Leadership Styles in "Lost"

We all remember the television show, Lost, from a few years ago, in which a group of people are stranded on an island after their plane crashes. This tragic and life-altering event brought about a need for organization and teamwork in a world of chaos. In the first few episodes we can already see different characters developing into leadership roles that need to be filled. The following are a few examples of leadership theories being displayed in characters in the episode “House of the Rising Sun”:

Jack Shephard

In this episode, Jack has found a freshwater source in some caves on the island and takes a few others with him to collect water fro the whole group. While on this mission, he gets the idea to move the whole group away from the beach and into the caves, thinking long term about the risks of the beach and the safety and convenience of the caves. For the entire episode he is focused on this idea and doesn’t think about how other people are going to feel about it or react to it. Because of this I would say he is very task-oriented person. Although he is a nice guy and just wants to help the group survive as a whole, he fails at being people-oriented because he does not take into consideration how other people would feel and just makes the decision for the group without consulting them first. This results in the group splitting up at the end of the episode. I think that he ultimately failed as a leader during this episode because he forgot about his original goal of keeping the group together and became to focused on achieving his task.

John Locke

During this episode, John gets to know the character, Charlie, a little better and figures out that he has a drug addiction. John realizes that this could end very badly for Charlie and so he confronts him about it. At first he tries to convince Charlie that he it would be better for him to give it up on his own instead of continuing until the drugs run out. When this doesn’t work, John asks him if he would rather have his drugs or the guitar, even though Charlie believed his guitar was destroyed in the crash. Charlie ultimately chooses the guitar and hands over the drugs. John then points out Charlie’s guitar, completely intact. I think that John displayed trust in Charlie to do the right thing and also gave him the option to make his own choice to do the right thing. This is an example of Theory Y. This was very effective because now Charlie does not resent John and is going to feel much better about his decision to trust John since he made it himself instead of being forced into it. In the end, he was rewarded with the thing he wanted most and John has validated himself as a trustworthy leader.

Sayid Jarrah

Sayid definitely displays an authoritative leadership style in this episode after he breaks up a fight between Michael and Jin. He ends up putting Jin in handcuffs and tells everyone that they are not to release Jin until Sayid got to the bottom of the problem. He then questions Michael to try to figure out what could have cause Jin to attack him. Michael at one point even calls Sayid the “sheriff”. Sayid took control of the situation and an authoritative leadership style was exactly what was needed during that time.