Leadership lesson from adolf hitler

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Leadership Lessons From Adolf
Hitler
SHAYONA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Prepared By: SONI HIMANI DILIPBHAI
178200592042

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GTU`s Enrollment No.: 178200592042
A PROJECT REPORT ON:
Leadership Lessons from Adolf Hitler
Submitted to
Institute code: 820
SHAYONA INSTITUE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Award of the Degree Of
MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA)
Under the Guidance OF
Prof. Poonam Maheta
Offered by
Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad
Submitted By:
SONI HIMANI DILIPBHAI (Roll No: 2042)
MBA Programmed 2017- 2019 (Semester III)

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Index
NO. Title Page No.
1. Introduction 3-7
1.1. Introduction Of Leadership 3
1.2. Factors of Leadership 4
1.3. Management verses Leadership 5
1.4. Principles of Leadership: 6
1.5. Attributes of Leadership: BE, KNOW, and
DO:
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2 Introduction of Adolf Hitler 9-17
3 Leadership style and Leadership lessons of
Adolf Hitler
18-25

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Chapter: 1
Introduction
1.1. Introduction Of Leadership:
Good leaders are made, not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you
can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never
ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience (Jago,
1982). This guide will help you through the journey.
To inspire your workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain
things you must be, know, and, do. These do not often come naturally, but
are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually
working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT
resting on their past successes.
 Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to
accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that
makes it more cohesive and coherent.
 A process whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal.
 The U.S. military has studied leadership in depth. One of their
definitions is a process by which a person influences others to
accomplish a mission (U.S. Army, 1983).
 Leadership is inspiring others to pursue your vision within the
parameters you set, to the extent that it becomes a shared effort, a
shared vision, and a shared success (Zeitchik, 2012)
 Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the
efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal (Kruse, 2013).

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1.2. Factors of Leadership:
There are four primary factors of leadership.
1. Leader:
You must have an honest understanding of who you are, what you know,
and what you can do. Also, note that it is the followers, not the leader or
someone else who determines if the leader is successful. If they do not
trust or lack confidence in their leader, then they will be uninspired. To
be successful you have to convince your followers, not yourself or your
superiors, that you are worthy of being followed.
2. Followers:
Different people require different styles of leadership. For example, a
new hire requires more supervision than an experienced employee does.
A person who lacks motivation requires a different approach than one
with a high degree of motivation. You must know your people! The
fundamental starting point is having a good understanding of human

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nature, such as needs, emotions, and motivation. You must come to know
your employees' be, know, and do attributes.
3. Communication:
You lead through two-way communication. Much of it is nonverbal. For
instance, when you “set the example,” that communicates to your people
that you would not ask them to perform anything that you would not be
willing to do. What and how you communicate either builds or harms the
relationship between you and your followers.
4. Situation:
All situations are different. What you do in one situation will not always
work in another. You must use your judgment to decide the best course
of action and the leadership style needed for each situation. For example,
you may need to confront an employee for inappropriate behavior, but if
the confrontation is too late or too early, too harsh or too weak, then the
results may prove ineffective.
Also note that the situation normally has a greater effect on a leader's
action than his or her traits. This is because while traits may have an
impressive stability over a period of time, they have little consistency
across situations (Mischel, 1968). This is why a number of leadership
scholars think the Process Theory of Leadership is a more accurate than
the Trait Theory of Leadership.
1.3. Management verses Leadership:
While management and leadership have a great deal in common, such as
working with people and accomplishing the goals of the organization, they
do differ in their primary functions (Kotter, 1990):

