Leader

Joseph Smith was an important religious figure who founded Mormonism. He was faithful, driven, and a strong speaker, but was easily tempered. Joseph Smith had his great contributions and failures, and after his death the new Mormon leader became Brigham Young, who also made great contributions to the Mormon movement, but just as Joseph Smith he had his failures. Joseph Smith was born in 1805. While Smith was growing up, there was a great religious revival taking place in New York State. When he was fourteen, Smith was finding this very confusing, and began to pray for guidance.

Smith then claimed that a pillar of light appeared before him, and told him not to join any religious sects. Later as he was growing up, Smith experienced a vision from the angel Moroni, who told him that God had work for him to accomplish. The angel told Smith that a book written upon gold plates was deposited. The book gave accounts of former inhabitants of this continent and their source. The angel then told Smith where to find the book, and he dug it up on a hillside near Manchester. The book gave a different story from the Bible. According to the book, lost Israeli tribes migrated to America before the birth of Christ.

There they fought each other until Christ was born and established his Church. Then the fighting began again, and one of the survivors, Mormon, wrote down records of his people on the plates. The person who found these plates was to restore the Church of Christ in America. Smith wouldn’t let anyone check the plates to check his honesty, and said he had returned them to the hillside. Smith then published a translation of the plates in 1830. Smith started with just five followers, but his speaking and persuasions kills were very strong, and by the end of 1830 he had several hundred followers.

However they were very unpopular in New York State because people claimed that Smith was only trying to make money and his book was offensive. His house was attacked and followers were shot in the streets. Smith then prayed for guidance, he took his followers Kirtland, Ohio. There he planned to set up a City of God. In Kirtland, the Mormon movement flourished greatly, reaching a thousand followers by 1831. They even founded colonies in Missouri. They worked very hard and soon had a store, bank, printing press and a mill. They soon outnumbered the non-Mormons. However their success increased the envy and hatred of the others.

Very unfortunately for the Mormons, in 1837 there was a economic crisis, making many banks collapse. Many non-Mormons had put their savings into the Mormon bank, and when it collapsed, they were chased out of Kirtland. The Mormons and their leader, Joseph Smith, then went to the colonies they had set up in Missouri, but this didn’t increase their popularity. Attempts were made to stop them from voting, and the local settlers destroyed property. When the government sent in troops to make order, the Mormons were blamed for everything, put in prison, and condemned to death.

Then rumours began to go around that they were freeing slaves and upsetting Indians, making the government declare them as public enemies. In 1838 the Mormons were released from prison, they went to a very small town of Commerce in Illinois, which Smith renamed Nauvoo. The Mormons were allowed to develop it into and independent city state. They prospered cooperatively, and in 1844 Nauvoo was the biggest city in Illinois, dominated by the giant temple. The Mormons, now at 35,000 were trying to create an ideal society with no poor, homeless, smoking or drinking. Many of the poor converted, promised salvation. The Mormons were finally settled.

However this was ruined by Smith’s serious mistakes. He said that the idea of polygamy was right, leading to many Mormons calling him false, and a lot of criticism in the newspapers. This angered Smith and he destroyed the presses of the newspaper. His critics then asked for him to be arrested, and he was put into jail in Carthage. Once the news about polygamy spread to the non-Mormons, they were enrages. They shot Smith in the prison, and Mormons were hunted down by mobs. After the death of Joseph Smith, the new leader of the Mormons became Brigham Young. He decided that the Mormons would leave to the Great Salt Lake in 1846.

Young was very organized and down-to earth, and very determined. He also married eight of Smith’s former wives, so he was very considerate. Preparations took all winter, and then the Mormons finally began their journey. They passed many dangers even though the journey was well organized, such as the prairie weather and plague that killed hundreds of people. On their way to the Great Salt Lake, they met Jim Bridger, a mountain man who warned them that it would be too cold for growing corn, but was ignored. They also passed Sam Brannan, a Mormon who told them to go to California.

