Montgomery Burns: Intemperate Leader

If there ever were a Bad Leaders’ Hall of Fame, I would most definitely include none other than Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons. This man exudes intemperate leadership with his despicable nature, feared persona, excessive greed, and poor habits.

The first clip shows us Mr. Burns’ experience with ether on the job. He is anesthetized at the workplace, allowing personal problems and conditions to intersect with his work, which does not bode well for workplace productivity. Then again, when is the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant ever productive? Homer arrives on the scene, prompting even more hallucinations for Burns, and Homer takes this opportunity to get Burns to sign a check sponsoring his newly formed bowling team. As Kellerman states in her article, “Intemperate Leadership,” “it’s not a matter of work being derailed but of work not being done at all.”

The second clip features an insider look into the Burns gubernatorial campaign. Based on the excessive amount of advisers for transforming both Burns and his political opponent, we can assume that he has spent a lot of money on the campaign. Also, based on the numerous episodes demonstrating Burns’ personality, we can also safely assume that no work is being done whatsoever. This election is only an excuse to satiate Burns’ ever-increasing greed for power, a major distraction from the nuclear plant that he supposedly runs.

SUPERBAD and Incompetence

I chose to present a clip from the film SUPERBAD. This clip clearly illustrates a supreme example of incompetent leadership. In this film, to say these police officers perform poorly on their jobs is an understatement. They are just utterly clueless and seem to do everything wrong. In this clip, the police officers do not have the faintest idea of how to properly be a cop. They abuse their power, lack expertise, and the ability to focus. As enforcers of the law, they themselves openly commit offenses. They lie, destroy property, drink and drive, allow someone to utilize their firearms as toys, and even go as far as forcing the bystander, McLovin, to lie in the name of the law in order to save themselves. It is almost unreal how clearly these two men emphasize the characteristics of incompetence.

In the article describing incompetent leadership, it is stated that incompetent leaders can be incompetent in many different ways: “miscalculation to mismanagement, from silliness to stupidity, [and] from careless to callousness.” However, these government workers seem to be incompetent in every way possible. It leads to audience to question how they were able to assume this leadership role in the first place. Even though, they movie is made for entertainment and is meant to be taken as a joke, it brings forth an important issue. Incompetent leaders, like Juan Antonio Samaranch, “lack the skill or will (or both)” to be leaders, but at the end of the day they have assumed these great positions of power and something has to be done to fix not only the problem, but the system that allowed them to climb the step ladder in the first place.

Though I chose to highlight on the intemperance of these characters, they are also prime examples of intemperate and insular leaders. They lack any and all self-control and they have complete disregard for the safety of their followers. All in all, these police officers display numerous characteristics of bad leadership.

Analyzing Bad Leadership in V for Vendetta

I chose this clip from V for Vendetta because it so clearly demonstrates multiple aspects of a bad leader. The man on the screen, Chancellor Sutler, is about as nasty a person as you can find, and bears a striking resemblance to Hitler in both attitude and policy. He runs England with an iron fist, giving people very little freedom and removing anything that may be seen as a threat to his government. In the clip, this comes in the form of the song, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Since it now serves as a reminder to the explosion of the Old Bailey, it may cause people to question the government, so he blacklists it. Additionally, he treats his subordinates poorly, demanding results from them and getting angry at one follow for even mentioning his opinion about the situation. Sutler also delves into the seven habits of unsuccessful leaders, as he believes that he is irreplaceable, and tries to use the media to show that the country needs him for their survival. On a different note, he also shows that he is willing to, and probably often does, blatantly lie to his followers in order to retain their support. This clip furthermore demonstrates the results of having a leader like this. Throughout the clip, the camera pans to each member of Sutler’s cabinet. Almost all of their faces show a look of subtle contempt or anger directed towards the Chancellor.

Media Clip: The Departed

For my media presentation, I chose a clip from The Departed, directed by Martin Scorcese. In The Departed, Jack Nicholson plays Frank Costello, the head of the Irish mafia in South Boston. He is the sole leader of the gang scene in Southie, and exhibits several of the characteristics of a bad leader outlined by Sydney Finkelstein in her “Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People”.

