The Leadership Style of Jon Snow
From ‘Bastard’ to King in the North
Throughout the entire season, Jon Snow has shown a remarkable development that led him to be an effective leader. He has shown traits, influence, and motivations for his people, and more confidence in his own way to lead the Nightwatch, and ultimately, the entire house of Stark. All in all, his leadership style is Servant Leadership.
Servant Leadership is a style of leadership that, like the name itself, want to serve others before themselves. They are willing to help others no matter what and their sense of morality is very strong.
This type of leader is someone who would gladly put themselves at risk and people will vote them leader because this person had so many experiences going through a certain situation, just like Jon Snow.
In this post, I will be discussing the crucial and memorable scenes and traits that presented this style of leadership.
WARNING: LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
1. Stand-up For Others
This is one of the most notorious types of leadership. It’s a very Jesus way of behaving where one will help a person who does not show many qualities, and no matter how pathetic or the numerous times they fail.
These leaders have a high sense of EQ and will show empathy towards the less fortunate. For them, everyone has qualities. Even if those qualities are not shown now, Servant Leaders believe that their talents will show up eventually and they will help nurture them until they know what they are capable of.
Therefore, there is a lot of trust in this type of leadership.
Why is that?
This is because they know what it felt like to be them, just like Jon. We were first introduced to Jon Snow as the bastard of Ned Stark. Basically another child from another mother. He was despised by others just because of that, and it is a painful judgment where people do not see their qualities first.
For instance here, Jon Snow showed a lot of empathy towards Sam Tarly at the beginning of the series.
Sam was training to be one of the Night Watch but was beaten up badly by the other recruits.
As viewers, we would doubt his qualities in becoming a member of the Watch.
However, Jon defended him and still encourages him that he can still be a Night Watch with more practice. This is the humble side of Jon to show that he cared for Sam no matter what. Additionally, Jon threatened one of the recruiters, with Ghost the Direwolf of Jon, if ever he bothers Sam again. This here showed how loyal he is to one of his own.
Because of Jon’s continuance nurture for Sam, he elected Jon as Lord Commander and rose to be a Master of the Watch in Citadel.
Basically, he became a scholar for the Watch. However, if it weren’t for Jon Snow’s help from the very beginning, Jon would never be Lord Commander and chosen as King or discover his talent elsewhere to help find a way to defeat the Night King(zombie king).
In fact, he was the one who told Jon that using dragonglass can help defeat the White Walkers(zombies). Furthermore, remembering how Jon used to help Sam no matter how badly he was, Sam decided to help Ser Jorah to cure him of his bad infection when no other Masters would help him. The empathy Jon gave towards Sam was influenced by him. These are the results of Jon’s empathy, humbleness, loyalty, and commitment towards the others no matter their situation.
2. Willing To Sacrifice
This behavior is very common in Servant Leadership. Although other leadership styles would do the same, this style would still jump ahead no matter how bad it looks like.
These are the people who are willing to be left behind so other people can still survive, because of this action, they are elected as leader.
When Janos hides in the castle during the attack, it was an opportunity for Jon to be in charge of the defense. This was one of the traits of bravery when Castle Black was attacked, especially when he came face to face with Styr, a big ass tribe of the free folk (Magnar of the Thenn). He was still willing to fight no matter what.
Additionally, he also went to negotiate with Mance Rayder, one of the wildlings, to stop this “civil war”. Now going up to your enemy and ask for peace is a suicidal thing to do, but Jon did it anyway so that no one has to suffer anymore.
Here we see that he cares for the well-being of his people, most probably as well because he witnesses the death of his lover, Ygritte, and willing to stop a war even if it means he may die in the process. Because of his actions, Jon was elected to be a Lord Commander.
But even when he is Lord Commander, he was still willing to sacrifice himself for others. This action was seen in the Massacre of Hardhome.
When the White Walkers attacked, it was clear that everyone needs to evacuate. Rather than commanding from a safe distance, he charged together with the other Watchers to buy the other survivors more time to escape.
In the mind of servant leaders, they see everyone as equal. This is very people oriented. Jon had this in mind, which is why he wanted to unite the wildlings with the 7 kingdoms (although his ultimate goal was to prevent encountering more Whites). However, sacrificial behavior shows so much bravery in that leader, which leads me to another trait.
3. Very Honest
With having a very strong sense of loyalty, trust, and sacrifices, they are the most honest person. They would feel guilty if they had to lie. This is because they have already had the trust of others for electing the leader, Servant Leaders will do everything they can to uphold the title they are chosen to.