Young replied that he is looking for a desolate place. They climbed on upwards, and by July they reached the Great Salt Lake. Young had total control over his community; they trusted and believed in him, and so although he had many challenges to overcome, he knew he’d be able to build a Mormon City. Young decided that there would be no private ownership of land or water, and land would be assigned to people according to their needs by the church. Everything was going well, but in 1848 the US defeated Mexico in war and gained territories including part of the Great Salt Lake.

Young decided to form a Mormon state called Deseret, but the US government refused and a compromise was made and the territory of Utah was created, and Young was governor. Young organized and developed Utah very well, building new towns and making farming and wheat production a success. He was sure that the Mormons would be self-sufficient. Young also sent out missionaries to convert people, and got an amazing result. There was an immigration fund set up to help converts pay for their passage to Salt Lake and organize it. However the Mormons weren’t very self-sufficient and still didn’t have enough workers or money for industrial development.

Education wasn’t much of an achievement either. Tension also grew between the Mormons and the outsiders when converts began to move to Utah. Many bad rumours spread about the Mormons. It was suspicious to the outsiders that the Mormons had converted some of the Indians, and so rumours spread that they were planning to kill all gentiles together. The US government decided to emphasize their authority, and in 1857 an army of 2500 men was sent out to march against the Mormons, who fled to Salt Lake City. This worked very well and the army ended up not reaching Salt Lake City.

Then the Mountain Meadow Massacre took place. As 140 emigrants were heading for California, they passed Utah. They abused Indian converts and insulted the Mormons. This provoked the Indians to attack them. The Indians and the Mormons killed all the emigrants to stop the news from spreading out. The Mormons then blamed everything on the Indians. But soon newspapers spread the story, begging for the Mormons to be punished. The US government sent troops out again, causing the Mormon families to flee. But when the news reached the East, the Mormons were suddenly turned into victims.

In 1858 the US government offered them a full forgiveness if they accepted the US authority. They agreed, a governor was appointed, and they were allowed to develop in peace. Their true leader was still Brigham Young. However polygamy was still a disagreement. When Utah applied to become a state, the US offered to let them become a state if they accepted the ban of polygamy. They agreed, and Utah was made a state in 1896. Both of the men faced challenges, found solutions, and left a positive impact on the Mormon movement. Joseph Smith was very driven and determined and wouldn’t accept defeat.

He was a great public speaker with a lot of charisma, and thereby converted many people into Mormonism. He was a business man and established banks. Smith was very intelligent because he created a thriving business and a new religion. He was also a great leader before he was jailed. He was also clever to establish colonies in Missouri, to which the Mormons fled out of Kirtland. Brigham Young managed to leave a very positive impact on the Mormon movement as well. He was a great leader, and his people believed in him and trusted him. He was very organized and more down to earth than Smith.

He managed to organize the long and difficult journey to the Great Salt Lake. When they faced cold weather in the winter, he arranged the winter quarters where they stayed. He also had total control over his community and established a thriving city in the Great Salt Lake. He developed a great law of land being given to people according to their needs. He also negotiated well with the US government, eventually receiving the land of Utah. His missionaries to convert people were a big success, and he built new towns in Utah, as well as making faming and wheat-production a success.

He also established a great immigration fund for immigrant converts. He made a right and down-to earth decision when he accepted anti-polygamy, finally making Utah a State. He was also very considerate; he had the answers to the Mormons’ problems, carried them through after the death of smith, and married all of Smith’s wives. He left a long-time impact, and after his death Salt Lake City was prosperous, the power of the Church was finally established through his system of government, and many of his foundations still remain today. Both of the Mormon leaders also had failures. Joseph Smith’s strong temper got him into jail twice.

