SWC Best Star Wars Leader

We see many Star Wars characters in leadership roles - as generals, politicians ,council members, etc. Who do you think is the best leader in the SW saga? Who has the best combination of respect, wisdom, intelligence, and vision to lead a group or organization efficiently?

 

Yoda of course.

 

I am torn on this one. I have always respected Obi Wan and thought of him as a very good, wise, and well-rounded leader. However, I must also say that I do admire Tarkin. He was an absolutely brilliant man. Tarkin had a vision and knew what he wanted to accomplish. He commanded respect and his demeanor was one that showed how wise he was and that he absolutely knew it. These two characters are the ones that I would most like to 'follow' if I were given a choice, but I would struggle to chose one or the other.

 

Hmmm, while he was't perfect I would have to say Yoda. Followed by Obi-Wan, and for some reason I also liked Bail Organa probably because he was actually a good politician and overall good guy.

 

well I'd say Luke or Leia,

unfortunately none of the good guys in the PT had many of what you call wisdom or intelligence because they had to be "dumbed down" somewhat to make the bad guys plan work. This is not a slur on the PT as of itself, 80% (rough number) of similar films tend to do this.

 

Who else but Yoda.

 

This essay discusses the difference between "a leader" and "a boss":

http://elitedaily.com/money/entrepreneurship/things-distinguishes-leader-boss/

Somehow, I can't see Emperor Palpatine scoring high on "respect instead of fear". As Vader puts it: "the Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" and the thought of his wrath makes Jerjerrod visibly terrified.

 

I know I sound like a copy cat, but Yoda.

 

I've always liked Bail. Maybe it's all those episodes of LA Law I used to watch...

 

I'm going to go with Bail Organa. He's the textbook Reasonable Authority Figure.

 

Wedge Antilles

 

Palpatine. He leads the good guys, he leads the bad guys. It took him, what, 30 or 40 years to almost single handedly take over the entire ****ing galaxy.

I mean, Wedge could probably plan a decent air strike or escort mission, but it's not quite the same.

 

On the other hand, he was supposedly the sharp end of a millennium of Sith evolution and his empire lasted, what, twenty years? A bit of a fizzer really...

 

20 years longer than Wedge's.

 

Fair point. But Wedge wasn't setting out to become the ruler of the galaxy for all eternity. If you look at it relatively, from a stated goal v achieved outcome standpoint, it could be argued that Palpatine was a dismal failure as a leader. I guess it depends on how "best leader" is defined. If the best leader is the most powerful, then it has to be Palpatine. But there are other ways of defining effective leadership.

 

I took this to mean you're favorite leader. If we're discarding opinions and choosing the BEST, then yeah. I'm going with Palpatine.

 

I would say either Tarkin or Dooku. Both are highly intelligent, perceptive, and driven men that had goals and pursued them. Both have a leaning to honesty, charisma, and command respect though in completely differing ways as suits their different personalities.

 

Honest toward their immediate subordinates, maybe. Pretty dishonest in some other respects, in Dooku's case (Going by the RoTS novel he's deceiving the Separatists into thinking he shares their goals - when his real goal is to subjugate them all as part of an Empire of Man).

And in the Legendsverse, Tarkin is deceiving his wife - pursuing a secret affair with a mistress.

 

I will go with Leia. I am surprised that anyone thinks of Yoda as a good leader. He's terrible imo.

 

Padmé/Queen Amidala in TPM.

Just a good leader. She has the power to resist strong intimidation (both verbal and military) on Naboo, intelligently decides to seek for help from higher authorities (Jedi, Senate) and when she realizes that doesn't work out, she opens up new opportunites (alliance with the Gungans) and relies on their own strength and - what makes her superior to Leia in ANH - she manages to hide her own despair/stress most of the time and keeps people around her motivated. Leia's destructive and aggressive attitude towars her "savers" (Han and Luke) is one of the things a good leader would never do in such a situation.

Dooku is a good example of Max Weber's charismatic authoriy, I'd say, working perfectly in an era of crisis. Tarkin must have been a strong leader, given that he commands the Death Star, although we don't get to see a lot of both men's leadership abilities in the films.

Palpatine is a "good" - albeit diabolic of course - leader as well, executing his will through others.

 

But Leia isn't as naive and easily manipulated as Padmé, who in my eyes hardly qualifies as "intelligent". Also: she never gives up.

 

We do see Leia giving some orders - which get obeyed - in TESB. But otherwise, we don't see all that much actual leading.

Luke takes command of Red Squadron in ANH without any problems after Red Leader dies - gives good orders, which are promptly obeyed. Same applies to his role as Rogue Leader in TESB.

Lando & Ackbar, aside from a momentary conflict, seem to do fairly well in ROTJ.

On the Imperial side, if "looking out for the welfare of subordinates" is a key factor in leadership, Captain Needa scores very high - "I shall assume full responsibility for losing them - and apologize to Lord Vader."

 

How often she is the leader doesn't tell us how effective she is as one. Leia is capable of ordering Han Solo around and that counts for much. So what if she isn't always nice? Effective leaders shouldn't be anyways. If your underlings are in the comfort zone, they will become lazy.

 

True up to a point - but if it crosses the line into being outright counterproductive (as Vader's style tends to, in the EU especially) - it "loses them leadership points".