Personally I think it was the combination of both Blakleys personality and serendipity which manifested her successful business.

Personally I think it was the combination of both Blakley’s personality and serendipity which manifested her successful business. Undoubtedly significant chains of events helped to shape her personality and get her noticed by others. It has been stated that two personality traits contribute to sales success conscientiousness and extraversion (Coomer, 2016). In addition, honesty-humility, grit, and psychological capital are important attributes to have also in a sales environment (Coomer, 2016). Grit is defined to be perseverance and passion for long-term goals (Coomer, 2016). Psychological capital is defined as individual motivational aspects that accumulate as a result of positive psychological constructs such as efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience (Coomer, 2016). I believe Blakey also had both grit and psychological capital as a part of her attitude to be both creative and determined. As a result of unique psychological challenges of a sales environment that includes constant rejection and needs for salesmen to find hope and optimism during long sales cycles psychological capital can explain significant differences in job performance (Coomer, 2016). Most businesses depend heavily on effective salespeople (Coomer, 2016).

Attribution theory is defined as concern with how ordinary people explain the origins of behavior and events (McLeod, 2012). Also it can be described as how social perceivers use information to arrive at casual explanations for events (McLeod, 2012). It can also examine information gathered and how it’s combination forms a causal judgement (McLeod, 2012). Personally, I do not agree that attribution theory adequately provides insight about the origins of Blakley’s success. Her personality has pushed her decision making beyond ordinary. Her accomplishments can better be described as extraordinary. Her billionaire status convinces me that her curiosity about life and behavior are more in-depth. Attribution theory can be further broken down into two ideas dispositional and situational (McLeod, 2012). Dispositional attribution is defined as behavior caused by internal characteristics instead of outside forces (McLeod, 2012). Situational attribution is defined as behavior manifested as a result of situations or events out of that person’s control as opposed to internal characteristics (McLeod, 2012). Personally, I disagree that these ideas define Blakley’s behavior. They are extremely restricted in nature which provides no explanation for Blakley’s extreme curiosity or creativity utilized to feed her interest for growing a business.

Hindsight bias is described as the way people view events as more predictable then they really are (Cherry, 2020). It is also referred to as the “ I knew it all along” phenomenon; because after an event takes place some people often think that they knew the outcome of events before they actually occurred (Cherry, 2020). Some critics have argued that although one may be able to guess an event’s outcome; there is now way to actually know what is going to happen before it does (Cherry, 2020). In psychology it is also revealed that hindsight bias can have a major impact on one’s beliefs, but also one’s behaviors (Cherry, 2020). In some circles this phenomena is viewed as a dangerous habit to nurture; because it creates even more unpredictable outcomes due to previous risky behavior (Cherry, 2020). There are three factors that can contribute to hindsight bias thinking (Cherry, 2020). First, there are cognitive factors where individuals distort or even do not remember earlier predictions about an event (Cherry, 2020). Secondly, meta-cognitive factors are defined as when a person can easily understand how or why events happen; therefore it seems like it is easily foreseeable (Cherry, 2020). Thirdly, motivational factors state that believing an outcome is inevitable is comforting for some people (Cherry, 2020). As a result, those people believe the world to be a predictable place (Cherry, 2020). Hindsight bias is most likely to occur when all three factors take place in a situation (Cherry, 2020). Critics state that this way of thinking can be problematic because it leads to overconfidence (Cherry, 2020). People may take unnecessary risks if they believe that they have exceptional foresight or intuition about occurring events (Cherry, 2020). Personally, I detect no relationship between the occurrence of Blakley’s success and hindsight bias. It would appear that Blakley made plans to get a profitable outcome more often than she relied on predictions to support her decisions.

The three-stage model of creativity is composed of three stages causes, creative behavior, and creative outcomes. Blakley clearly displays aspects of this model in her approach to start her business. She appears to be motivated to succeed in life at an early age. She appeared to always have a creative approach to many things she accomplished and attempted. The outcomes of most things she was involved in were very interesting and motivational. A good leader can be described as someone who can adequately influence or guide others to successfully complete a task. In order to complete my future goals it is of utmost importance that I am a good leader. My goals after graduation include me eventually managing my own business. To do so I most likely will have to oversee the staff and operations of my company. Blakley’s example revealed to me that hard work and determination can be rewarded. I am mostly influenced by her ability to quickly innovate and think on her feet combined with a strong creative eye. It would benefit me to incorporate such characteristics in my creative process to get started.

