Persons Leadership Abilities - Essay Example

? To what extent can personality traits predict a person’s leadership abilities? Leadership comes in many different forms. Some leaders save their people, some leaders lead their country in to ruins. What can we tell about these types of leaders from their personalities? Is it possible to predict leadership ability from examining leaders' personalities? The answer to this question is yes. By examining one of the worst leaders in history, Adolf Hitler, it is easy to see from his personality, that his leadership would be seriously detrimental to the country he led. To begin with, it is important to explain why Hitler was a bad leader. He certainly was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. That in itself is bad. But we know above all that Hitler was a bad leader because he left his country in ruins. He, more than anyone else—including the allies—was the reason that Germany was a divided, destroyed country in 1945. His erratic, haughty, and morbid personality could have predicted that terrible result (Robertson 1963). To begin with, history is important to putting Hitler's personality into perspective. World War One was a disaster for Germany. Many say that the war began as a result of German aggression ended with a German defeat. The winners of the war, Britain and France, were not in a mood to forgive after the terrible destruction of previous four years. They wanted maximum reparations from the German people for their losses during the war. That is why they chose to impose the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty was destructive for the German economy. Into this mess came Hitler, promising a revival. He promised a new Germany that would last a thousands years and would be a guiding light to the world. What type of man was he? Hitler was a failed painter. He came from a background that was not very good. He behaved erratically and had trouble making good relationships with people. He had grandiose ideas about himself, but throughout his life until that point had been a failure in everything he did. These were not the personality traits one looks for in a leader. Usually, people seek leaders from good background, who have confidence and credentials. Hitler managed to appeal to people because he blamed other people for Germany's suffering. He told Germans that they were not responsible for the tragedy that had befallen them. He told them to look elsewhere. He said he would lead them out of the wilderness (Robertson 1963). This was all very appealing. He was able to take over by force based on this arguments. Rather than revolt against him, Germans accepted him as their leader. But what his personality and his qualities gave to the German people was more death and more destruction. Because of his erratic personality and poor qualities, he made multiple mistakes in starting and prosecution the Second World War. His actions led to a new and this time total defeat for the German nation. He was the worst kind of leader and many of his personality qualities would have predicted this. Among the most serious mistakes Hitler made based on his personality was attacking the Soviet Union in 1941. The truth is that one of his main personality qualities was paranoia: this is not a good quality to have in a leader. He suspected everyone around him at all times, including the leaders of other countries with which he made deals, such as Stalin. Since the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, Hitler had been on a roll, winning success after success. He had successfully taken over Czechoslovakia and Austria, and he had done what seemed impossible: the invasion of Poland and France. His western front could be threatened only by Britain, which was in no position to do so. His major concern was with the Eastern front. That was not a problem because he had made peace with Stalin in what was called the Ribbentrop-Molotov compact. This had divided Poland. The truth was that Stalin didn't care what Hitler did to Europe. Stalin didn't care if Hitler took the whole continent so long as there was peace between the two countries. But Hitler's personality qualities were based on paranoia. He did not trust any deal, even those which he himself had made. He thought he should attack the Soviet Union anyway. Hitler declared war on the Soviet Union. He thought that Stalin's purges of the Russian army has seriously weakened the Soviet Union's military. However, the lesson had been learned by Napoleon one hundred and fifty years earlier: Russia was never an easy place to invade and that the brutal winters made it extremely hard to hold ground when in that country. Because he had delusions of grandeur, and thought he was a better leader than Napoleon, Hitler believed his invasion of the Soviet Union could be complete within only a few months. He seriously overestimated the speed and equipment at the disposal of the German army. He had no sense of reality. He was a terrible leader based on his personality. At Stalingrad, the Soviet army delayed the Germans long enough to succeed and to encircle the Sixth Army—a devastating blow (Robertson 1963). The reason for this was that Hitler refused to listen to many of his best generals. He refused to listen to anyone. This was another bad quality that would have predicted his disastrous leadership. Hitler's personality drove his actions and Germany's during the war. He never knew when he should stop and consolidate his victories (Langer 1972). He thought he was a God. He thought he should just march on and on and that he was invincible. He became full of hubris after conquering so many countries and when the time came when he met obstacles he thought he could roll right over them like a Panzer tank. He became detached from reality and refused to listen to advice about anything. He was erratic and paranoid. Hitler had the kind of personality that made for the worst kind of leader. He refused to listen to anyone and he refused to recognize defeat. He was always looking for other people to blame for the mistakes that he made. On top of this he was very intimidating and no one would stand up to him and talk back when he was wrong. This is a toxic combination. He was behaved very badly in the leadership role: eventually driving Germany off of a cliff. The truth was that Hitler had very little patience for his own generals such as Rommel—men who knew much more about fighting wars and winning battles than he did—and he completely dismissed the excellent American, Canadian and Russian generals who fought against him and the German army. He honestly believed that the German army could not be beaten, especially with the various strategies that he dreamed up. He believed he was destined for greatness. These kind of personality qualities could easily predict his terrible leadership. Initial contact with American and Russian soldiers led the Germans to believe they were correct and indeed the Allied forces fought badly at first. He simply could not understand that Germany was over-matched and would lose the war. As the net closed around him he sunk into a deep depression and refused to engage with reality. This petulance was a major part of his personality and it shaped everything about his leadership style (Langer 1972). One of the biggest pieces of evidence that Hitler's personality led to his leadership failures was the fact that he would surrender when it was clear that he had lost the war. He could not stand to lose and had massive illusions even to the bitter end. If only he had decided to surrender unconditionally the allies, he would have saved millions of peoples' lives. Instead, he let the walls fall around him. The last period of the war were very violent and costly and they required the Allies to fight for every last inch of territory in Germany. Hitler, had he been a good leader and had his personality allowed it, might even have been able to come up with a conditional surrender (even though it was against the Allies policy dictated at Casablanca) if had he been willing to step down. That didn't happen: his personality would not allow it. In the end, nothing was gained by fighting to the last soldier with the exception of the total destruction of Hitler's own country (Kershaw 2000). This was the final piece of evidence that Hitler's personality dictated the outcomes of his leadership. This man who Max Hastings once called the “global architect of human misery” made many mistakes during his time as German dictator and his personality would have predicted that he would make them. He was hubristic and believe his army was invincible. He refused to learn from past mistakes. He underestimated his opponents. And most unfortunate of all he refused to surrender when it was clear he had lost everything. All of these results could have been predicted from examining his personality. Hitler was inferior, desperate man who believed he was better than he was. He often overreached and was often erratic. All of these qualities are extremely negative ones which few people would suggest are ones they look for in a leader. Work consulted Keegan, John, 1987. The Mask of Command: A Study of Generalship, Pimlico: Random House, 1987. Kershaw, Ian, 2000. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (4th ed.), London: Arnold. Langer, Walter C., 1972. The Mind of Adolf Hitler, New York: Basic Books Machtan, Lothar, 2001. The Hidden Hitler, New York: Basic Books Robertson, E.M., 1963. Hitler's Pre-War Policy and Military Plans, London: Longmans Read More