He was also too ambitious, and his ideas of polygamy ruined the Mormons’ peace in the land they were finally free in. When his banks collapsed, this added tension to the Mormons’ relationship with the outside world even more, and made them seem unreliable and too ambitious. By the time he presented his ideas about polygamy, his people didn’t believe in him anymore because he had gotten them into jail, and so his leadership image was ruined. Brigham Young had failures as well. Although his planning for the Great Salt Lake journey was good, they still faced challenges and people died on the way.

He also didn’t manage to establish a law to allow polygamy. They also weren’t as self-sufficient as he planned, and they lost money when their iron, pottery and textile attempts didn’t succeed. They also didn’t achieve much in the education area. The emigrants also complained of overcharging, and relations between Mormons and the outsiders remained difficult. Overall, Brigham Young definitely left a bigger positive impact on the Mormon movement. He was much more down-to-earth than Smith, and his people remained believing in him until his death.

Even when Utah was appointed a new governor, he still remained their spiritual leader. Young managed to make Utah a state where Mormons continued to live after his death. Many of his foundations still remain today. The power of the Church was firmly established through his system of government, and Salt Lake City was prosperous after his death. Many Mormons remain in the world today. Young didn’t get the Mormons into jail or disappoint them like Smith did, and carried them through his death. Smith had minimal achievements compared to Young, and died in shame and disapproval unlike Young, who left a great impact after his death.

What Makes a Leader In this article we explore what makes a great leader and what groups and levels of skills are needed to be a great leader. Daniel Coleman writes about Emotional Intelligence, how It Is evaluated, and the Importance of Emotional Intelligence for effectiveness of an affective leader. Everyone is born with certain levels of skills that can be strengthened with persistence, practice and feedback from colleagues and coaches. Mr.. Coleman preformed over the course of an entire year focusing on how emotional Intelligences operates In the workplace.

They examined the relationship teen both effective performance and emotional intelligence especially in leadership roles. The 5 groups of skills are listed as follows: self-awareness, self- regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills, which I will be discussing. Companies hire trained psychologists to develop “competency models” to aid in identifying, training, and promoting of individuals with these groups of skills. These individuals are those who can recognize their strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and impact on others who know that one needs to control or redirect disruptive Impulses and moods to be an effective leader.

Having relishing achievement for own sake and are considerate to other peoples emotional make up by using the rapport built with others to move them in the desired direction. Daniel Coleman distinguishes what makes a great leader from the average one. The five in one secret to success allows you to maximize your leadership skills. Emotional Intelligence benefits you at every level of business giving you the necessary tools most Important to building the right foundation to a solid future and taking the right direction to ensuring a success in your business venture.

Take advantage and use your emotional Intelligence to show how capable and effective you can truly be. Self-awareness in the aspect of big business allocates one resources, strong and weak to use to best impact the goals set forward. People with high self-awareness recognize how their feelings affect them, others, and Job performance. Having high self-awareness allows one to make critical decisions that need to be made in order for deadlines to be met and to save future conflict that could have been avoided.

Knowing the time and place for things is a good example of having good self- wariness, without it you could potentially ruin a first impression and hinder Impending possible business endeavors. To enhance emotional intelligence companies are altering their training to include the limbic system. This allows for people to break old behavioral habits and establish new ones. It is key to focus that ones emotional intelligence can only come from sincere desire and resolute effort.

Once your self-awareness is up to par you will be able to see your Impact on others and see how malleable the people around you really are. Your self-confidence gives o a desire for constructive criticism to better yourself day by day. 1 OFF redirect any disruptive emotions or any impulses that could spawn from a heated altercation with a fellow employee. Biological impulses guide our everyday emotions, we can never get rid of them, but we can control them. This allows one to pick and choose their words carefully not being tempted to kick the chair or flip the desk.

People who can control their emotions are often seen as stiff and dispassionate. With self-regulation, patience is vital and will prove faithful when it comes to your integrity and trustworthiness. With time, you become and grow more comfortable with ambiguity and change thus having a stronger grasp on your emotional intelligence. When looking at the aspect of leadership, one with a good head on their shoulders not eager to Jump to make irrational decisions before first going through all of the possible solutions to the problem.

