Leaders in Literature

An interesting aspect of leadership that is rarely considered is inspirational leaders from fiction. Naturally these are idealistic prototypes as they don’t actually exist but a skilled author can really bring to life such characters to life, especially if they include traits they have seen in real life.

Here are a selection, heroes and villains that we used in pitching to a prospective client in the book industry.

Heroes

R P McMurphy, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

One man against a repressive system, he empowers the lunatics to take over the asylum. Is this a welcome analogy in business? If you do not manage wisely beware the rebellious post boy who brings your empire down.

Claudius, I, Claudius, Robert Graves

By allowing others to take him for a fool on no real evidence, Claudius arrives at the top and shows intelligence beats duplicity. Moral; you have to be clever to reach the top and even cleverer to stay there.

Dwight Towers, On The Beach, Nevil Shute

Faced with certain death after a nuclear holocaust, Towers is the submarine captain who gives his crew hope and a sense of purpose to the very end. Never giving up even when all seems lost is not an easy task.

John Blackthorne, Shogun, James Clavell

The ultimate example of going native, crazy John really thinks he is an all-conquering samurai warrior defending his honour and homeland. Unfortunately for them, so do his enemies.

Villains

Fu Manchu, Sax Rohmer

One of the better criminal masterminds in fiction (if a bit controversial today). Criminals need good generals too, and is there really so much difference between helming an investment bank and a secretive organisation bent on skulduggery on a grand scale?

Kurtz, Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

He's good at what he does but the ivory man is mad, bad and dangerous to know, if you can find him at Africa’s dark heart. Yet the mystery of whether he is a good leader in a bad situation is left tantalisingly unresolved.