Littlefoot's Leadership

[Littlefoot Fan 93]

In my opinion, Littlefoot is a leader with little experience under his belt. you can only be a good leader with a solid understanding on the three forms of leadership, and most importantly: experience. Case in point; the first movie. After his mother died, he was on his own, and when the rest of the gang joined him, Littlefoot had no experience in leadership. He did not know how to guide, motivate, assert his position, or more importantly in the first movie, resolve confrontations.  

It was only after the first movie, where Littlefoot had some experience in leading a group and therefore, have a foundation to build and improve on in later situations. The moral of the story is that there is no such thing as a natural born leader and leadership takes knowledge and more importantly; experience.

[Malte279]

I can't really vote on any of the options in the poll. If I did it would probably be "unsure" but it wouldn't quite reflect my view.
It is sometimes written that Littlefoot was a natural born leader, but based on what we actually see in the original movie I wouldn't consider leadership one of his main qualities. Now don't get me wrong, I really like Littlefoot but in the first movie he doesn't show much actual leadership qualities other than personal (and likely inspirational) conviction of the rightness of his actions.
Ducky and Petrie follow Littlefoot most likely because he was arround and could possibly help or protect them. Neither Ducky, nor Petrie had to be convinced, in Ducky's case it was actually more like Littlefoot had to be convinced to take her along.
There is no scene in which Littlefoot tells anything about the Great Valley to encourage the others to come along. He only ever answers Ducky's question that possibly her family would be there too. In case of the doubts voiced by Cera in particular he is not shown to try in any way to inspire or convince any of the others or address any of their doubts. When after the fight with Cera Ducky and Petrie (clearly not eager to see the group split up) dare to say that Cera's way looks easier he does not try anything to convince them, he just turns away and walks off. He even ignores Petrie's attempts to catch up with him.
Littlefoot is agood character and I don't wan't to be misunderstood about what I am saying. But I don't see many acts of true leadership on his part throughout the original movie.

Which words or actions in the original movie show Littlefoot's leadership?

[Ducky123]

I voted that he's a good leader!
I know there are some points speaking against him to be a good leader, but since he's the best leader of the gang(Cera's too bossy, Ducky's too childish and too gullible, Petrie's too gullible, too(and noone would accept a leader with such a use of grammar   )and Spike can't speak(though he's good in  finding food )) I'd say he's a good leader!

[Malte279]

However, lack of certain leadership qualities among others are not making Littlefoot a better leader. Very often he just does what he thinks is right without giving much thought on what the others think (even if sometimes they have reasonable arguments).
We see that in the original movie as well as in the sequels 2, 5 and 6. In the fourth movie he too is more lead by Ali than he is leading anyone else. In the third sequel he has kind of a leadership moment when coaxing the others into following him following the bullies, but again he does it with a "you guys do what you want", kind of attitute all the while forcing them to either come along or else risk his (Littlefoot's) getting hurt or killed.
Littlefoot is rarely using any arguments other than his personal sentiments for decisions which he doesn't seem to reconsider no matter what he is being told. Most of the time his decisions are based on his personal kindness and compassion which makes his ignoring of different views easier to swallow, but still I feel it wouldn't hurt for him to take the views and arguments of those disagreeing with him a little more into account before making impulsive decisions.

[StrutEggStealer]

I mean, this kid is on fire! He's always the one to keep his head, and he is most often the one with the logical premise of approaching a problem. But at times he seemed a little too perfect, whcih is why I liked to see him emote such as he did in the later movies - bored, anger, hopelessness - those feelings make him all the more believable because it shows us he does struggle, but he's also someone to look up to.

[Malte279]

He's always the one to keep his head, and he is most often the one with the logical premise of approaching a problem.

I don't quite agree.
Littlefoot often seems to act on his instincts and emotions rather than logic. We don't see this as a flaw since Littlefoot's heart is undoubtedly at the right spot, but he doesn't show much readiness to take different views into account much.
For example, the concerns of Cera (and to a lesser degree of the others) about Chomper in LBT 2 and 5 are understandable. We always know that Chomper would never do anything to harm his friends, but Cera and the others don't have the benefit of that certainty. Especially with Littlefoot's own history it is remarkable that Littlefoot never seems to have any doubts or comes up with any arguments not based on emotion in this matter.
In LBT 6 it seems to be very tricky for him to accept that the others don't share in his enthusiasm for the lone dinosaur and rather than leading or convincing anyone he goes off on his own to break a tooth out of a supposed sharptooth corpse because his understanding of an old legend suggests that this was the right thing to do. More emotional than logical a decision I think.

