This sequel to  Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun  goes beyond the first book's focus on individual leadership and applies Attila's wisdom and lessons to the challenges of leadership in organizations. As essential for business managers and leaders as its now classic predecessor. PROLOGUE   “Enter the Huns”   The Huns were improbable cast members of the drama played out in Europe in the late fourth to mid-fifth century. The plot included not only their growing power but also widespread corruption, greed, intrigue, civil war, inept leadership, and (perhaps inevitably) the collapse of the once great Roman Empire.   The Hunnic horde comprised Hungarians, Turks, Slavs, Mongols, and Asians who united in the fifth century as a confederacy led by Attila, king of Huns. Attila was probably from an Asiatic tribe that the Chinese called Hiung-nu, which translates as “common slaves.” Regardless of how the Chinese saw the Huns, his Huns saw Attila as a member of the royal clan that had provided them with leaders when, as loosely aligned, nomadic tribes, they had roamed the vast Mongolian plain, slowly migrating west.   The Roman Empire included large cities, small villages, and vast estates. Trade was well established. Citizens paid taxes to a central government. In contrast, the Huns lived on their horses, in tents, and in chariots and roamed the plains, surviving off the land. Their trade was limited to horses and slaves taken as prisoners of war. Having no central government, they paid no taxes.   The Huns were as noisy in battle as they were fierce. The pounding hooves of their shaggy plains ponies were accompanied by the roars of the Hunnic cavalry as they charged into battle. Yet the threat the Huns posed to the Roman Empire was negligible for a long time.   The Huns’ push westward began in the twilight of the fourth century and went largely unnoticed. Around A.D. 375, the Huns took the Ukraine and forced the Goths to flee to the Pannonian basin. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) emperor allowed the Goths to settle there under terms of a treaty that required them to provide foederati (mercenaries) to supplement the Empire’s ailing imperial army. Later, Huns were to fight side by side with Goths as fellow mercenaries in that army.   The Huns continued their westward migration for the next twenty-five to thirty years, arriving at the eastern edge of the Roman Empire early in the 400s.   The Asiatic Huns looked different from the Caucasian Europeans. They were short, stout, and swarthy, with high cheekbones and dark hair and eyes. Hardened by nomadic life, many Huns wore clothing made largely from animal skins, which enhanced their ferocious appearance. Virtually all Hunnic males were accomplished hunters, horsemen, and archers. No doubt many of the women were as well. The customs and beliefs of the Huns and the Romans bore little similarity.   Neither pagans nor Christians, the Huns revered nature deities and believed in the healing, prophetic, and visionary powers of their shamans. In contrast, a declining number of Romans still worshiped pagan gods, while the majority had converted to Christianity. In the fourth century, Constantine the Great had made Christianity the official religion of the imperial Roman state.   The first Huns to enter the Roman Empire were not bellicose. For nearly half a century, the Huns, like other barbarian tribes, provided mercenaries to supplement the dwindling Roman army. In return, the Huns were allowed to reside on the abandoned fringes of the crumbling Roman frontier.   During this period—shortly after the death of his father, King Mundzuk—Attila was sent by his uncle, King Rugila, as a child hostage to the court of Honorius, emperor of the Western Roman Empire at Ravenna. (The practice of sending child hostages to live among potential enemies was well established during this period. On the one hand, the children were exchange students. On the other hand, many hostilities were avoided while these child hostages were in an enemy’s custody.) About the same time, a half-German, half-Roman boy named Aëtius was sent as a child hostage to the camp of the Hunnic king, Rugila, in the ancient Roman province of Pannonia (which became Hunland to the Huns). Attila’s experience at the court of Honorius and Aëtius’ experience with the Huns influenced them when as adults they led their respective nations.   After Attila’s departure from Ravenna, he traveled among the tribes of Huns for twenty years, persuading fiercely independent chieftains to support his plan for a Great Conquest by a new Hunnic confederacy. By 434, the Huns had gained enormous power. Attila had emerged as their co-ruler with his older brother Bleda. Together the brothers negotiated a treaty with Theodosius II that required the Eastern Roman Empire to pay the Huns a huge tribute of gold in return for peace. Attila is widely believed to have murdered Bleda around 445. Another version of Bleda’s death attribu