Winston Churchill

A leader that I admire

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (Churchill) was an aristocrat from United Kingdom (UK) who lived in the two great wars, World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII). He was once the most inspiring leader particularly as a political leader and was portrayed during Europe succumbed to Hitler, London bombing and after UK experience some major military defeats. He managed to inspire the nation to continue enduring the suffering and fight on; inspire confidence in the ability to win; and to make unusual sacrifices to achieve his well communicated vision. Churchill was also known for his boldness and courage in making difficult decision. Nevertheless, this great leader also had his up and down throughout his career and on occasion to switch side when he felt that what his fighting for were in vain. After eliminated all obstacles in life, Churchill live his life with distinction and die with honour.

By definition, military leadership is an art of influencing and directing men in such way as to obtain their willing obedience, confidence, respect and loyal co-operation to accomplish the mission. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes such as knowledge, charisma, courage, initiative, enthusiasm, revolutionary, futuristic and willpower. In this paper, we will look at the outstanding and unforgettable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, who has unified and led Britain to be the only nation that survives in the World War 2 (WW2).

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th Queen Own Hussar Regiment on 20 Feb 1895. His pay as a second lieutenant in the regiment was £ 300 and was not sufficient for him to maintain his life style and to be at the equivalent to other officers in the regiment. This was the reason why he took an interest in war correspondence. He did not intend to follow a conventional career path of promotion through army ranks, but to seek out at all possible chances of military action and used his mother’s and family influence in high society to arrange postings and active campaigns. Therefore, he was involved in several wars as a soldier as well as a reporter. His writings and career brought him to the attention of the public. He then earned himself a significant additional income as he intended before. He also acted as a war correspondent for several London newspapers and wrote his own books about the campaigns.

In 1900, Winston Churchill was first elected to take the seat for Oldham as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons. Then, he was chosen as MP of Manchester Northwest (1906-1908), Dundee and Woodford (1924-1964). Between the years of 1906 to 1911, he had served various governmental posts such as In charge of Board and Trade, Home Office, Lord of Admiralty, Munitions, War and Air Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Although he had a very challenging time as a politician, he is still remembered for his contributions as a successful Prime Minister during WW2

 Churchill was 65 years old when he first became the Prime Minister of Britain. Despite his age and enormous energy, he had been a member of parliament (MP) for nearly 40 years. He had held senior posts, both at home and in international affairs for over 25 of those years. During this extensive career he had experienced failure and unpopularity. Indeed during the early days of his leadership he was still considerable distrust from members of his own Conservative party. Through all this he maintained his self belief :

‘Success is the result of good judgments, that good judgment is the result of experience and that experience is often the result of bad judgment‘