any guidance for anyone to rule after him. He did not take any precautions to ensure the success of his house or kingdom. For example, when Jaime Lannister marches towards Riverrun, Edmure allowed fleeing peasants to take refuge, even though he knows he does not have the resources to provide for them or his current people.
If Edmure could have set leaders from among his people to oversee extra food and supplies or to build relations with neighboring kingdoms and perhaps trade he could have avoided some disaster. He also could have had his own set of leaders ready to step in when needed. He could have instead retained a strong presence and made a great ally for the North. But now, Riverrun has been taken by the Lannisters and Edmure Tully sits as a somewhat prisoner at Casterly Rock. The moral of the story? If you’re going for the affiliative style, you need to develop stronger leaders within your organization and be willing to give them the experience required for their growth.
7. The Iron Islands (House Greyjoy- Ruled by Euron & Yara Greyjoy)
The Iron Islands are far away and considered an outlier, they follow a Drowned God and Kingsmoot elections. Settled by the First Men in the Dawn Age, they were ruled for years by the Greyirons, who then were overthrown by the Hoares.
The Targaryens destroyed House Hoare, then Aegon allowed the Ironborn to hold a Kingsmoot, which the Greyjoys were awarded. The Greyjoys remained neutral through the Targaryen empire and Robert's Rebellion. Balon Greyjoy and his daughter Yara ruled their fleets while his son Theon grew up as somewhat of a prisoner at Winterfell.
This season, Theon’s and Yara's uncle Euron showed up and made some big moves. After effortlessly murdering his brother, he made a bold speech that rallied the Ironborn to his side. Now Euron is the leader of the Iron Islands. However, he doesn’t have every ironborn at his side. Yara made an equally persuasive plea and managed to sail off with her own followers to plan her return to the throne. There is somewhat of a house divided with the Greyjoys and Yara is now aligning herself with Daenerys and others. She’s somewhat sensitive but decisive. She is definitely on the path towards being the leading lady of the ironborn.
Euron is certainly not sensitive and makes some rash decisions but he's definitely an effective and convincing leader. In a recent attack against his niece and nephew, he also took Yara as captive. While she remains captive, her brother Theon is determined to free her and gather her supporters. Euron has now bent the knee to Cersei and asked for her hand in marriage (she’s not yet accepted) He and his fleets are at the service of Cersei in King's Landing for now.
Leadership Style: Split Leadership
Although Euron has a group of followers there were some who chose to follow Yara. This is what we call a split style leadership. Two leaders not on the same page and their people are split. The team members who followed Euron didn’t believe that a woman, Yara could lead them to victory. Those following Yara know it’s tough road but believe she has the right vision and will ultimately be a better leader. They will follow her until the end.
Euron will continue his demanding leadership focused on claiming the throne. He does not consult others and really makes any decision that is for his own good rather than the good of his people. You’ll also notice, he doesn’t appoint anyone to advise him or really check in on progress with his team. Communication is one sided and there is no transparency in the organization. This is not conducive to a healthy workforce as they may not always know what is being expected of them and may not truly trust their leader.
Yara, on the other hand, demonstrates traits of a flexible and strategic leader. She knows she can’t do it on her own. She knows that while the men behind her are brave, they cannot take the gold cloaks of Cersei by themselves. So instead of heading out on her own. She aligns herself with Daenerys. She instills a sense of loyalty in her crew. She has also taken the time to train and develop each of her men. Yara would be wise to promote an organized system of pathways. As her own people flourish and progress, the other “camp” will see that and will start demanding that of their own leader, which will never happen. Because the grass will be greener on the other pasture, Euron’s men will eventually cross over to Yara’s side once they see opportunities are clearer and more transparent.
She also gave Theon a chance to return and fight alongside with her, when even her father wouldn’t. This shows a great sense of confidence that Theon needed and her crew needed to see. When she is captured, her brother is able to rally them together towards her freedom. This would not have been possible without her great example to prepare her brother to finally stand up and take a seat at the leadership table. Sometimes, putting an employee on a pathway is not enough. They need to feel empowered by the leader’s examples to embark on that journey with their best efforts. A good leader sees that and is patient while still pushing their employees to be their best.
It would be wise for Euron to show some gratitude to his workers and help them learn and grow into leaders in his kingdom. This could prove threatening to his personality but if he builds trust and improves his culture through pathways he can see greater success. Only time will tell.
