It is possible to analyze why some brands of leadership are not effective and draw lessons from the mishaps of some of the worst fictional leaders out there.

1. The Best Lessons From The Worst
Fictional Leaders
By David Kiger Image courtesy of José María Pérez Núñez at Flickr.com

2. In one of our past articles, we talked about the inspiring qualities
of fictional leaders that have made part of pop culture for
decades. These characters have captured our imagination and
become examples to follow in some cases when we reflect some
of our own internal struggles as we watch them deal with
adversity and all kinds of positive and negative situations.
However, these examples of leadership are not always positive
and we have also witnessed a great number of terrible leaders
present in out TV shows, movies and books. Can we learn from
that particular type of leadership as well? Here at David Kiger’s
Slideshare we think you can. It is possible to analyze why some
brands of leadership are not effective and draw lessons from the
mishaps of some of the worst fictional leaders out there.
Remember, just because someone is in charge it doesn't
necessary mean they should be, and while sometimes this
situation is the perfect recipe for laughs and entertainment, it
can have disastrous results if it were to be the case in real life.

3. Let us take a look at some of the worst fictional leaders and smile
as we may be able to draw some parallels between them and
some people in charge the probably remind us of.
Darth Vader - Star Wars Series
Leaving aside the fact that Darth Vader finds peace through
redemption and is forgiven before his final demise, we cannot
ignore the fact that he is a terrible leader. Ruling by fear is an
awful way to nurture your employee’s skills and initiative to take
risks. One of the biggest problems with Vader’s rule is the fact
that there is nobody else in the empire able to take over in the
event of his retirement, something that while it makes him
irreplaceable, it greatly hurts the company as a whole. Force
choking your employees for disagreeing with you in a meeting is
probably not the best way to boost productivity and maintain
company morale high.

4. Joffrey Baratheon - Game of Thrones
This child-king is the perfect example of a leader that did
not earn his position and therefore has to spend a great
amount of time and energy reassuring his right to rule by
boasting non-existent merits and intimidating those who
simply cannot say anything back for fear of retaliation. On
top of being one of the most hated characters in television,
Joffrey is also a great example of a terrible leader who is
completely out of touch with anything that goes on around
him, a very bad situation for someone who has to make
decisions that affect everyone.

5. Albus Dumbledore - Harry Potter Series
Finding their beloved wizard in this list would surprise most
people, and that is probably the biggest problem with
Dumbledore’s kind of leadership; the character is so
likeable that we ignore the fact that he was an awful
headmaster. During the entire story, he always said that the
school was the safest place for the students to be, yet he
continued to make silly mistakes that would endanger
everyone around him just because he would always fail to
mention what in the world was going on. Dumbledore was
irresponsible and always kept important information to
himself that should have been properly disseminated.

6. Napoleon - Animal Farm
A crazy megalomaniac in the form of a pig is probably the
biggest caricature of the power-obsessed leader. However, if we
look past the over exaggerated traits of Napoleon we can see
something that does resemble real life examples of leaders who
use fear and impose their will through force just to keep workers
in line. Napoleon never cared about the greater good and
wasted opportunities to use his follower’s strengths in the best
possible manner.
Captain Ahab - Moby Dick
The revenge-obsessed captain of the Pequod is a perfect
example of a leader with only one goal in mind that ignores
everything else around him and is blinded by his own obsession.
The author of the book describes him as a monomaniac, a
person who is focused on one thing only and who is rendered
mad by that one thing as well. His personal vendetta against the
whale who took his leg, leads to the unavoidable demise of his
entire crew.

7. Bill Lumbergh - Office Space
Before Horrible Bosses, there was Office Space and
probably his more memorable character, Bill Lumbergh.
Lumbergh is the textbook example of a micro manager who
will give specific instructions and then stick around to
oversee the whole unnecessary process without leaving his
employees any room to breathe. These types of managers
demonstrate a lack of confidence in their people and are
extremely condescending. While this attitude may be
beneficial in some cases, it is the worst possible
environment for experienced staff members who are
professionals and well prepared at what they do. Bill
Lumbergh are probably the number one reason why people
leave a company.