I had never heard of the battle of Stalingrad until I saw the movie ‘Enemy at the Gates’.
Afterwards, I read up on it, a tiny bit.
In a nutshell it sounds like Hitler lost the war because of his ego.
Apparently, he became obsessed with taking Stalingrad because it was named after his opponent (Stalin).
So much so that despite the heavy losses he continued to pour resources into the German effort.
Some estimates say 800,000 German soldiers died at the battle of Stalingrad.
Can you imagine being a soldier and your one short life was taken from you because some idiot couldn’t get over his own ego.
Which brings me to my point.
Everyone has an ego whether they would like to admit it or not.
Furthermore I believe if you want to fuel your ego, then knock yourself out.
If you want to go around calling yourself ‘The best there ever was‘, then you do that.
But I think when it comes to making decisions that impact others, I think the underlying question has to elevate from ‘How can I make myself look great?’ to ‘What’s best for the group?‘.
I think that is the hallmark of a great leader.
Thomas Duggan 