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Management's main function is to produce order and consistency through
processes, such as planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, and problem
solving.
While leadership's main function is to produce movement and constructive
or adaptive change through processes, such as establishing direction through
visioning, aligning people, motivating, and inspiring.
1.4. Principles of Leadership:
1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement -
In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know, and
do, attributes. Seeking self-improvement means continually
strengthening your attributes. This can be accomplished through self-
study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others.
2. Be technically proficient -
As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with
your employees' tasks.
3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions -
Search for ways to guide your organization to new heights. And when
things go wrong, as they often tend to do sooner or later — do not blame
others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the
next challenge.
4. Make sound and timely decisions -
Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools.
5. Set the example -
Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what
they are expected to do, but also see. “We must become the change we
want to see.” - Mahatma Gandhi

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6. Know your people and look out for their well-being -
Know human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your
workers.
7. Keep your workers informed -
Know how to communicate with not only them, but also seniors and
other key people.
8. Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers -
Help to develop good character traits that will help them carry out their
professional responsibilities.
9. Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished -
Communication is the key to this responsibility.
10.Train as a team -
Although many so called leaders call their organization, department,
section, etc. a team; they are not really teams... they are just a group of
people doing their jobs.
11.Use the full capabilities of your organization -
By developing a team spirit, you will be able to employ your
organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities.
1.5. Attributes of Leadership: BE, KNOW, and DO:
Respected leaders concentrate on Be, Know, and Do (U.S. Army, 1983):
Who they are [be] (such as beliefs and character)
What they know (such as job, tasks, and human nature)
What they do (such as implementing, motivating, and providing direction)
BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform selfless
service, and take personal responsibility.

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BE a professional who possess good character traits. Examples: honesty,
competence, candor, commitment, integrity, courage, straightforwardness,
imagination.
KNOW the four factors of leadership — follower, leader, communication,
situation.
KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character,
knowledge, and skills.
KNOW human nature. Examples: human needs, emotions, and how people
respond to stress.
KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others in their
tasks.
KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate and
culture, who the unofficial leaders are.
DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision
making, planning.
DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising,
evaluating.
DO motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de corps in the
organization, train, coach, counsel.

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Chapter: 2
Introduction of Adolf Hitler
2.1. Who Was Adolf Hitler?
 Famous for being fascist Dictator of Germany
 Born – 20th April 1889, Braunau am Inn, Austria
 Parents – Alois Hitler, Klara Hitler
 Siblings – Edmund, Paula
 Married – Eva Braun
 Children – None
 Died – 30th April 1945, Berlin, Germany committed suicide
 Famous for being fascist Dictator of Germany Born – 20th April 1889,
Braunau am Inn, Austria Parents – Alois Hitler, Klara Hitler Siblings –
Edmund, Paula Married – Eva Braun Children – None Died – 30th April
1945, Berlin, Germany committed suicide

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 Famous for being fascist Dictator of Germany Born – 20th April 1889,
Braunau am Inn, Austria Parents – Alois Hitler, Klara Hitler Siblings –
Edmund, Paula Married – Eva Braun Children – None Died – 30th April
1945, Berlin, Germany committed suicide
 Adolph Hitler was born in the Austrian town of Braunau-am-Inn on 20th
April 1889. The town was close to the Austro-German border and his father,
Alois, worked as a border control clerk. His mother, Klara, was a
housekeeper.
 As a child he got on very well with his mother but he didn’t get on well with
his father, a strict authoritative disciplinarian. He attended school from the
age of six years but did not do well in academic subjects. His school record
showed reasonable grades for PE and some artistic talent.
 Adolph Hitler left school at the age of sixteen and went to Vienna where he
hoped to enter the Academy and become a painter. His application to enter
the academy was rejected when he was 17 years old and a year later his
mother died from cancer. His father had died four years earlier and with no
relatives willing to support him Adolph Hitler found himself living rough on
the streets of Vienna. He became interested in politics and was heavily
influenced by the climate of anti-Semitism that existed in Austria at that
time.
 In 1914, Hitler crossed the border to Germany and joined the 16th Bavarian
Reserve Infantry Regiment. He fought on the Western Front and was
awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery in battle. In 1918 he was temporarily
blinded from a gas attack and was invalided out of the war. Hitler was
dismayed when Germany lost the war and hated the Versailles Treaty and
the Weimar government for signing the treaty. He dreamed of a return to the
days of the Kaiser.

