Bran Stark Is Not Exactly The Leader You Want To Follow
The shocking scene of the last episode left people to question the whole King title. Of all people we ever thought to be King, Bran Stark rarely came up as the candidate. Yet in the last episode, he was elected as King.
I never thought he would be elected as King. In fact, I never put him in my list of leadership character to follow! Sure there weren’t other candidates who wanted to rule King’s Landing. I would prefer Tyrion to be the King, except that he worked better as a negotiator than a leader.
Judging from the entire series of Game of Thrones, Bran Stark is not a leader. This post will discuss why, and hopefully, you may get something from here as well. I list 3 reasons why he is not in the leadership list, most are already combined to keep it short and understandable.
NOTE: For people who are disagreeing with me about him being a king, please comment below :)
1. No Emotions. AT ALL!!
After becoming the three-eyed raven, he expressed no feelings at all. Say you are in danger or in a tight situation you need to tell the others that something is very urgent, are you just going to give the same poker face?
One of the most important traits of being a leader is to have empathy. If you have no empathy towards others, how will you hope to gain followers? Leaders care about their followers more than themselves, which is why many companies have the vision to show why they started their business.
Bran had none of this. He is lucky he is the Three-Eyed Raven, someone who can see visions, basically a magical CCTV guy. He had no EQ, Charisma, nor confidence. Not having this is a big problem for a leader.
2. Goals?
Yes, in the last episode, we know that their mission is to fix what Daenerys burnt down. But what then after that? So far, he only mentioned on looking for Drogon. But what about King’s Landing? What vision did he want for the city or the world?
A leader must have a goal for the future. They see a world where everyone can live in a better place. By having this vision, they can gain followers who want to support that future.
If you only say “ I want to be King so that I can do whatever I want”, don’t expect people to follow you. We have seen this in Joffrey, he is an example of being an irresponsible leader.
I wrote an article on the case of Cersei, whose leadership style is pretty much the same as Joffrey. You can read it here:
Jon and Daenerys have goals, which is why they were both fit to be leaders. We saw how people were willing to follow them because they believe in their vision of a better world.
In fact, I have been rooting for them both to be King and Queen. They are the top candidates of a remarkable leader. You can read on how to be like them here:
Bran Stark had none of that. I don’t even know how we can expect him to gain followers, leading to my next point.
3. No Motivation
This is not about losing his ability to walk, but we don’t know why he accepted the offer to be King. His emotionless face and no goals arise question on what does he actually want.
Simon Sinek always says that when running a job, we must know ours why. That way, we know why we get up every day to work and what we are fighting for so that we are motivated to even work overtime. That is leadership behavior.
Bran Stark doesn’t have this. Throughout the entire season, he had been looking to the past, present, and different kinds of visions about the Night King and what’s going on in other cities (though not all the time). Most of his time going to the vision…..HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FUTURE!!
Remember how Bran confirmed about Jon’s heritage? The origins of the Night King? Observing the Night King?
Yea, they were all useless in the end.
Though one time it helped to justify the crimes of Littlefinger. He was really better of as an adviser.
If you have no motivation, don’t expect that you can get more followers in the future. It’s not going to happen. In fact, it has been proven many times in history.
Look at Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Stan Lee, and other famous people. When they were asked why they created the things that made them famous, it’s because they found their why and what motivates them.
This is a leader that you want to follow. Do you want to follow someone who doesn’t know what he/she is doing? Even Hitler had a vision of the future, which was why he was able to control a lot in WWII.
The Take…
I am skeptical of Bran being the King. I still am now. He is lucky he is the three-eyed raven that got him the favor to be a King.
But in real life, this is not a leader you want to be. He wasn’t meant to be one, and he was better of as an adviser because he had a lot of knowledge even when he displayed no emotions.
Jon and Daenerys are still better candidates as king and queen. But with this season too rushed, it is difficult to analyze their behavior.
Other than that, I hope you get something here.
