Biography of Great leader Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (1989 -1945)

About
Hitler was born in Austria in 1889, he rose to power in German politics as leader of the
National Socialist German Workers Party. When the World War I began in 1914, Hitler
volunteered to join the German army. He was given a medal for bravery but he never
had the chance to climb any rank. In 1920, Hitler joined the National Socialist German
Workers Party, which was known as the Nazis. Hitler became leader of the Nazi party
by using his great speaking ability. In the 1930's depression Germany had to pay an
even greater debt, which was coming for the World War I. Hitler did not agreed to pay
the debt and stated that the Jews and Communists were the cause for Germany's defeat
in World War I. He ensured that his party was going to get rid of Jews and Communists
and that he was going to reunite the German speaking part of Europe. In 1932, the Nazis
party got about 40% in the elections and became the strongest party in Germany, so in
1933 Hitler was appointed as the Chancellor of Germany. Under Hitler's government,
called the Third Reich, Hitler used widespread propaganda to brainwash and
manipulate the nation into accepting his theory about creating the perfect Aryan race.
In 1939 when the World War II began, Hitler invaded into Poland in order to unify as
he promised all German-speaking peoples. By this time extermination camps were
being established throughout Germany, Poland, and Russia. When Hitler's plan did not
worked out, he committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Hitler was revealing his passion

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through his speeches. He knew that by arriving late at the meeting point would develop
tension among the audience and make them expecting him. When he was arriving at
the stage he was standing attention and was waiting for everyone to stop talking so as
to have total silence and then to start. His moves and gestures were so forceful. He was
walking from side to side at the stage and he was gesturing with his hands and the tone
of his voice was loud and passionate. He was sweating; his face was getting white, his
eyes were bulged and his voice was full of emotion. He was shouting about the
unfairness's and prejudices done to Germany and he was making his audience to be full
of hate and jealousy. So by the end of his speech the crowd was in a condition near to
madness and was willing to do everything Hitler was implying. Hitler committed
suicide with wife Eva Braun on April 30, 1945, in his Berlin bunker.

Hitler did not do particularly well in school, leaving formal education in 1905. Unable
to settle into a regular job, he drifted. He wished to become an artist but was rejected
from the Academy in Vienna. . At the age of 18, he moved to Vienna with money
inherited after his father's death in 1903, in
order to pursue a career in art, as this was his
best subject at school. However his
applications for both the Vienna Academy of
Art and the School of Architecture were
rejected. At primary school, Hitler showed
great intellectual potential and was extremely
popular with fellow pupils as well as being
admired for his leadership qualities.
However, competition at secondary school
was tougher and Hitler stopped trying as a
result. He also lost his popularity among his
fellow students and instead preferred to re-
enact battles from the Boer war with younger
children. It was supposedly at this time that Hitler first became interested in politics and
how the masses could be made to respond to certain themes. He was particularly
impressed with the anti-Semitic, nationalist Christian-Socialist party.

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Leadership Style
Hitler followed three types of leadership style. They are,

Task oriented

Hitler was a high task oriented leader. He had clear vision and knowledge of the path
for execute his strategy so he is the one who directed his people in an attempt to execute
his vision. He wanted to monitor everything and retain control of every task, which was
about to be executed. He never blamed himself for his failure but the other which in his
case was Germany as a whole.

Relationship oriented

In terms of Hitler's relationship orientation we can mention that he had really good
interpersonal relations with those who worked closest with him. He knew personal
details for them, fact which shows that he was interested in them and in their personal
psychological health. He was visiting them when they were ill fact, which shows that
he was interested about their physical health.
So we can say that Hitler had good leader-member relations, his task orientation was
high, and finally, his position power is strong, since he had all the authorities of the
country. Consequently, Adolf Hitler appears to be a Task-Oriented Leader.

Transformational
"Transformational leadership is a type of leadership style that leads to positive changes
in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic and
passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are
also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well".
Transformational leaders engage in intellectual stimulation and inspirational
motivation. As far as intellectual stimulation is concerned, Hitler was visionary wanted
for Germany to be the first power and for him to conquer the world. As far as
inspirational motivation is concerned, Hitler strived to be different in order to become
the "great" world leader and had the proper for him plans and tactics on how to achieve
his goals.

In order to have their country standing again to their feet Hitler appealed to the values
and ethics of the German people. Despite the fact that the need for resurrection in
Germany's economy was obvious we can say that Hitler instead of fulfilling his

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follower's higher mental needs and aspirations he was fulfilling his own needs. He was
a dominant, magnetic leader that would possibly fit the characterization of a pseudo-
transformational leader, because a leader satisfies the needs of his followers and their
wellbeing but Hitler did not do that.

