how was napoleon bonaparte an effective leader?

Before answer of your question, You have to understand the emergence of Napoleone Bonaparte, He emerged through the midst of the chaos of the French Revolution, We know that Before revolution there always a thing which know as Anarchy, French were poor, Poverty on the rise, No Social and health facility, No law & order, these were the ground realities, France was almost in parts because of Foreign interventions. Now you analyse the effectiveness of Napoleone, He Joined army as a foot soldier and quickly ranked at the top, He Became Emperor of France, With nothing in Hand, He managed to make french all united, Not only that he solved the issue of Law & order situation, Provide health facilities, Now French at his back, He Challenged Foreign powers to stop interfering in France, He virtually destroyed intelligence network of Russia, Germany, and England(UK), One man, one Goal, One country, One people, though he made many mistakes but still, his slogan of French nationalism is still alive. Otherwise we would have had different small countries from the soil of France.

I’m a little rusty on Napoleon, always have been even though I did study him again this year. I think it really was the fact that he unified the people in some manor, and yes, nationalism plays a major role in Napoleon’s rule

He wasn’t. He lost