With the use of appropriate examples suggest the qualities required to be a good leader of society.

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      General Studies, Mr Shepherd                                          14th October 2004            

With the use of appropriate examples suggest the qualities required to be a good leader of society.

“Leadership is influence. It is the ability to obtain followers. When the leader lacks confidence, the followers have no commitment. A leader is great not because of his power, but because of his ability to empower others” – John Maxwell.

This quote summarises what a good leader of society should be. It is all well and good to have a leader who is influential, but to have a leader, who is not able to stand in front of a crowd of people and cameras during a press conference, is pointless. A good leader, therefore, needs to be a mixture of the following: charismatic, trustworthy, honest, decisive, popular, powerful, approachable, sociable, charitable, competent, reliable, and confident. Clearly no single person could possibly possess all of these qualities simultaneously.

Throughout the history of recorded human existence there has been leaders, both good and bad, and it is the qualities they possess that are responsible for their popularity or success. Such leaders may not be acknowledged for fair or honourable character, but it is how and what they do to accomplish what they planned to do, and the consequences of their actions, that truly matters.

A perfect example of this kind of leader is Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany between 1933 and 1945, who was responsible for the genocide of the majority of the Jewish population in Germany and the surrounding Nazi-dominated countries, contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War and was directly responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million people all in all. Despite the appalling crimes against humanity he committed during his years of leadership, the fact that he was able to gain the attention, trust and respect from the people in his nation cannot be avoided. However, some of the methods he used were manipulative, deceitful and dishonest, unknown to the German people, and included the mass murder of many SA members, Hitler’s personal army, during ‘the Night of the Long Knives’ on June 30 1934, or his use of opportunism after the death of President Hindenburg when he combined the offices of Chancellor and President to make himself Fuhrer.

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Hitler had a vision, was able to energise a large number of people around it, and develop the effectiveness of the organisations he was responsible for. He had many qualities that made him a successful and popular leader, of which include his charisma, his ability as a powerful orator, his determination, motivation, hard work, and the fact that he was respected and liked by many. However, Hitler also had several weaknesses; he had great distrust in his generals, which led to ‘the Night of the Long Knives,’ and also had many suspicions about him, some originating from the Reichstag ...

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