Urgh... Hitler was not a good leader, I will give that Hitler was charismatic and he found himself in an environment that was ripe for right-wing nationism, but the principle components that allowed Hitler to be in the center spot light of NSDAP power and influence was circumstance, circumstance, and a network of key individuals in the NSDAP.
First, the French influnce on Versailles was designed by intent and spite to break Germany's potent industrial potential; however the end result was utterly stupid in hindsight, the treaty just gave Germany a sense of rage to nurse over and its core industrial capabilities were maintained. The only thing the 1919 Treaty of Versailles did was break the crediability of the moderate German Weimar government and bankrupt the German middle class, which of course made a lot of the working poor jobless. Politically, these cataylst events polarised Germany into two basic camps since the moderates with the Weimar no longer had any influence. Communism was spreading like wildfire among the disenfranchised poor, of whom were rallying against industrialists and monopolists influence over society. This absolutely terrified Germany's social elites and royalists, in so they began to grow more sympathetic to nationalistic and right winged views.
On the German military side, the army, which held great amount of influence in Imperial German society, was still nursing a sense of betrayal against the Weimar government. There was also the matter of Erich Ludendorff, formerly von Hindenburg's right hand man in the Imperial forces, Ludendorff was an Iron Cross holder and very much believed in the NSDAP views. This was a serious factor in the NSDAP gaining influnce with the German elite and military's officer class.
All of this was happening without Hitler's influence, in fact during this time Hitler was soaking in political idealogy and retoric styles from men like Karl Lueger, a Christian Socialist leader, who made scandalous statements like "I decide who is a Jew..."
Anyways, Europe and the Americas in general were beginning to destabilised with the general depression and the various droughts. Street clashes between communist and nationalist factions became more common-place, and the world was quickly going down-hill. However the NSDAP wasn't a unitifed entity even by 1926, the NSDAP was still a fractional group, luckily for Hitler (Though not for the rest of the world) he was about to pull into his personal circle of influence men like Hess, Himmler, Goring, and Goebbels. Without these guys, Hitler would never have had the ability to focus the NSDAP.
The next major point was the Royalist, elites, and von Hindenburg's under-estimation of the NSDAP and personal dismisal of Hitler's character. On the plus side for Hitler, as communist clashes began to esculate and the general depression continued, roughly 339 industrialist (ie. Emil Kirdof, Fritz Thyseen) began to financially support the right-wing politics of the NSDAP. This financial muscle naturally translated into influnce and then votes.
With von Hindenburg's death and the NSDAP entrenched inside parliamentary to allow the Enabling Act, opposition to the NSDAP broken down. Yet German industry freed of the Versailles commitments, was still without heavy industry raw materials, of which regaining Alsace-Lorranine would help out. From there the wheels of war began to turn.
Anyways the thing is Hitler wasn't an intellectual or a keen strategist (despite his own self-stylings.) Hitler was a captivating icon for NSDAP hate speeches, which is why he was the de facto leader of the re-imaged NSDAP after Goebbels and Himmler had their way with the party. The real leaders or directors were always men like Goebbels and Himmler for the party, and later men like Heinz Guderian and Walther von Reichenau in the military. However the twist here is that while Goebbels was an intellectual, he had lacked the influence with a number of factions inside NSDAP. With Himmler, he was shrew but had an acidic personality and he was too feared by the more political party members. In the end the various leaders of the NSDAP all lacked Hitler's charisma to stabilise and keep the NSDAP various components focused. On the other hand, Hitler meeded his circle because he lacked their intellect and abilities. When the total war came into full form, Hitler was totally out of his league and Hitler was even more of a failure. Hitler was not heedful of his general and continued to interfere with operations, as the war progressed Hitler became more distrustful of OKW and OKH began to take personally take over operational planning.
Stalin was a better leader and that's saying a lot.