8. The Reach (House Tyrell - Ruled by Lady Olenna Tyrell)
The Reach is the second largest kingdom after The North and one of the wealthiest. The mild climates make it the resourceful area of the Seven Kingdoms. Their line goes back to the Dawn Age, ruled by House Gardener. These fighters warred with the Dornish and took half of the Stormlands for their own before Aegon's Conquest.
House Gardner remained the leaders of the rebellion during the Targaryen invasion. They were killed completely off at the Field of Fire. The Tyrells were the Gardener's stewards who surrender the Reach, only to be named Wardens of it. Although Mace Tyrell is the technical leader, everyone knows it is his mother, Lady Olenna Tyrell who is calling all the shots.
Lady Tyrell has been planning and plotting her family’s success for years. She carefully develops each family member and helps to place them in the most opportune positions. She makes for a caring, cunning leader who genuinely has her family and her people’s best interest at heart.
Leadership Style: Strategic Leadership
Lady Tyrell could have been a chess champion for all we know with the moves she makes. She is calm and calculative. Like any good CEO, she wants her kingdom to succeed and help those she cares about growth. She aligned herself with the Lannisters by marrying her granddaughter Margaery to the awful Joffrey. But do you really think she just planned to let her daughter suffer? No, there were bigger plans. She needed a seat at the table of the iron throne and Margaery was the way.
She carefully watched over Margaery to ensure she had the proper guidance and mentoring. Margaery became a quick learner and kept the bigger goal in mind. She wanted to be the queen to make a difference to the people of King's Landing and also bring glory to the Tyrell house.
Although plans went south and Margaery died in a tragic explosion carried out by Cersei, Lady Tyrell continued her alliance with Cersei. She continued to find other allies and strengthen her position. She could have greatly benefitted from a successor but this was one of her flaws. She had many allies but hadn’t prepared anyone to take over for her. When Jamie Lannister came to kill her, she could have had someone ready to take the reins and continue the battle towards the Iron Throne. For now, Lady Tyrell didn’t die in vain but Highgarden was overtaken and everything was lost to the Lannisters. Although strategic, not strategic enough Lady Tyrell RIP.
9. Dorne (House Martell - Ruled by Ellaria Sand)
Dorne is one of the more fascinating of the Seven Kingdoms. It was conquered by mass migration and ended with a powerful marriage of the Martell clan. They also were the first with progressive attitudes towards women, styling themselves as princes and princesses rather than a king. The house was ruled by Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand.
Leadership Style: Cross-Cultural Leadership
Because Dorne was made up of so many migrants and backgrounds its leaders had to adapt. Normally leaders of any of the seven kingdoms came from royal backgrounds and no commoner or bastards would ever be eligible to rule. However, in a more progressive area like Dorne, this didn’t matter. The Princess Ellaria was a bastard child and rose to be the leader of Dorne with 3 daughters.
This mindset allows them to be more free-thinking and accepting. It might also help them work better with multiple houses and kingdoms without conflict. Cross-Cultural leaders such as Oberyn and Ellaria are fierce but flexible. That flexibility must be maintained as their environments and surroundings are extremely diverse.
When Ellaria took over after Oberyn’s death this openness and flexibility served her well. She could have been a little less emotional in some of her decisions, but overall found opportunities to challenge and improve her daughters and bring success to Dorne. When Oberyn died she and her daughters were ready to take charge. She continually prepares her daughters to fight and lead on their own, in case something happens to her. One of the best displays of strategy comes when she aligns herself with Daenerys.
This alliance was beneficial to both her and Daenerys. They were both working towards the same goal. Because she truly focuses on her daughters and other’s development through pathways of missions, training and other tasks they set more challenging expectations and usually achieve higher performance. They also remain very loyal and committed.
No organization will ever be a perfect organization. Each comes with their strengths and weakness, some more strengths than others. While it may be great to complain and whine about the need for a change in leadership style, a much more effective way is to understand the type of organization you are in and mold the processes and tools to fix such issues. The beauty about pathways is that they are malleable to any organizational structure and need but yet still provide a blueprint for the organization and its people, both collectively and individually. Do you have a succession plan in your organization and have you implemented pathways within it? If the answer is no, it may be time to take a look at this critical tool in successful people management.
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