Winston Churchill's Leadership During World War II

Every so often in the course of human events, a great leader will rise and change the world. During World War Two (WWII), many great leaders rose up to face the scourge of Hitler as the German army marched across Europe. These leaders ranged from political figures and generals all the way to the brave soldiers that went above and beyond the call of duty. All of the great leaders of WWII shared one common goal, defeating Hitler. While they may have had different opinions on how to achieve the goal, it united all of them. While each leader had an impact on the outcome of the war and ultimately the future of the world, it can be argued that no leader had a greater impact on the future of the world than Winston Churchill. To understand Churchill 's

However, he was given a second chance in WWII, and he rose to the challenge in spectacular fashion. During his second stint as the First Lord of Admiralty and particularly his time as Prime Minister, his leadership style underwent a drastic change. As Prime Minister, Churchill abandoned his controlling and individualistic approach and adopted a collective ("we") style approach, as seen by him letting his cabinet be involved and ultimately making the final decisions (McManus and Perruci 33). The change from his "I" to "We" leadership style was probably the most important step he took in becoming arguably the most influential leader of WWII. The second most important change that Churchill made was becoming an excellent communicator. With Britain being relatively small and weak, Churchill needed all the help he could muster and made allies of the strongest nations in the world. These relations ultimately saved Britain and all of Europe. Lastly, with his very public position, Churchill could use his ability to rally the people of Britain and convince them that they could survive and come out victorious, this kept the moral of the country high in a time of

As we can see in Churchill 's long and troubled past as a leader, the style of leadership that a leader employees can drastically affect their ability to be successful. In Churchill 's first attempt at leadership, he tried to lead in a way that did not match the needs that the environment demanded (McManus and Perruci 74-88). Churchill led in a controlling individualistic manner when he should have been leading in a way where he could cooperate with other military leaders. In Churchill 's second attempt at leadership, he was able to match his style of leadership with the environment he was in and work with his allies to save Britain and Europe. If Churchill had continued with his controlling leadership that failed him in WWI in WWII, there is no telling what would have happened, but it can be assumed it would not have been good, and the world would probably look very