Why Daenerys Targaryen Is The Most Affective Leader
Daenerys Targaryen showed a very strong leadership throughout the entire seasons that made her an effective leader. She showed many behaviors that I personally used in my college days (aside from the dragons) when working with people I rarely team up with.
In honor of the release of Game of Thrones Season 8, I would like to break down a Leadership analysis of Dany and how she rose from nothing to The First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons.
Note that these are my speculations and I will only discuss the most critical scene that showed her leadership style. Critics or opinions are welcome.
NOTE THAT THESE ARE FULL SPOILERS!!
Daenarys leadership style is a Democratic Leader. This style is used for leaders who are very serious, and strict but yet still willing to listen to others. In her entire leadership, she used them when negotiating or talking to people who threatened her, and when discussing her next strategy. However, she would also be involved in decision-making and other meetings.
She was introduced from the very first season as a nobody. She has a name and a title, but no behavior of leading nor power. Her first spark of leadership was when she began to accept that she was sold to be the Khaleesi of Khal Drogo (picture above from season 1) and embraced the fact that she is now one of the “savages” and learned to please him. From then on, she gained the favor of her husband and the Dothrakis and proudly hung the title of Khaleesi, even if she is a Targaryen, a very noble House.
From then, on she was able to behave like a Khaleesi, which is equivalent to the title of queen. Her behavior turned more aggressive when Viserys, her brother, threatened her and she made him taste his own medicine. She never showed any soft side anymore, willing to watch Viserys die, sacrifice her unborn child to save Drogo but failed, and ‘kill’ Drogo. But that doesn’t mean she completely abandoned her soft side.
There were scenes where she acknowledges her underlings, servants, slaves, and armies regardless of their status. One of those scenes was when she took the slaves under her wing in the land of Lhazar after the Dothrakis attacked them, and willing to trust one of them, Duur, to heal Drogo. However, this ultimately cost Dany Drogo’s life. Another scene was when she reluctantly accepts Tyrion Lannister, a rivalry house, to be her advisor.
With the death of Drogo and the Dothraki remaining leaderless, she never gave up her will to lead.
Dothrakis usually do not acknowledge women leading them, but Dany defied the odds by walking into flames and survived with three dragons, which showed her determination to lead.
All these behavior showed how she was able to embrace change, accept her situation and position. We can see here actions speak louder.
After those happenings, it was the moment where she was determined to see a world where people are free of chains and to do this, she must take back the Iron Throne. With this vision, in a way, she announced to the world that House Targaryn still lives and showed to the Dothrakis that she is a suitable leader with a goal that can benefit them as well, hence crossing the sea.
Throughout nearly the entire seasons, her dragons gave her the biggest power in her leadership. Basically a “Do this or die” style. This power, in real-life, is sometimes used by managers or people in very high positions to get their employees to work or when negotiating in businesses, hence, confident.
With that confident in her, she had more authorities in anything. There are very fewer benefits kind of negotiations, and even if it succeeded for the opposite party, it mostly worked to her bidding.
The picture with her dragon showed she expressed no emotions when negotiating with Razdal, one of the ‘Wise Masters” of Yunkai, about not conquering his city due to the number of slaves. This type of behavior showed a ‘don’t underestimate me’ style.
One of the best scenes to show authority is as seen below(you can check in youtube “Daenarys in Astapor” ). To make it short, she was able to gain all unsullied armies and her dragon even when her deal with the slave traders is the dragon for the troops.
She remained calm throughout the entire dealing process, insults, and the attack process. When one is emotional, sometimes it showed the other party weakness. In this case, this is a very difficult decision since her only children are her dragons and she nearly gave one up. Nether less, she still remained calm. This showed a risk-taking behavior.
Behaviors of Risk-takers, in real life, are mostly found in the owner of business or company, and people who will charge first.
They have a vision, they planned, take risks, act on it, launched it, embrace change, learn from it, and most of all, not giving up.
So far, Jack Ma is the biggest risk-taking businessman I have ever known. He had been rejected multiple times but despite the fact that he might be rejected again, he was still determined to create his own company (not sure with his leadership style but he can still get back up no matter the amount of rejection and still lead anyways).
Back to Dany, after ‘dealing’ with the slave traders, one of her other risks is losing her unsullied army. Quick note, these armies are born as slaves in Astapor and Dany’s goal is to free them. She gave the Unsullied options: that they are free to go or fight with her to take back her throne.
So the Pros of doing this is that Dany fulfills her vision, but the cons are that she will not have many armies to take back the Iron Throne. In the end, the Unsullied decided to follow her and Daenarys dropped that symbol of slavery (a symbol of two things in her leadership: her reign is coming and don’t mess with me).
In the end and to make it short, by using her continued leadership style, it brought her to be able to gain all those titles and for the very first time, Dothrakis can sail the seas.
Her highlights of Democratic leadership styles often raised here are:
- Strict with her terms (mostly ‘take it or leave it’)
- Disciplined to her goals
- Calm no matter the situation
- Using threats to her bidding
- Still, include others in discussions and decision-making
- Willing to listen to others
There might be some missing behaviors, but these are the ones that popped around a lot here and in, what I believe, the crucial scenes in the whole series that showed her leadership. Its a lot of episodes so it’s not easy to cover them all. The bottom line, she is a democratic leader. Even her house theme song had so much power in it, though there are melodies of sadness in it. (Listen to the Winds of Winter and Reign, these two OSTs became my anthem when coming to class and work).
The one who I can think of having a leadership style like Daenarys is Duterte, the president of the Philippines. He made it clear about “use drugs and die” law, which Dany did: “have slaves and die”.
I admire Daenarys Targaryen’s leadership style and can’t wait to see how she turned out in season 8. But knowing Game of Thrones, I am not allowed to put my hopes high in one character 😐.
I hope you guys get something out of this and I will see you all in the next post.
Valar Morghulis.
