Ben Wilson

And so when he wants something done, a lot of people are just trying to do it because he doesn't give clear direction on who should do it or how.

So there's infighting in terms of turf wars, right?

What turf belongs to who within the party?

his economic advisor Otto Waggoner recalls, quote, Hitler actually never issued instructions.

He wanted to refrain from making decisions.

That's interesting.

He didn't like making decisions.

Instead, he would outline general principles

And if a decision needed to be made, he would often just wait as long as possible and just kind of let it gestate in his mind and think about it in the background.

And then when he couldn't wait any longer, he would finally come out with a reluctant decision.

And usually it was the right one, at least in political matters at this point.

this this actually is a type of decision making that can work okay in a political party um but as we'll see in episode three it works less well when you're actually trying to run a country so um it's a confusing leadership style

It is very centralized in one person.

It leads to a lot of extremism as people try and one up each other in completing these sort of vague wishes and ideas that Hitler is putting out there.

But it has some benefits.

It also has a lot of drawbacks.

Anyways, that is Hitler's strategy for leadership.

He also had a habit, which would persist throughout his entire career, of extreme dilatoriness followed by sudden decisive boldness.

And that came from his putting off of decisions.

So Ian Kershaw writes, there was never any suggestion that Hitler might be bypassed or ignored, that anyone but he could make a key decision.