Madiba Nelson Mandela

 

 

 

 

 

Leadership Wisdom from Madiba Nelson Mandela

A great light and leader left our world on Friday 6^th December 2013. Mandela’s death as in life has highlighted the blazing legacy he left for the world.

His life has been reported in detail since his death on Friday in newspaper across the world. In today’s blog post I share 7 Leadership wisdom’s Mandela’s life has gifted us with along with 7 Leadership Activities that invite you to reflect, review and evaluate your own leadership journey and prepare your leadership for 2014.

1. It’s not who you are but how you lead that matters most.

Mandela showed exemplary resilience, coming from a poor background, growing up in the oppressive, apartheid regime, surviving imprisonment and emerging to become the country’s first ever Black president. His CV was stunning.

Leadership Activity

Create a courage CV that charts the times and places in your life where you have been courageous and brave.

2. He demonstrated leadership at all different ages and levels of his life.

From being appointed as a youth leader in the ANC, to his imprisonment on Robben island Mandela modeled integrity refusing to accept privileges given to him if the same was not offered to his fellow prisoners. Mandela refusal to be treated differently is a reminder of the need for values, to stand our ground and to speak up for what matters most.

Leadership Activity

What will you make a stand for? What will you or do you speak out against? Write a letter, blog post or article, whatever takes your fancy regarding a concern or issue you feel strongly about.

3. Killing Your Enemies With Kindness – Revenge or Reconciliation?

Mandela taught the world a very important lesson of leading from the heart. He chose reconciliation over revenge at the way he and millions of black South Africans had been treated by the Apartheid regime. This public act of forgiveness, compassion and heading from the heart and not the head is perhaps one of the biggest peacetime acts of these modern times.

Mandela transcended hatred, fear and the most appalling violence towards other human being, by going inwards and changing and shifting his perspective from the inside out. As one newspaper quoted, Mandela killed Apartheid with kindness.

His heart inspired leadership demonstrated for the world to witness the enormous healing potential of reconciliation and forgiveness and changed the political and humane landscape of South Africa.  Forgiveness allowed Mandela to escape the past and create a new future and for this he cannot be faulted.

Leadership Activity

What person, conflict, challenge or difficult situation might you try to change or gain a different perspective by killing it with kindness?

4. Mandela Was A Natural Coach

Mandela’s leadership toolkit was awash with the kinds of communication skills that make you not just a good leader but also a great leader.  Qualities that made him also not just a good coach but also a great one. His ability to be empathetic, to forgive his oppressors, his tenacity and determination to understand his warders and to feel what it was like standing in their shoes was remarkable.

In the articles I read about him over the weekend there were numerous examples of this humble, who in the same breath was articulate, clear and compassionate man who would ask questions first rather than tell. It takes a bigger man to go stand in the shoes of others who have treated you in the inhumane manner Mandela and so many others had been who had died as part of the apartheid brutally, but he did.

Leadership Activity

This week really pay attention to the quality of your listening? How would or do you rate yourself as a listener? What are the areas for improvement? This week listen more and ask more and see what the responses are.

5. Mandela Benefitted From The Wisdom Gained In Solitude

Perhaps fuelled by those years of solitary confinement and the accompanying silence that became his constant companion, grew Mandela’s spaciousness and capacity for deep listening and in turn being listened to. There was the true story of Mandela’s meeting with Maggie Thatcher who apparently listened to Mandela for 50 minutes without interrupting.

I imagine it was the time spent in solitude and silence, which allowed Mandela to do the invaluable inner work that distilled much of his former views and beliefs and offered him different perspectives and approaches that saw him shift and transform his leadership to a different vibration and frequency. When you take the word silent and change the letters around you create the word listen.

Leadership Activity

Book time in your diary before the end of the year to spend at least half a day in silence or time spent just with yourself. You can be flexible about the degree of silence you enter into so you might spend time on your own in a busy public space like an art gallery or museum or you might just have quiet time alone at home.

Use the time alone as a time for reflection, contemplation and a form of recalibrating. Observe your response to time alone. What did you struggle with? What was good about having the space? How could more time alone add value to your leadership?

6. Mandela’s Life Journey Offered Hope

Mandela’s leadership journey stands amongst many of the greats of our times as a story of hope and resilience and possibility. You could not make this story up least alone the horrors and trauma’s that underpin the fight and cause that Mandela took on. His leadership legacy reminds us that there is work for leaders at all levels of society and that our name could be that name, that person that makes a real difference to others.

Leadership Activity

What one word will describe your leadership focus for 2014?

7. Mandela Was A Man Who Owned His Strengths As Well As His Flaws

Mandela was not a man without flaws. Reading into personal accounts of his life before and after imprisonment one recognizes that here is a man that did not always get it right when it came to his family and his children. Understandable as this is it was not a fact that was hidden from the world and in fact this may have contributed to the acceptance of Mandela because of the vulnerability and humility that was often apparent in his leadership. Leaders benefit greatly from the qualities of vulnerability and humility. Both activate courage, bravery, compassion and wholeheartedness.

We can create and nurture environments where leaders respect honesty, where they are not afraid to share when they have messed up, got it wrong or missed the point. We need to create more space for leaders to show their human side and not wipe them out or condemn them as soon as a flaw, fault or mistake is discovered. Of course there are limits to what will be deemed acceptable in terms of errors but what we can learn from Mandela is that progress not perfection helped to magnetize his leadership presence and make him revered and loved on the global stage across race, gender, social class, political beliefs, economic and social positions.

Mandela left a trail blazing leadership legacy.

Leadership Activity

What’s Your Leadership Story?

If you were to write a personal account of your leadership story and the wisdoms gleaned from your leadership journey to date what would your story be? We’d love to post your leadership wisdom’s inspired by the Mandela legacy on the blog. Please email to: info@jackeeholder.com with a photo and your contact details by Tuesday December 17th 2013.