This ensures that the best potential outcome will be explored and evaluated to best serve its purpose helping business run as it should and keeping employees content with the workplace. Motivation or inspirational words are that should be followed with ambitious work. When being driven to achieve for only the sake of achievement and accomplishing the task at hand is the only thing on your mind. Taking the passion for the quality and the challenges that come with completing any new task.

Being the most optimistic when staring down at a ticking time bomb knowing exactly what must be done and with tender touch in some cases that create the most success. The passion that you hold for the very things you do on a daily basis, anywhere from work itself or for any new challenges that spark your interest. This challenge gives you unflagging energy to improve on your current status in every aspect of life. Optimism will bring you far in life with the regards to having patience for the right thing to take its place and take us to where we need to be.

Stressing over every little thing will only slow you down and make you look like less of a professional. Instead of blaming countless other individuals, taking accountability for your actions and stepping up to learn from this experience and apply it to the work place can cause engineer a turn-around. Empathy or ability to consider others feelings when making a decision in the work lace can save you a lot of time and stress from you saying or doing something without fully thinking it through and it turns out if you would of Just thought that through and been a little less selfish you could of seen the bigger picture.

With this trait not only will you be improving your work portfolio so you will be developing the ability to develop others by attracting talent by the expertise that you need for a competitive firm. When in the workplace, one doesn’t have two many second chances or second first impressions’. Understanding proper etiquette and the ability to be insensitive to cross-cultural differences could make or break a clients approval.

It is very important to make sure you know every subtle detail about your client to avoid risking potential failure and ending a potential venture before it even starts. One thing in our culture could mean something completely and totally opposite in someone else’s and when you think your conveying the correct platform, in reality you are not on the same page as your client due to lack of preparedness due to poor Social skills are the ability to manage relationships to move people in the direction hat is crucial to the development of the company.

Being a leader with good social skills one must be effective in leading change, persuasive, extensive networking, and experience in the leading and building of teams. This allows for the leader to manage what exactly they would want their company to adopt to better the future of the enterprise. With the correct social skills, it will ensure that your ability to persuade allies in other divisions to possibly help fund potential endeavors.

Even if your social skills are lacking, there is always room to better your own social skills and evolve into he social butterfly that you always intended to be but never had the right force to push you. Once you have found common ground you can build a rapport and take your business to higher levels. Socially skilled people tend to have a vast amount of acquaintances and have the capabilities of finding common ground with all types of people. People who tend to achieve usually are optimistic including times of setbacks or failures.

In conclusion, we are shown that everyone has the skills available to potentially be great leaders but that not everyone has the balanced set or capability to reach the Roth needed so we see that as an individual it takes more than Just one trait to be a great leader but it takes five individual characteristics that make up emotional intelligence that allows us to think before we speak and act making sure that we represent ourselves the way that resembles the characteristics that would make company blush and be glad they have you at their business.

Conduct yourself with self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills and you will have the perfect concoction to making a great leader out of yourself and others around you.

Leadership skill is something that is cultivated and developed over time. It requires experience and understanding on how things should be done in order to carry the task successfully. In order to become a good leader, one must have the guts, confidence in one’s ability and a good level of self esteem. Moreover, being a leader means being able to see the potential in matters of interest despite all odds and obstacles. Every leader must maintain a “no guts, no glory” attitude otherwise one cannot expect his subordinates or members to follow.

Confidence plays and integral role towards becoming effective as a leader. It is not enough to lead a group but what matters most is to be able to be in command and in control of everything without necessarily offending the members. The right balance of leadership and sensitivity must be achieved in order to gain the respect of the others. More importantly, strength, determination and motivation are all essential qualities of a good leader – strength to carry out the responsibilities, determination to achieve the goals and objectives and motivation to influence others to maintain their focus.