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 After the war he stayed in the army, but in intelligence. His activities led
him to the German Worker’s Party led by Anton Drexler. He liked the ideas
of the party and joined in 1919. Drexler realised that Adolph Hitler was
something special and put him in charge of the political ideas and
propaganda of the party.
 In 1920, the party announced its 25-point program and was renamed the
National Socialist German Worker’s Party – NAZIs.
 In 1921, Hitler became leader of the party and soon began attracting
attention, especially for his powerful speeches. Hitler stirred up Nationalist
passion giving the people something to blame for Germany’s problems.
Hitler’s opponents tried to disrupt the meetings so for protection Hitler set
up the SA – Stormtroopers. Although the actual membership of the NAZI
party remained quite low in this period, Hitler, through his meetings and
speeches had given them a very high profile.
 In March 1924, Adolph Hitler was imprisoned for his part in the Munich
Putsch, which failed to overthrow the Bavarian government. While in prison
he wrote his book Mein Kampf which set out his thoughts and philosophies.
The book was published a year after Hitler’s release from prison.
 The Great Depression, which saw a downturn in people’s lives, helped to
gain support for the Nazi party and by 1932 the Nazi party was the largest
party in the Reichstag but did not have a majority. On January 30th 1933
Adolph Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. A month later on
February 27th, the Reichstag building was set alight. The fire was blamed on
the Communists and the Communist party was banned in Germany. This
gave the Nazis a clear majority in the government.
 On 23rd March 1933 the Enabling Act gave Adolph Hitler power to make
laws without consulting the Reichstag for a period of four years. Over the

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next four months Hitler took steps towards dictatorship – trade unions and
all other political parties were banned, the Nazis took control of all local
government and Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. When
President Hindenburg died in August 1934 Hitler combined the position of
Chancellor and President and made himself Fuhrer of Germany.
 As Fuhrer, Hitler began building his Third Reich. Ignoring the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles he began building up the army and weapons. The
Nuremburg Laws passed in 1935 defined Hitler’s ideal pure Aryan German
citizen and barred Jews from holding any form of Public office. In March
1936 Hitler began reclaiming land taken from Germany by the Treaty of
Versailles by re-occupying the Rhineland. The move was unopposed by
Britain and France. Anschluss with Austria in spring 1938 was followed in
the autumn by the reclaiming of the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia.
 Although he had agreed by the terms of the Munich Agreement not to make
further territorial claims, in March 1939 Hitler invaded and occupied
Czechoslovakia. His subsequent invasion and occupation of Poland on 1st
September 1939 led to the outbreak of World War Two. Despite the
outbreak of war, Hitler continued his policy of aggression and by May 1940
Britain was the only western European country that had not been invaded
and occupied by the Nazis. The loss of the Battle of Britain led Hitler to
abandon plans to invade Britain in favour of an invasion of Russia.
 Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, communists and other ‘undesirables’ from
Germany and Nazi-controlled countries were forced to wear identification
badges. Jews were sent to concentration camps where the fit and healthy
were put to forced Labour while the young, old and sick were exterminated
in gas chambers. In January 1942 plans to exterminate the entire Jewish
population known as ‘The Final Solution’ were approved.

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 Defeat at the second battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was followed
by defeat at Stalingrad. Adolph Hitler’s refusal to allow soldiers to retreat
and blind perusal of his goals led some Nazi members to question his
leadership. In July 1944 an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler. The
attempt failed and the perpetrators were executed.
 Throughout late 1944 and early 1945 the Germans were pushed back
towards Berlin by the Allies in the west and the Russians in the East. On
April 29th, 1945, Adolph Hitler married his long-term mistress Eva Braun,
and a day later the pair committed suicide.