This is a man of his words. There are no benefits for him but the others. He wants what is best for them and doesn’t care what will happen to him, as long as his family and allies are safe from the Whites.
At the last episode, Jon told Cersei that he cannot pledge loyalty to her, Queen of the Iron Throne (currently) because he has already bent the knee for Daenerys.
Now in a serious situation when one needs a lot of allies to defeat another threat, sometimes it is better to hide some information. However, aside from probably has grown interested in Dany, he preferred to tell the real truth because he knew he would never be able to promise it.
For them, action speaks louder than words even if he knew this behavior could get himself killed, just like Ned and Robb Stark died because they revealed too many truths. Why do these leaders feel so bad when lying even a small thing?
Most servant leaders come from the lower part of any hierarchy. They know what it feels like to be in a very bad position. But when people elect them as leaders, they will gladly be honest about their way to lead for the better because they don’t think they deserve the title. They find that lying gives them no advantage, why is that?
When you lie, you can get away with it in the short-term. People would buy in your sweet stories for a while.
However, that lie can fade because it is not your true self and eventually the cat will be out of the bag soon enough.
As an example, Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, had been lying to the entire world about her invention where a prick of blood can give accurate results for your test.
Now this will definitely sound very innovative and help the healthcare industries…….. if it's real. Apparently, since the very beginning when building Theranos in 2003, her ‘technologies’ and ‘creations’ were never real and she had been lying to investors and all the people who had bought her products.
Long story short, Theranos was shut down in 2018. You can read about her here:
You see here why lying is not worthed for these leaders? For them, especially Jon, they will feel others are more important and that lying will get them nowhere when the situation is very bad. There is no morality or anything that can influence others to see their vision, which brings me to my last point.
4. Strong Ethics and Morality
“When enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies.”
With all those discussed above, servant leaders have high sense of ethics and morality. They will stand firm and are stubborn when they know which is right and wrong no matter the cost.
As explained above, Jon wanted to unite the Wildlings and Nightwatch together.
However not many agreed to this because the Wildlings lived beyond the walls of the 7 kingdoms, it is basically like the old Indians in America where Indian tribes were not accepted in the society because of their way of living.
Jon wanted to stop the nonsense of this and unite them with the Nightwatch anyway because, for him, the greater threat to him is the Night King.
This morality can also influence others to do what is right. For instance, he was willing to go beyond the wall to capture a White and bring it to Cersei as proof that they exist. Though there are some people he chose to go with him, all his members are willing to go anyways. The morality side of them is sparked because of Jon.
In real life, and especially in companies, when you think of others before the company, that business can still live.
This is because leaders have made an indirect exchange that everything they do matters. When this happens, followers will put their best efforts into the task and will do the same to others by caring for one another.
An example of this is Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, a global manufacturing tech company that survived 2008 without firing his employees. . In 2008, when the financial crisis hit the company hard with a lot of costs, the company was deciding to layoff the staff.
However, Bob gave another option where everyone’s pays are cut rather than firing. Because of this, the company’s ethics and morality increased and this culture was put into great practice. In the end, this company survived even today and they were able to earn back the losses.
To make it simpler, these behaviors are found so much in Alpha wolves. This is also why, for them, to become a leader, one must challenge them.
For Jon, this is also a way to express leadership, which is why he decided to bend the knee to Daenerys after she saved him and his team from the whites and losing Viserion (one of her three dragons) in the process. It is a very people-oriented leadership style.
The take…
What you can take from here, the biggest traits of a Servant Leadership are:
- Stand-up For Others
- Willing To Sacrifice
- Very Honest
- Strong Ethics and Morality
Now, being this kind of leader requires a lot of sacrifices. But if you have the morality that quality matters more than quantity, the results will be fruitful.
If you encounter this type of leader, DO NOT MAKE FUN OF THEIR CHOICES. Chances are, they had been through the very depths of hell to make this decision.
Take Mahatma Gandhi for an example. He came from a very poor family and was discriminated a lot by Europeans. He could have been killed when he opposed the British rule for India to declare civil rights for the Indians.
However, he did it in a peaceful protest through speeches that moved everyone’s heart. Although he was assassinated in the end, he became an inspiration for today and the future. Sounds like Jon Snow right? You check out more about Mahatma Gandhi life here.
I hope you learn something from this. I’d like to thank all the people who left likes in the links I shared, took the time to DM me to continue doing the analysis again. I will be sure to make some more and I will see you in the next post :)