For these reasons, a leader must have the “guts” to stand out among others and lead everyone to do their part. Having a “no guts, no glory” attitude is a quality that every potential leader must learn to muster. Being a leader means being on top of everything. Without the courage to lead all those who are below him, everything else will fall apart. Thus it is necessary to focus on this attitude in every undertaking.

Guts refer to courage, confidence, strength, drive and everything else that can make a person excel, go beyond his ability or achieve more than what is expected of him. It is a term most often used to define a quality that will enable a person to conquer his fear or insecurity. Every leader must learn how to overcome or at least to manage his fears, insecurities and uncertainties in order to cascade positivity to all those who are under his leadership. When the subordinates, people or members see the confidence and positivity expressed by the leader, things become more achievable.

The leader, in all its essence, creates the positive attitude and then passes it on to those who are under him to keep the organization strong, inspired and motivated thereby making everybody feel that everything is possible just as long as everyone share the same views and beliefs. A leader who has a “no guts, no glory” attitude sees the potential in everything. When everyone else begins to doubt the possibilities, the leader stands up to explain how things should be viewed and what is there to gain despite of the negative elements.

The leader unites the team, pulls everyone together and guides each one to believe in what they can achieve. This is the challenge that every leader faces. Just when everybody else is facing failure and defeat, the leader continues to keep his team together providing motivation and strength. In areas where failure is apparent, the leader finds a way to turn things around through proper leadership skills, and still aim for success. Earning the cooperation, trust and hard work of the team is extremely important in successful leadership.

For this to happen, a good leader must in itself become an excellent follower. “Effective leaders focused on subordinates, set work standards that were high but obtainable, carefully organized tasks, identified the methods to be used in carrying them out, and closely supervised the work of subordinates” (Green, 2008, p. 10). References Green, R. L. (2008). Practicing the Art of Leadership: A Problem-Based Approach to Implementing the ISLLC Standards. 3rd Edition: Prentice Hall.

How and why did Stalin win to be the leader of Russia? Stalin’s manipulative personality Joseph Stalin was known to have a manipulative personality. He was persuasive, educated, determined however also arrogant (due to his role as General Sectary). Also Lenin is rude as Lenin said in his testament “Stalin is too rude”. After Lenin died during the struggle for power Stalin was reasonably quiet at the beginning. This makes him sly and sneaky because we get the impression he is up to no good. Stalin also lied about the date of Lenin’s funeral to Trotsky.

This meant that Trotsky didn’t ttend the funeral which made Trotsky look really bad and disrespectful. Lying about the funeral date makes Stalin look cunning and his personality doesn’t seem like a nice person. However these factors aided him to become future leader of Russia. Stalin’s choices of policies (NEP and socialism in one country) During the beginning of the struggle for power after Lenin died Stalin formed an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1923, this was purely to keep Trotsky out of power.

However in early 1925 Zinoviev and Kamenev split from Stalin, he Joined with Bukharin instead because Stalin said he was in favour of NEP. Zinoviev and Kamenev were removed from the party because they were against NEP. However in 1928 Stalin ended his alliance with Bukharin and rejected NEP; he had more communist ideas which appealed to young communist followers which helped him win the vote in 1929 which meant he won and became the leader of Russia.

During the beginning of the struggle for power he was neither left not right wing (of communist ideas, all members of communism were left wing) – Stalin stayed in the middle. By doing this he didn’t seem like a threat to anyone as he slowly crept up to have power. Stalin’s use of General Sectary Stalin being General Sectary he was able to promote his followers but also demote and even fire people who opposed him. In my opinion without his General Sectary post many of his rivals who were in the power struggle wouldVe defeated Stalin early on.

He allied himself with whoever seemed strongest at that point and because he was General Sectary he had authority to spy on people using secret police and another murder not Just the person who had opposed him, but also their whole family. Lenin almost predicted that Stalin’s role of General Sectary is a bad thing because he has too much power “Stalin has unlimited authority concentrated in his ands” Also as he was General Sectary this made him popular with the communist followers because he had a big role in the communist party.

