Winston Churchill - Situational Leadership Style

 This short paper was written for a class in 2019. It discusses Winston Churchill's leadership style.

WINSTON CHURCHILL - SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE

by Ipatia K. Apostolides

September 10, 2019

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, a British politician, military officer, and writer (1874 -1965), was the prime minister of Great Britain during World War II (Winston Churchill Biography, 2017).  His father was a British statesman, and his mother a New York socialite.  Winston Churchill began his career in the military; this was later followed by becoming a member of the British Parliament and later a First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill Biography, 2017). These experiences helped prepare him for World War II.  

Winston Churchill was a fighter and a hard power military leader (aggressive) during WWII, but he was also a persuader with a “soft power underbelly” (Donaldson, 2015).  According to the Oxford Dictionary, hard power has been defined as a coercive approach to international political relations, especially one that involves the use of military power.”  Hard power uses an aggressive and coercive force, whereas soft power relies on persuasion and takes longer.  In addition to being a leader, Churchill was a writer and wrote nonfiction historical and biographical books, which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. According to Donaldson (2015), “These soft power skills helped Churchill persuade Britain to fight on and America to help Britain at a time when UK hard power was fully stretched.” 

 

In his “Iron Curtain” speech (Sinews of Peace, 1946), Churchill emphasizes freedom and human rights:

 

“We cannot be blind to the fact that the freedom enjoyed by citizens in the US and Great Britain are not valid in other powerful countries….It is not our duty at this time with difficulties so numerous to interfere forcibly into internal affairs of countries which we have not conquered in war. But we must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man.”

 

I would consider Churchill a situational leader because his leadership style changed depending on what was required of him. Churchill was a complex man who could change depending on the need and time, where he fought in WWII when it was necessary, wrote biographies and historical books in between, and expounded peace when it was time to do so.

 

 

References

 

 

Donaldson, A. (2015). Churchill, culture and soft power. Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-policy-insight/insight-articles/churchill-culture-and-soft-power

 

Oxford Dictionary. Hard power. Retrieved from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/hard_power

 

Sinews of Peace (1946). Churchill “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZBqqzxXQg4

 

Winston Churchill Biography (2017). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/political-figure/winston-churchill