With everything I say, please don't get me wrong. I really like Littlefoot as a character, but I don't quite see where the credit for leadership is comming from that is so often given to him. I believe there are scenes in which he does act like a leader, but these seem to be comparatively rare compared to a much larger number of scenes in which he just does things his way no matter what others think.

[StrutEggStealer]

Littlefoot often seems to act on his instincts and emotions rather than logic.
We always know that Chomper would never do anything to harm his friends, but Cera and the others don't have the benefit of that certainty.
In LBT 6 it seems to be very tricky for him to accept that the others don't share in his enthusiasm for the lone dinosaur and rather than leading or convincing anyone he goes off on his own to break a tooth out of a supposed sharptooth corpse because his understanding of an old legend suggests that this was the right thing to do.

While I do agree that most of his qualities are somewhat based more on emotion (okay, all of them) I don't necessarily see that as a flaw. He is only a child. Before assumptions are made about his decisions, we have to take into account Littlefoot's age - I'd say he's about ten-ish, maybe eleven - and look at the norms for that age group. Around that time, they are entering into the concrete operational world, thinking more like an adult, able to use reason, but they are still children who tend to feel 'gut instincts' rather than think 'what is rational in the situation presented'.
One can't always be logical, especially if one is an impatient child
For Littlefoot, I imagine that the others look up to him. I see him as being motivational.
As for the views about Chomper, ever try to explain a hunch? Hunches don't work out with "hard, physical proof", they are merely a gut feeling, and Littlefoot felt that Chomper wouldn't hurt his friends (minus the tail-biting. Nature was still at work before Nurture took over). You can't reassure someone with a hunch, unfortunately (world problems would diminish if that were true )
He's assertive, too. Which is something leaders need. But I admit his assertiveness does, as you say, 'go without logic'. Then again, logic does not exist to a child

[Malte279]

I don't contradict anything you said in your post and I cannot emphasize often enough that it is far from my mind to have a go at Littlefoot
I only don't see his specific talent for leadership so often mentioned in most of his actions. He can be assertive, but so can Cera be (no mistake about that ) yet in her case we wouldn't be as much inclined as in case of Littlefoot to label it a sign of leadership talent.
Perhaps we should revise possible images of expecting for a kid to be a particularly talented leader.

Speaking about leadership, maybe we could try to list some of the examples of leadership performances throughout the series no matter which character is performing them?
I once read that leadership is often categorized in three forms, namely leading by example (others following the leader primarily on their own accord seeing the leader based solely on the way he or she acts as an exemplary figure to follow), leading by conviction (here the leader actively tries to get people to do what he or she wants by convincing them that it is the right thing to do) and leading by conversion (here the leader would convince people that their way of actions up to that point have been wrong and to follow a potentially conflicting course of of action proposed by the leader).
Can we find examples for all three forms in LBT?

[StrutEggStealer]

I don't see any indication of you having a go at Littlefoot, don't worry
As for Cera being the leader, I can't really see her as that because Littlefoot displays sympathy and understanding more often, (Movie 3, especially) and he also thinks before he speaks, whereas Cera often puts her foot in her mouth (Movie 2, dispelling Strut and Ozzy's fears about the shadow )

As per the three traits you mentioned, I'm leaning more towards the former, as well as the second. He does seems to emphasize what he wants them to do (), and he seems to set an example by just going with it.

[MurMur]

His leadership skill seem natural. But that's because the filmmakers made them that way.

[rhombus]

Of the options presented, I would say that Littlefoot is an inexperienced leader with a bit of luck on his side.  

This answer does not tell the whole story, however, in that Littlefoot has had improvements in his leadership capabilities since the first film.  This is especially apparent in his inability to effectively resolve conflicts in the first film as compared to more successful attempts, for the most part, in the sequels.  However, as Malte said previously in this thread, Littlefoot often appears to make decisions based upon instinct and emotion rather than reason.  I think that this is not an indication of his overall temperament, but rather an indication of his youth and inexperience.  Perhaps as Littlefoot acquires more experience in life he will begin to temper his instinct with sound judgment (which may have been indicated by his successful result in the third test in the Great Longneck Test), but until then this quality of his would be the greatest obstacle in considering him to be a great leader.