Examples of Leadership Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charles the Well-Beloved

A about the age of 24, Charles VI of France, known as Charles the Beloved, became ill with an unknown type illness. He then began to have severe headaches, delusions, and fits of rage. In 1392 he attacked and killed four of his knights as well as his own brother.

He would forget that he was the King, and be unable to recognize those around him. He had period where he thought he was a wolf and would run around the castle howling and biting people. For a while he refused to let anyone touch him because he thought he was made of glass. All of this went on during The Hundred Years War and most assuredly played an important role in this skirmish.

By the end of his reign, France had lost large portions of its holdings to other countries.

Answer: Boeing 307 Stratoliner

Howard Hughes was a leader in aviation, film making, and aerospace engineering. He helped with the design of numerous aircraft including his own Spruce Goose and the Boeing 307 Stratoliner. He also open a medical research laboratory in 1925. He went into the film industry where he won the very first Academy Award for Best Director of a comedy film.

He bought much of the real estate in Las Vegas and helped the city to achieve the status that it has today. He helped design moveable hospital beds after being bedridden after an accident.

Despite his leadership skills Hughes was severely paranoid, was addicted to opiates for decades, and spent the last years of his life inside his hotel suite, never going into public. The stories about his unusual behaviors have been the topics of many books and films.

Answer: Calvin Coolidge

America's 30th president was the calm, cool, and collected Vermonter, Calvin Coolidge. Known as a man of few words and taciturn persona, Coolidge had his own unusual list of eccentricities. He was known to sleep at least 10-12 hours every day. When he arose in the mornings he like having petroleum jelly rubbed on his head while he ate.

He believed that it was good for his health. He also had his own small menagerie at the White House including his favorite pet Rebecca the raccoon, who would follow him everywhere, and was often taken for walks on a leash. Coolidge was also known to simultaneously push every button on his presidential telephone and then run and hide.

He found it hilarious to watch his secretaries, valets, military assistants, and Secret Service agents run around in panic looking for him.

He loved to play cowboys and Indians and even had a mechanical horse installed in the White House. He was known for wearing unusual headgear and hats in public. In spite of his unusual behaviors, he performed his duties as a leader in an adequate manner.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

One of the most esteemed and respected artists of his time, da Vinci displayed many unusual habits. In his time, just the fact that he was left-handed was suspect. He was said to have suffered from facial tics and which at the time was though to be strange, if not down-right proof of possession by a demon.

He was also now to wear bright colors, short tunics and hose considered to be more appropriate for a much younger man. At the same time he wore his hair long and flowing and sported a long beard, both of which were completely out of fashion for the time.

He designed machines that would not actually be created for hundreds of years. He was a very private man who attempted to hide his private life in a cloak of secrecy. While it was acknowledged that he was a leader in the field of art, he was looked at with suspicion by those around him because of his unusual habits and reclusive personality.

Answer: Idi Amin

The one-time dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin was the epitome of a mad ruler. He ruled his country with an iron fist and is blamed for numerous mass killings and extensive human rights violations. It is believed that over 300,000 were murdered during his presidency, at his request.

In 1976, he declared himself to be the uncrowned King of Scotland. He titled himself as "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshall Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO,MC, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa".

There are stories of cannibalistic behaviors, but these allegations have never been adequately proven. It has been suspected by some that he suffered from the effects of long term syphilis, while others have thought him to be bi-polar.

His behavior not only caused the deaths of many thousands of people but let to the collapse of his nation.

Answer: Turkmenistan

Niyazov was the first president of the country of Turkmenistan. He declared dogs to be illegal in the capital city because he found their smell to be offensive. He tried to rename many of the months after himself and his family members. He declared that the only books that any Turkmen needs to read were written by him or the Koran.

He outlawed lip-syncing at musical concerts and closed all hospitals and libraries in the country except those inside the capital city. He believed that all sick people should come to the capital if they needed any kind of treatment.

He outlawed ballet, the opera and all circus'. He banned facial hair on men, and tobacco. He felt it was important for his people to learn to ice skate in spite of the desert like terrain of his country.

These are just a few of his idiosyncrasies. He may not have been truly evil, but he definitely was odd.

Answer: Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo was an intensely private person. She held the news media in contempt and during her career she refused to sign autographs, never answered fan mail, and avoided industry social functions. She was an enigma that captured the attention of the public and the media which she avoided like the plague.

She simply could not understand any public interest in her personal life. Even when nominated for an Oscar she did not appear at the awards. These actions led to an air of mystery and her early retirement led to even more interest.

She retired to her New York apartment and was known to dress in disguise so that she could leave her apartment to window shop. For decades photographers attempted to get photographs of her, journalists begged for interviews, none of which were granted.

Her attempts to be left alone, only exacerbated her problem. She was an enigma, an actress able to transform herself into a myriad of characters, while guarding her real self. She was the opposite of most actresses/actors of the time, for whom (almost) any publicity was good publicity.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was an unusual man, as well as a gifted author. He incorporated many of the aspects of his life into his books. Like most of us, he had some unusual habits as well as being reclusive. He wrote standing up, usually standing on one leg, despite having a large desk in his den.

He would stand bent over the desk and stand like a stork with one leg bent. During WWII he took it upon himself to patrol for German U-boats in the Caribbean. He was a compulsive big-game hunter and adored cats.

The Florida Keys are littered with polydactlyic feral cats which are descended from the cats he brought to these islands. He had problems with drugs and drinking and is thought to have possibly suffered from PTSD. He became paranoid and was sure he was being watched by the CIA and the FBI.

He died in 1961 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He is thought to have suffered from hemochromatosis which is a genetic disorder in which the inability of the body to metabolize iron in food leads to mental and physical deterioration.

His father and granddaughter also committed suicide and were thought to have suffered the same disorder.

Answer: Farouk I

The last ruling king of Egypt was King Farouk I (1920-1965) who was definitely an unusual man. A popular ruler when he ascended the throne at the age of 16, it did not take long before his countrymen realized they had a problem. Known for his gluttony, and drinking, he quickly ballooned to over 300 lbs. (136 kg) He was known to drink over 30 cans of soda every day, followed by massive amounts of alcohol in the evenings.

But what earns him a position in this quiz, was his kleptomania. He one time stole a watch from Winston Churchill. Once after having a nightmare about lions, he went to the Cairo Zoo and shot all the lions in their cages.

When Hitler sent in his army to take over Egypt, Farouk actually sent him a telegram, thanking him. He did not care for the British forces occupying the country at the time and somehow thought that Hitler's soldiers would be a step up.

At one time he passed a law that banned any vehicle other than his own to be painted red. When he fled Egypt he left behind an extremely valuable coin collection as well as one of the largest collections of pornography seen at that time.

Answer: Porphyria

King George III of Great Britain and Ireland has often been portrayed as crazy and possibly a megalomaniac. In reality, he was a loyal husband, and a hardworking man who preferred manual labor to academic efforts. It is not known for sure what he suffered from but he has been suspected of having porphyria, which would have caused delusions, severe pain, and uncontrollable nausea.

At the time, medicine could do very little for him. He had periods of normality and periods of insanity. He ruled for 60 years and was known as a pious man who spent hours in prayer.

He became increasingly mentally ill as he aged and is believed to have suffered from dementia and cataracts. During his reign he helped his country achieve a semblance of stability after recovering from both the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic War.

In the end, it is not known, for sure, exactly what he suffered from, other possibilities suggested have been, arsenic poisoning, OCD, and syphilis. We will probably never know what he suffered from, but there is no doubt that contributed to his inability to rule effectively several times. None of the other options would have caused the behaviors reported at the time.