Even if your battles take place in Martin Place rather than Kings Landing, you may have encountered a Stannis Baratheon or Robb Stark in the workplace.
With the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones Season 3 airing, we asked psychologist Elizabeth Neal and executive coach Iain Crossing where the Westerosi power-grabbers are most likely to find a foothold in today’s organisations and what they should do to be more effective leaders.
Crossing, who consults with major ASX-listed companies, says the fictional monarchs demonstrate traits that all occur, to some extent, at various levels of the management chain.
Only one character has what it takes to be an effective corporate executive. Others may flourish with the right training.
Stannis Baratheon would be a junior manager respected by his subordinates.
Stannis is a blustering leader with powerful allies - the kind of person Crossing says may be found in junior management or senior operational roles in a family-run or semi-government business with no dedicated HR resources and weak governance.
Neal says Stannis is cold, lacks empathy, has a grandiose sense of self-importance and tends to overestimate his abilities. He is authoritarian and is unlikely to go back on decisions, which can lead to negative consequences.
'Stannis has a strong work ethic and is likely to be respected by his subordinates however his need and greed for power allows him to be influenced contrary to his principles,' she notes. 'There certainly are qualities that are promising but there would need to be professional development.'
The psychologists say Stannis would benefit from having a mentor, along with regular coaching to make him less reliant on his allies. He should work on grounding his goals on realistic expectations and timeframes, they say.
Joffrey Baratheon is most likely to get in trouble with HR.
Joffrey was born to power but has never demonstrated any effort or desire to lead, Neal says.
Emotionally unstable, antisocial, immature, unreliable, reckless and irresponsible, Joffrey ‘displays a pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others’, she says.
In a workplace, Joffrey is likely to be verbally abusive; his ‘casual bullying’ will likely drive subordinates to leave the organisation.
Narcissism can make executives more charismatic and isn’t always a bad thing, but the psychologists don’t think Joffrey is likely to respond to professional development programs because his narcissism indicates that he is too insecure to change.
When facing a Joffrey in the workplace, your best bet is to lodge ‘complaints with HR and try get him moved on’, Crossing says.
Robb Stark would be a star employee who rises through the ranks.
Robb was pushed into the job and while inexperienced, has so far been successful on the battlefield by being a collaborative leader.
He leads his northmen with a high degree of integrity, earning their respect and loyalty with higher ideas and moral values.
Of all the would-be monarchs we’ve seen in the HBO TV series so far, Crossing says Robb best fits the archetype of the ‘traditional Aussie battler’ – a manager who has risen through the ranks in a difficult situation.
Crossing says Robb’s hands-on, collaborative approach works well in the lower ranks of management, but he will need to take a wider view if he is to lead a larger organisation.
‘You can definitely be a collaborative leader but what tends to separate people as they move up the leadership ranks is an increasing level of self-belief backing the decisions they make,’ he says.
‘They need to define their vision and think about how to manage politics and culture.’
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