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Weathering the Storm of Conflict

April 22, 2008

"In the annals of history, many of the most respected leaders are those remembered best for how they rose to meet daunting challenges or prevailed in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.  Abraham Lincoln is revered for helping a nation survive a catastrophic conflict of philosophies.  Winston Churchill is famous for pulling his country through a brutal siege and standing up to the fear and anxiety brought on by seemingly endless attacks.  Martin Luther King Jr. is memorialized for his strength of character and unwillingness to support violent tactics in the face of injustice and unfair treatment.  Each of these leaders faced conflicts of a scale that most of us can hardly fathom and will likely never experience.  What defined them is how they responded in times of conflict.  And what may very well define today's leaders in organizations around the world is how they respond in times of conflict.  Because conflict is inevitable and frequent, conflict competent leaders must rise to the occasion on a daily basis (Runde & Flanagan, 2007, p. 116)."

Reference:  Runde, C.E., & Flanagan, T.A., (2007).  Becoming a conflict competent leader: how you and your organization can manage conflict effectively.  San Francisco:  John Wiley & Sons.

Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  To borrow this resource or any other resource, please go to the resource search page http://164.107.48.88/winnebago/index.asp?lib

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Created: 2008-04-25, Updated: 2009-01-08