The second season of LOST introduces yet a third approach to leadership in the person of Dr. Benjamin Linus. As evidenced in the clip below, Ben is the most dangerous type of leader in the postmodern world—a pseudo servant leader, or “power broker.”
In contrast to the “asshole” style of leadership evidenced by Sawyer and his gun (see, Lesson 1), the first season of LOST open’s with a compelling story of a radically different approach: service.
Like all authoritarian leaders, Sawyer understood that a leadership position is often wielded very much like a gun.
One of the key storylines of LOST’s first season is the tension between Jack (Matthew Fox) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) for leadership of the small band of plane crash survivors desperately seeking to balance the twin goals of survival and rescue.
There is something in the very nature of leadership that implies service. True leaders, those who people follow because they want to not because they have to, always begin with and return to the needs of their followers.
True leaders, those who people follow because they want to not because they have to, always begin with and return to the needs of their followers.