Bill Marriott - CEO of Marriot International
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008I was delighted to find Bill Marriott, CEO of Marriott International, blogging away about his summer reading.
He chose an interesting book and subject matter to blog on: the leadership style of Adolf Hitler. Curious choice, yet intriguing, to this history buff. Marriott cites Hitler’s poor leadership for failing to delegate properly to his team, namely in this instance by failing to heed the sage advice of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. Hitler failed to allow von Manstein to give the order for the 6th Army to escape from Stalingrad. 6th Army was subsquently destroyed. von Manstein, seething, was left to castigate Hitler in his memoirs in an attempt to distance himself from the crazy dictator as much as possible.
The more important lesson, in my opinion, is that von Manstein failed to stand up to Hitler’s crazyiness and glosses over many facts in his memoir (like the fact his wife was an ardent Nazi). von Manstein was the last Field Marshall standing that could have stood up to Hitler and he should have. I’m loathe to take any leadership lessons from sychophantic Hitlerite’s memoir. Bill, stick to hotels!