Vision and Determination

The dark charisma of Adolf Hitler, by Laurence Rees

Contrary to the popular view of someone charismatic Hitler was not a very social
person. He was unable to build intimate relationships with people and failed at making
friends. Yet, it was already clear at the time that Hitler possessed charisma. Rees cites
a couple of revealing anecdotes that illustrate the young mans determination to
undertake the most ambitious projects. According to his former housemate Kubizek,
one day Hitler wanted to write an opera and the next, with equal vigor, he would decide
to renew the sewage system in Vienna. This, according to the historian, is the basis for
charisma: having a clear vision and a mission on a subject and the determination to
convince the world of that mission .Kubizek in this regard recalled that Hitler, who was
a passionate reader, tended to lecture him on the texts he would read and on what he
thought about them. If Kubizek would question or argue with him, Hitler would lecture
him further .This attitude was a persistent feature that Hitler would later apply in his
political speeches and that would make him a charismatic orator. During the First World
War Hitler voluntarily enrolled in the German army and this experience greatly shaped
the political ideas he formed later. The outcome of the war, the severe humiliation of
Germany, laid the foundation for Hitlers political agenda. Just as he had lectured
Kubizek a couple of years earlier, he would now lecture his audiences. Although he
was still unable to establish a personal contact with people, large crowds did not hinder
him. In his speeches he built upon feelings which were already present in German

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society and said out loud what many were thinking privately. But he also magnified
these pre-existent sentiments. Anti-Semitism was nothing new in Germany, especially
among the middle class, but Hitler propelled this notion by persistently scapegoating
the Jews for all the wrongs within German society and by blaming them for the
humiliating loss of the First World War.

Strategy
Adolf Hitler was a very good strategist. The main point of Hitler's strategy was the
accumulation of Lebensraum ("Living space") for the Germanic race. Citing the Treaty
of Versailles suffocating indemnities and exploiting the public nervousness of the 1930s
economic lack of money, he declared that the German borders were too restricted to
secure their suitable position in the geo-political world relations, and that he wanted
regions similar to the (British and French) colonies to secure enough economic
resources to assure Germany's position as a major power.

The planned strategy to realize these goals was a series of quite short wars, to defeat
one opponent at a time, and thus securing more land step by step. These wars were to
be intertwined with periods of peace when the German army could re-supply and amass
force for the next war. As the time was passing by his strategy was based on paranoia
and cruel logic. Despite that, his inland territory remained very strong and indisputable.
Afterwards, he ordered a constant bombing in Britain despite the strategic costs and
failures. In the final stages of the war, his actions and orders were getting more and
madder rather than any attempt to have a rational strategy.

Leadership Level:
"Kouzes and Pousner believe that effective leaders engage in five practices; model the
way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage
the heart (1995). These practices and other leadership concepts provide a means of
shaping a model leader. Understanding that effective leaders will also hold individual
leadership traits, defining the term in a general sense is a challenge. For the purpose of
our chapter, we will define effective leadership as "the art of mobilizing others to want
to struggle for shared aspirations" (Kouzes & Posner, 1995, p. 30).In my opinion,
Hitler, is considered to be a level four, Effective leader, as he was able to maintain a
helicopter view just before the end of the war. He was setting the directions and he was
effectiveness and inspiration oriented. He was developing a high performance culture
so as his army to be able to have the desired results. Although Hitler did had the

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professional will, a person who wants to conquer is not even close to personal humility,
so he could never be at level five, Executive.

Analysis
It is said by the other great people that despite the fact that Hitler was a great leader he
had no sense of logical thinking. Hitler's lack of ethical reasoning and social intelligence
goes back to his low self-awareness, empathy and interest in others. He was unethical
in thoughts and actions, taking advantage of situations, which his followers were in, in
the most vicious approach to reach his goals. By manipulating his army to put Jews into
extermination camps, is the biggest example not only of his immoral and wicked
character but also his twisted mind.

Hitler was greatly self-assured of his own abilities. His rise in the hierarchy scale, his
influential speeches, the fact that he managed to get Germany back from the edge of
economic disaster, the battles which he was making in crucial places or in critical time
periods are facts which are showing the huge levels of confidence that Hitler had.

In terms of Hitler's management towards his secretaries and the people who worked
with him closely, Hitler was, surprisingly enough, the more thoughtful boss. In fact, the
fuehrer was adored by those who worked closest with him. His secretaries never
became maddened by any kind of rudeness or lack of indulgence towards them. Hitler
knew their names and birthdays, he was visiting them when they were ill, and they
repaid him with lifetime loyalty, even after his crimes became generally known.

Hitler's intelligence is indisputable. He managed to get Germany back from the edge of
economic disaster and made them flourishing again, from a beaten country to a world
power in just a few years. The fact that Hitler came from a front-line soldier to the
fuehrer shows not only, as it was aforementioned, his great will and capability to meet
his objectives but also his great mind sharpness since he was able to manipulate, even
brainwashed a whole nation in order to do that.

Adolf Hitler follows the strategist action logic. In their analysis of action logics, Rooke
and Torbert (2005) identify two characteristics of the strategist action logic. Firstly,
strategists generate organizational and personal transformations and secondly, they
exercise the power of mutual inquiry, alertness and vulnerability for both the short and
long term. Additionally, a strategist is considered to be very effective as a
transformational leader that is a pseudo-transformational leader in this case.

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