“Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili” or simply Joseph Stalin who became a leader has done so many things that are rather inhumane and these include the following: “political repression”; “persecution and executions”; food confiscations which played a large role in the occurrence of famine and consequently death; deportations; prisoners were obliged to work without getting paid for it; communists were forced to take part in the construction of certain infrastructure without compensation; left people to starve to death; created economic policies that led to famine; etc (Spartacus.., n.d.).
On the other hand, Adolf Hitler’s leadership is exhibited by the following characteristics: murder of opponents; genocide of six million Jewish individuals; he suspended the basic rights of the people; bombing of London and Coventry (Spartacus.., n.d.).
We could go on and on citing the inhumane acts of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler but it would be of no use since it is extremely apparent that both did not possess the characteristics of a great leader. That being said, allow me to reintroduce the characteristics of a great leader:
A leader should be a very good example; a leader should show his or her followers techniques like self-goal, setting, self-observation, self-punishment, self-reinforcement, addressing previous circumstances; a leader should provide rewards or incentives for high-quality performance carried out; a leader should mediate discussions, even arguments, or even just self-dialogues to check, if not totally alter ones presumptions, opinions, thinking etc; and a leader should motivate his followers understand what others say by trying to walk in someone else’s shoes (Neck et. al., 2007).
In addition to that, they should also have ethics, because leadership entails not only doing what he or she has to, but also doing what is ethical and what is right (Sugarman, n.d.). Leaders should have the dedication that consumes much of a leader’s life and they should serve for a cause (Sugarman, n.d.).
Since both leaders did not take into consideration what is right and what is wrong by simply carrying out what they personally want to occur, this does not make them great leaders at all. They are not even good examples and cannot subject themselves to self-punishment. They are not ethical enough to be called a leader, much less, a great one at that.
