World Monitor Magazine, Economy WM_April 2019 web version (2) | Page 67

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ground. It is the realm of thoughtful decision making, with a
full appreciation of other people’s values and beliefs. If you
decide to play the game of business, learn to understand
and leverage your abilities in this middle ground. At least
two of the stories from the series can help you play to win.
Ned Stark’s values hierarchy
At the start of the Game of Thrones storyline, Lord Eddard
“Ned” Stark, the warden of the North, faces significant
leadership challenges. It starts when his old friend King
Robert Baratheon (Cersei’s husband) requests his services
as the king’s hand — a position equivalent to the royal chief
of staff. “I want you down in King’s Landing [the capital
city],” says Robert, “not up here at the end of the world
where you are no damned use to anybody.” Ned travels
with his daughters into a city full of potential allies and
enemies. Exhausted and hungry, he arrives just as an urgent
meeting of the king’s closest advisors, the Small Council,
is beginning. The king has warned Ned that some council
members were flatterers and some were fools. As soon as
he takes his seat, writes Martin, “He thought he knew [which
were which] already.”
Ned thus makes a mistake that many leaders make. He
reacts instinctively to his new subordinates, guided by
his personal values. The Starks, his aristocratic family,
are known throughout Westeros as transparent to others,
authentic, and accountable. Their character is exemplified
by the wisdom he shares with his son Bran: “[The Starks]
hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence
should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you
owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words.”
Ned doesn’t realize that others hold different values — or,
even if they share his values, present themselves with less
transparency. In this context, the term values relates not to
corporate or organizational values but to the assumptions
and beliefs that drive our behavior. These usually operate
at a subconscious level, and are shaped by how we interpret
the lessons of our lives. Following our values often brings
out the best in us as leaders, driving our motivation and
commitment. But values can also drive us to behave
counterproductively, without being aware of it. The more
clarity we can elicit about how our values affect our
leadership, the better.
For example, Ned’s values trigger a disastrous argument
with his boss, King Robert. At first, it seems as though
there should be no conflict. They were brothers-in-arms
during Robert’s Rebellion, the insurrection that overthrew
the previous despotic “Mad King,” and they both believe
strongly in courage and honor. But as social psychologist
Shalom H. Schwartz has documented, people who hold
similar values assign different degrees of importance
to them. The prioritizing that each person does, usually
subconsciously, is called a “values hierarchy.” In his
influential work, Schwartz explains that there are six
main features to values: (1) We believe in values and have
emotional reactions to them; (2) they drive our actions;
(3) we believe in them despite what outside norms are
encouraged; (4) they are the way we decide what is good
or bad, justified or unjustified; (5) they exist in hierarchies;
and (6) we base our actions on trade-offs determined by
how we evaluate competing values.
While Robert and Ned share two important values, they
prioritize them in different ways. Ned’s values hierarchy
might be written as duty, then honor, then courage,
then family. Robert’s might be courage, then reward,
then honor, then camaraderie. Family would probably
not appear on Robert’s list of values, as shown by his
marginalization of his brother Stannis, his limited regard
for the children he believes are his own with Cersei, and
his complete disregard for his illegitimate children. Ned’s
own values keep him from seeing how important this
aspect of Robert’s temperament will be.
Shortly after Ned joins the Small Council, they learn that
Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled teenage daughter of the
Mad King they deposed, is married to a faraway Dothraki
(barbarian) horse lord and pregnant with a potential heir
who could challenge Robert’s rule. Robert proposes to
send an assassin to kill her and the unborn infant. Lord
Stark takes immediate umbrage at the idea; murdering
children is, in his view, dishonorable.
The potential exists for the king and his hand to find
common ground and work out an agreement, but as their
values are called into question, both men become angry.
King Robert is particularly offended because he thinks
Ned is challenging his courage. The two allies fall into
a public, destabilizing argument that leaves them both
vulnerable to their more immediate enemy, Queen Cersei.
Could the drama play out any other way? One of the
compelling aspects of Game of Thrones is that a
different outcome always seems possible if only the main
characters were a bit more self-aware. For example, Ned
doesn’t realize how his own biases make him vulnerable.
In one memorable scene, Lord Varys, the “master of
whisperers,” approaches Ned in disguise and shares
confidential information with him, alluding to plots
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