Despite perhaps being past his prime as a mob leader, Frank refuses to step down, or to look to anyone else for help in his leadership role. This failure as leader and bad “habit” is reminiscent of Finkelstein’s “Habit #3: They think they have all the answers” (Finkelstein, 223). Even when Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) challenges Frank’s status and says that he is becoming washed up and replaceable, Frank refuses to admit weakness or failure.

In addition, Frank clearly exhibits the fourth habit: “They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t 100 percent behind them” (Finkelstein, 226). In my clip, Frank talks about a “rat” in his unit of men, and explains that normally in this situation, he would kill everyone who might be questionable, or who challenged him. Thus, Frank is ready to literally eliminate (by killing) anyone who does not stand behind him.

Frank Costello demonstrates several characteristics of a bad leader in The Departed, including his immense overconfidence, his stubbornness to get help or to step down, and his automatic elimination of any men who do not back him completely.

SOURCES:

Finkelstein, Sydney. "Chapter 9: Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People." Why Smart Executives Fail: and What You Can Learn from Their Mistakes. New York: Portfolio, 2004. 213-37. Print.

The Departed. Dir. Martin Scorcese. Perf. Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jack Nicholson. Warner Bros., 2006. DVD.

Lex Luther- A Bad Leader

For my movie clip, I chose a scene from Superman Returns. In this clip, the villain of the film, Lex Luthor, displays many of the characteristics of bad leadership. For example, he shows intemperate leadership in that he lacks any form of self-control. He plans on using a stolen Krytponian crystal, which he has combined with Kryptonite, to create a new continent in the Atlantic Ocean. This new continent will cause sea levels to rise drastically, killing billions of people in the process. Then, he plans on selling the land of his new continent for incredibly high prices. Thus, Luthor lacks self-control, as he is willing to do anything for money and power. Moreover, his followers do not intervene to try to stop his destructive plan, instead choosing to help him for personal gain. Also, Luthor displays an extreme form of insular leadership by completely disregarding the health and welfare of any people outside of his small group of followers. Furthermore, he exhibits several of the characteristics of bad leadership revealed in Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People. For instance, he sees himself as dominating the world. When Lois Lane asks him what he will do when the world reacts to his evil scheme, Luthor simply replies that the world will be unable to stop him due to the advanced alien technology that he possesses. In this manner, he also illustrates another habit of bad leaders: he underestimates major obstacles. Not only does he seem to underestimate the power of the world, but he also underestimates the power of Superman. He believes that Superman will be unable to stop him because his new landmass will be filled with Kryptonite. However, Superman ultimately pushes the landmass into space before it grows to a catastrophic size, almost dying in the process. Thus, Lex Luthor serves as a classic example of bad leadership as his huge ego and intemperance eventually lead to the failure of his “flawless” plan.

Bad leadership in Film and Media: Malory Archer

For the bad leadership in film and media assignment, I chose a clip from FX’s comedy, Archer. The show is set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS) in New York City, and the main character is Sterling Archer, the most dangerous spy in the world. He must deal with global espionage; a domineering, hypersexual, late middle-aged mother and boss, Malory Archer; and his ex-girlfriend, Agent Lana Kane.

The character that consistently displays bad leadership is Malory Archer, who is the head of ISIS. She is a comical character: she is a self-centered alcoholic who consistently hatches poorly thought out plans, and she frequently uses the agency’s resources to her personal advantage. She is representative of many of the bad leaderships we studied in classed.

In the video clip, she agrees to allow Hollywood actress Rona Thorne to spend a week shadowing ISIS agents. Thorne’s presence at ISIS compromises the agents’ missions and causes much trouble for ISIS. However, Malory agrees to the request in order to gain a favor from the movie studio; she wants a leading role in a movie. Malory’s action is clearly an example of bad leadership because she is abusing her position of power for personal gain. Additionally, she constantly engages in excessive drinking and inappropriate sexual relationships with her subordinates. These actions show that she is an intemperate leader. At the end of the episode, we discover that the actress Thorne is actually a Russian spy. Malory’s careless mistake of allowing Thorne access to ISIS demonstrates that Malory is an incompetent leader as well.

In response to Kyle.

I noticed you spoke of the need for high regulation in the economy today; however, could this lead to complications down the road? Can a line really be drawn between more intense economy regulation and a sense of personal freedom?