Stalin’s use of Lenin’s legacy Betore Lenin died ne nad written a testament about Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. In the testament Lenin hadn’t said any good things about Stalin. Lenin said negative things such as “l am not sure whether Stalin will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution” and as seen in future events Stalin didn’t use his role of General Sectary properly, he used it to promote his followers and fire his opponents. He also used it as an excuse to murder which isn’t acceptable. l suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, and more considerate to the comrades” Lenin suggested that Stalin should be removed from his General Sectary post, if he was he may have not become leader of Russia at all? However Stalin kept his post as General Sectary. All of the members of the communist party decided to keep Lenin’s testament a secret because Lenin had said bad things about all of them so it would be a better idea not to tell the public.

At Lenin’s funeral Stalin spoke about Lenin which is strange, because Lenin and Stalin never got along. Stalin had an argument with Lenin’s wife before Lenin had died. Because Stalin had spoken at Lenin’s funeral this makes people respect Stalin more, and he gained more popularity. Stalin’s opponent’s weaknesses TROTSKY In Lenin’s testament Lenin described Trotsky with outstanding ability, very able and intelligent. However he was very arrogant and there was an element of mistrust. Trotsky decided to stay on his own during 1923-24 which also made him weaker.

He ecame an enemy of Stalin and Stalin lied to him about the date of Lenin’s funeral which then meant Trotsky was unable to turn up which made him very unpopular. He was also very ill which meant that he missed important meetings. BUKHARIN Lenin described Bukharin as very popular and likeable. However he wasn’t fully communist and his commitment must be questioned. During 1923-24 Bukharin was in the right wing (of communist ideas) but he didn’t play a big role in the struggle for power. However he teamed up with Stalin during 1925. Bukharin became an enemy of Stalin in 1928 and delayed Bukharin’s plane so he missed an important meeting.

However he was still considered the favourite of the party until he arranged a secret meeting with Zinoviev and Kamenev, Stalin found out and told everyone so Bukharin became unpopular because people couldn’t trust him which weakened him greatly. ZINOVIEV AND KAMENEV Zinoviev and Kamenev were described as too cautious because they didn’t play a big role in the October revolution. This means that their commitment must be questioned. They allied with Stalin very early on in 1923 however they ended their alliance with Stalin at the end of 1924 because they no longer wanted NEP and ntended to become more industrialised.

However they became unpopular because they challenged Bukharin’s authority in 1927 (this is when Stalin and Bukharin were together). A vote proved this which made them weaker. They were never re-elected after that vote and feared Stalin and Bukharin more than Trotsky. However they made an alliance with Trotsky and were in favour of left wing communism (world revolution). Because of this the three of them were expelled from the party. This weakened them the most, they were re-admitted after they publicly apologised but Stalin only used Zinoviev and Kamenev for their tactics.

Organization is a social grouping designed to achieve certain goals (Collins 2002). It is composed of groups of people having different skills. They interact and collaborate in a certain way in order to get their job done. In general, a company can make up of specialised functional departments for example there are accounting, production, marketing, finance and human resource in one manufacturing company. It is unavoidable that a group, whose each member has various experiences, attitudes, culture and expectations, can have conflicts although they try to reach the same goal.

In fact, there are different ways to obtain an outcome through co-operation within groups or meetings which people come up with distinct opinions and ideas. As a result, it sometimes ends up with conflicts and the responsibility for arbitrating fall on the group’s leader or one who is in charge. However, Taylor stated that in scientific method it is possible to find “one best way” to perform each task (F. W. Taylor 1856-1917 quoted by Laurie J Mullins (2002) p. 55). Although there are many kinds of conflict, this essay will focus on the conflict in groups in organizations.