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2.2. How Did Hitler Come to Power?
The process occurred over multiple decades. Adolph Hitler’s rise to power
started when he became politically involved and joined the Deutsche
Arbeiterspartei. From there he worked himself up in the party, which later
became the Nazi Party, through charm, violence and cunning negotiations.
He was an excellent speaker and surrounded himself with people who, like
him, were not afraid to use violence to fulfil their political objectives. At one
stage, Hitler recognized that he was one of the best speakers in the Nazi
party and demanded that they make him party leader or he would walk out.
They conceded and he became party leader.
 Rise of the Nazi Party:
The grim atmosphere of the early 1930s greatly contributed to the rise of
Hitler’s Nazi Party as it left the Germans desperate for a strong leader. They
considered the German government to be weak and the actions of Burning,
the chancellor only added to the bitterness of the German nation. They
suffered due to the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and the Great
Depression left many with huge financial problems, which were only
worsened by the chancellor’s decision to cut unemployment pay and wages.
Thanks to a very successful propaganda campaign focused on the poor and
the suffering, the Nazi Party rose from only 12 seats in Reichstag in 1928 to
becoming the largest party in 1932 with 230 seats.
 Hitler’s Takeover:
Although the Nazi Party had become very powerful, they lost close to two
million votes in the November 1932 Reichstag elections, which meant that
they only had 33 percent of the vote, and not the majority they needed.
Papen, who wanted the position of vice chancellor and thought he could

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control Hitler, convinced Hindenburg to form a coalition with the Nazis and
appoint Hitler as chancellor. Hindenburg finally gave in and appointed
Hitler as chancellor. Hitler’s final grab for power was when he negotiated
with the Reichstag members to give him temporary “emergency” powers for
four years, enabling him to act without the consent of parliament or the
German constitution. While negotiations were taking place, his large
military force was surrounding parliament with the threat of war, should
they refuse. They didn’t have much of a choice but grant him what he
wanted and Hitler became absolute ruler of Germany.

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 Life Lessons from To Learn From Adolf Hitler:
1. ADOLF HITLER HAS HIS OWN IDEAL WORLD:
Adolf Hitler has the good side for being the evil ruler of his own
country although, in the history of all mankind, he killed thousands of
thousand Jews Christian in the country. The only difference is Adolf
Hitler did not treat equally to other people who are Jews. He really
hates Jews and he has the power to kill them all. He considers himself
as a god or he acts as a god to everyone.
2. DO GOOD THINGS TO THE PEOPLE:
It’s the same how anti-Hitler views him as a killer. People don’t know
that he’s also a Roman Catholic Christian. Rosa who worked as a
maid said that Adolf Hitler was a kind man. There’s a reason why
Adolf Hitler hated Jews and we don’t know what it is. He is the
massive killer in the human society but the other side of it; he did
good things to other people but only people who became his follower.
3. HAVE SENSE OF HUMOR:
Hitler often cracked jokes. Although Hitler still laughed during
wartime, he had been an ever bigger joker i9n earlier days. “As I
knew from the ‘old timers,’ Hitler in wartime was a completely
different from Hitler before the war.” ,said Misch, who describes
himself as “a last living piece of history” and his modest flat in Berlin
is filled with photos and scrapbooks of his service for Hitler.
4. HAVE A LEISURE TIME AFTER WORK:
As a dictator, Hitler liked to give the impression that he was
constantly in motion, toiling in behalf of Germany into the early
hours. Actually, we know quite a lot about how he spent his leisure

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time in the close circle with which he felt most comfortable. Wagner
music operas were a lifelong passion.
5. TAKE CARE OF HEALTH AT THE BEST:
Hitler never drank or smoked, which was banned in his presence. The
only time he danced was when he did a jig beneath the Eiffel tower
after conquering France. As a vegetarian his meals consisted of
mashed potatoes and pulses, with endless vitamin supplements.