References

Cherry, Kendra. (2020). How hindsight bias affects how we view the past. Https://www.verywellmind.com

Coomer, Timothy L. (2016). Personality, grit, and psychological capital as they relate to sales performance. Proquest Dissertations Publishing. 10189823

McLeod, Saul. (2012). Attribution theory. Https://wwwsimplypsychology.org

Https://www.study.com

Https://en.wikipedia.org

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How much of Blakley’s success is due to her personality and effort and how much to serendipity – being in the right place at the right time?

I would say that 50% of her success is due to her personality because since she was a teenager, she was focused on being successful. She had found resources to keep her motivated and taught herself how to start a business and write a patent for her product. 50% of it was serendipity because her big break came after she herself mailed her Spanx product to Oprah’s stylist and Oprah ended up loving the product. With Oprah being a huge influencer and promoting her product, it was able to become well known.

2.     What is attribution theory? Considering attribution theory – how does the theory help you answer question #1 OR does the theory NOT answer question #1?

“Attribution theory suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to determine whether it was internally or externally caused.” (Robbins & Judge, 2019) This theory helps to answer question #1 because based on Blakely’s behavior growing up and into her adulthood, it shows that it was internally caused. She was always driven to be successful in one way or another. She was always taking risks and when she failed at one thing, she didn’t give up, she just moved on to the next. Based on the case study, one of the factors that made her successful was her consistency.

3.     What is hindsight bias? Does hindsight bias affect the factors to which you might attribute Blakley’s success? Why or why not?

Overestimating the ability to predict an outcome that otherwise could not have been predicted is hindsight bias. It doesn’t affect the factors in which I attribute Blakely’s success. One might think that because Blakley was a risk taker and tried so many different avenues to become successful, then one of would’ve had to work for her. Another person could be just as determined and consistent as Blakley and never get that big break like she did. There is no way of knowing if she would have surely become successful with her product or not.

4.     What is the three-stage model of creativity? Use the three-stage model of creativity to analyze Blakley’s decision-making. What can you learn from her story that might help you to become a better leader?

Creativity involves three stages which are causes of creative behavior, creative behavior, and creative outcomes (innovation).

-causes of creative behavior

Blakley hated pantyhose and had a hard time finding the right kind of undergarment that would flatter her shape under her clothes. There were already products on the market for women to achieve a certain look under their clothes.

-creative behavior

Blakley wanted to create a product that would give a more desirable look and comfortable feel. She researched every pantyhose patent ever filed to see what she could do differently. She came up with the idea to provide 3 levels of compression to ensure that clothing fit right and create a “flawless finish” (Guerra, 2020) which was different from similar products on the market.

-creative outcome

There was a huge need for Spanx on the market because women are always looking for ways to look their best in their clothing. She sold her product out of department stores, through word of mouth and sending samples out to stylist.

Blakley is quoted as saying, “Everybody has a multimillion-dollar idea inside of them. Edison said, ’Genuis is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.’ The same holds true for innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship.” (Makinson, 2021)

I think that her story can help one to become a better leader by remembering to that it is important to understand how people make decisions, recognizing perceptual biases and decision-making errors that we tend to commit, and to encourage creativity within your team.

References:

Makinson, R. (2021, October 28). How Spanx Founder Sara Blakely Created A Billion-Dollar Brand. CEO Today. Retrieved from https://www.ceotodaymagazine.com/2021/10/how-spanx-founder-sara-blakely-created-a-billion-dollar-brand/

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2019). Organizational Behavior (18th ed.). Pearson.

Guerra, J. (2020, August 14). All Your Questions About Spanx, Answered. InStyle. Retrieved from https://www.instyle.com/how-tos/how-to-wear-spanx-shapewear