It will also explain sources and consequences of conflicts and the approaches of how the leaders can effectively manage conflicts in groups. First of all, I would like to begin with meanings and results of conflict which can be interpreted in many ways. Oxford dictionary, 2000 defines a conflict as a situation in which people, groups, or countries are involved in a serious disagreement or argument. Marx and Weber view group conflict as inevitable the result of social class and organizational hierarchy (Kolb, et al (1992), p. 2).

In addition, John Hunt defined in the role of perception in conflict as “Interpersonal conflict occurs between two or more persons when attitudes, motives, values, expectations or activities are incompatible and if those people perceive themselves to be in disagreement. “( Hunt 1982 quoted by Guirdham 1990: p331), while Mullins see conflict as behaviour intended to obstruct the achievement of some other person’s goal and conflict is based on the incompatible of goals and arises from opposing behaviour (Laurie J. Mullins, (1985), p. 814).

Generally speaking, most people interpret conflict in negative ways due to the fact that it always results in ineffective productions and destructive outcomes such as a mistrust atmosphere, resistance to team work, broken-down relationship which cause tension and keep distance between people in a work place. On the one hand, well-managed conflict can be beneficial to an organization. From Schmidt survey of practicing managers, who spend 20 percent of their time dealing with conflict situations, positive outcomes of conflict lead to better understandings and supports within an organization or even generate creative thinking.

It can be seen as an aid to incremental improvement in organization design and functioning and to the decision-making process. Therefore, all these aspects are some benefits of constructive conflict (Schmidt 1974 quoted by Mullins (1985), p. 814). Whenever conflict occurs in a firm, firstly, a leader needs to understand causes of organizational conflict in order to approach it with appropriate strategies.

Secondly, he/she should realize all parties who involve in the situation such as their status, role, responsibility or even their personality, if necessary. Next, the leader decides whether he/she can be a mediator or a negotiator based on his/her backgrounds affecting on the issue. The final process is to execute the fight to achieve a constructive result. As far as I concern, another factor which should be consider is the time frame in that the more time a leader consume to finalize conflict, the more adverse impacts damage to the company.

Regarding sources of conflict, it may derive from miscommunication or misinformation, differences in needs and priorities, differences in values, beliefs, attitudes and culture as well as differences in structural conditions (Kelsey and Plumb (2001), p. 1). People react with conflict differently. By using Hofstede scales, people respond with conflict into five styles: integrating, obliging, dominating, avoiding and compromising (Hofstede, (1980) quoted by Rahim, et al, 1994). Leaders should be able to interpret and classify their staff to cope with them properly in various circumstances. Each style will be illustrated and explained below.

The Foolishness of Achilles’ Anger What causes a great leader to fall? Why do people who have such large potential fail? Could it be pressure? Expectations? Circumstances? All these things may contribute but the final blows are made by a serious character flaw or a series of unwise choices. Two men help to illustrate this fact. First, Achilles, who was brought down by over-reacting and his own anger, faced failure as a leader. Second, Samson made foolish decisions and paid for them with his life. Achilles, who was one of several Greek princes under King Agamemnon, demonstrates the foolishness of anger.

Agamemnon and Achilles had each earned attractive women in battle. When Agamemnon had to return his woman to her father, the King took Briseis, Achilles’ prize, for himself, thus removing Achilles’ glory from him. Foolishly, Achilles responded with rage. He would not fight for Agamemnon against the Trojans until his honor was restored. He stomped back to his own hall and his own ships, taking his own countrymen with him. The Trojans almost slaughtered all the Greeks before the two quarreling captains made peace and Achilles willingly fought for his country.

Achilles’ anger caused many unfortunate consequences. One consequence was his own misery. Selfishness equals misery. Since most of his friends did not like him anymore, he felt very lonely. A second outcome of Achilles’ bitterness was the death of many people. Because he continued his pouting, the war lasted several days longer and many soldiers perished needlessly. Lastly, the irritation resulted in the untimely end of his best friend, Petroclus, who bravely marched into battle wearing Achilles’ armor.