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CHAPTER: 3
Leadership style and Leadership lessons of Adolf Hitler
1. Leadership style of Adolf Hitler:
.
1. 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.
2. 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

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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.
3. 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 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

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leader satisfies the needs of his followers and their wellbeing but
Hitler did not do that.
4. 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 [3]. 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 more mad rather than any attempt to have a
rational strategy.
5. Authentic Leadership:
In my opinion Adolf Hitler was not an authentic leader. That is
because, firstly, he promised he would help revive Germany;
however, he did not say that he would take over most of Europe

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doing so. Secondly, in order to be authentic one must have self-
awareness, to know not only his strengthens but also his
weaknesses, an ability that he lacked. And thirdly, the most of the
times, his feeling for conquering Europe, be the winner and the
“Fuehrer” was overshadowing his rational thinking, which at the
end brought the fall of his empire.
6. 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 professional will, a person who wants
to conquer is not even close to personal humility, so he could never
be at level five, Executive.

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7. Action Logic:
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.
Accordingly, Hitler focuses on building a long-term strategy that is
first to revive Germany from its economic ruins and then to have
the proper battle in order to have under his command all the
Europe. Moreover, a large percentage of his attention lies on
giving inspiring speeches to his people in order to keep them in
tense and under his mental control. Strength of Hitler’s is his
ability to climbing through the scales of hierarchy in his personal
life, which in turn he transferred it to its leadership and managed to
have Germany, a major power in few years.

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8. Evaluation:
Closing, in my opinion, we conclude that there is no alignment
between Hitler’s leadership style and the strategic needs of
Germany. He exclusively focused on his own selfish goals for
taking whole Europe under his control, instead of the needs of his
people. He took things too personally overshadowing his rational
thinking so he had intense rivalry with the rest of the world.
Winning was so important for him that he would do anything to
achieve it. These aspects of his character led him into madness and
paranoia and at the end was the factor that took him down to the
distraction.

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 Leadership Lessons from Adolf Hitler:
Adolf Hitler did much evil during his regime in Nazi Germany.
Although I do not share his values, but he did do certain things right
as a leader to rally a whole nation. Here are some positive lessons that
you can pick up from him:
1. Speaking with purpose:
Hitler was a captivating public speaker. He would enrapture
crowds with his vision and sense of purpose of the nation. His
words moved a country, even the church to believe that they were
killing in the name of God. That was the extent of his charisma.
While Hitler was a great orator, and that contributed to his ability
to capture his audience, it was his deep belief in what he was doing
that moved the nation. He gave his nation a new purpose and
destiny and they were willing to follow him for it.
As a leader, the strength of your conviction will often determine
how far your followers are willing to go through with it together
with you.
2. Understanding Human Nature
Adolf Hitler understood human nature very well. He knew how to
use human nature to his personal gain and with that knowledge; he
rallied the whole nation behind him. You have to understand the
thoughts, inclinations of human nature well if you are to be an
effective leader as well. This often means a high level of emotional
intelligence. Much of human nature can be easily being seen in
yourself; especially in your weakness to temptation or any base
inclination. You don’t have to study psychology or take a course in
human nature to understand them. Often your life experiences

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might already give you a good clue as to how people behave and
how to motivate people.
3. Constant Influence:
Adolf Hitler successfully used propaganda to bring the whole
nation under his influence through the constant use of media and
communications; he managed to cause a whole nation to think
alike to serve his cause. As the propaganda minister in Nazi
Germany, Joseph Goebbels says, “If you repeat a lie often enough,
people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it
yourself.” (This quote may have been misattributed to him, but the
point is there.) There’s a lesson for us leaders to be learnt here.
People become what they are constantly being exposed to. If you
constantly read, watch and listen to positive messages, you’ll
naturally become positive. And it works vice versa as well. We’d
like to think that we are thinking independently of our
environment, but the truth is that most of us think, act and believe
in a certain way as a result of several unconscious cues from our
environment. What is the underlying message you portray to your
team each day? The words you speak, the actions you take often
have either a positive or negative influence on your team.

Leadership lesson from adolf hitler

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