Achilles, although he was a skillful, courageous warrior, provides a clear example of the nasty effects of resentment. Another potentially great leader was Samson. Samson was born to deliver the Israelites because they had fallen into sin again. Although he had to follow strict rules, he would be a great and strong man. He could not cut his hair, or touch any unclean animal, and he was required to follow all the rules of the Nazirites. Samson thoughtlessly broke many of the rules on him. He married a woman who was not from Israel, he touched an unclean animal, and wholly rejected his calling to save Israel.

God however, was going to have his way, with or without Samson’s obedience. While Samson had destroyed many Philistines, the Israelites captors, he was still unwilling to obey. At last Samson made an incurable mistake; he told Delilah how to make himself weak. Samson spent the rest of his short life as a captive to the Philistines. His eyes were plucked out. He worked like an animal. He was treated like dirt. In the end he did destroy the Philistine army, but only with his own death. His bad choices led him to a place he never intended to go.

When he was born, he had the potential to be Israel’s greatest and grandest judge, but instead he became a blind man who had to die to fulfill his purpose. Although both Samson and Achilles were great men, they failed because of their anger, foolishness, selfishness, and resentment. They ruined their possible success by making unwise decisions. Even though they were born to greatness, their reputations are marred by their reckless behavior. These two men’s lives reveal the stumbling blocks that cause leaders to fall.

For any ecommerce company, getting customers to make one purchase is a feat in and of itself. Getting them to come back again and again is a challenge that plagues countless entrepreneurs. But one company found success by creating a system that not only addresses this issue, it also provides a huge benefit to its customers.

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A new customer lands on the site and is prompted to take the quiz. She’s then led through a series of fun questions about her exercise habits and style preferences. Upon finishing the quiz, customers are sent to a page full of outfits chosen specifically for them, based on their results.

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From there, customers have two options: they can choose to shop as a visitor and purchase styles at regular retail price (tanks start at $15.95; dresses start at $64.95), or they can opt in to Fabletics’ flexible VIP Membership Program. VIP Members immediately receive special treatment with an exclusive intro offer of 50 percent off their first outfit. But the perks don’t stop there. VIPs also enjoy continued savings on every future purchase (up to 50 percent off retail prices), free shipping on orders over $49 and easy exchanges.

It’s like ordering a nonfat caramel latte – you get all of the flavor, but half the calories. At Fabletics, you get twice the style for half the price.

Each month, the brand offers a new collection of signature styles – everything from leggings and running shorts to sports bras and jackets – in a variety of on-trend prints and colors you won’t find anywhere else. VIPs can shop the latest and greatest or skip the month at no cost. If they forget to skip, then they’ll be charged $49.95, which becomes a credit that can be used for any future purchase.

So far, the quiz has been effective. Of the more than 53 million people who have started it, more than 34 million have completed it.

“Our members absolutely love it,” says co-founder Adam Goldenberg. “We now have more than 1 million VIPs in fewer than three years. Members are visiting their boutique 20 to 25 times per year and buying about four times per year on average.”

This strategy of immediately engaging customers with a quiz and encouraging them to visit the site once a month provides two significant business advantages:

• Inventory waste is remarkably low because the brand offers styles it knows its customers want (calculating style preferences and predicting production at 95 percent accuracy, the company says).
• Marketing dollars can be put to use acquiring new customers rather than constantly re-acquiring existing customers.

These two factors reduce Fabletics’ overhead by 30 percent to 50 percent when compared to traditional retail. And the VIPs are the ones reaping the benefits via their exclusive pricing. “This relationship is a big part of our success,” Goldenberg says. “It allows customers to get Lululemon quality at a fraction of the cost.”

Fabletics says it has shipped more than 4.5 million orders since it launched three years ago. It even started expanding into brick-and-mortar stores throughout the U.S. last year. Who knew a could pack such a powerful business punch?