What We Can Learn From Mandela’s Greatness As A Leader
Nelson Mandela died yesterday, Thursday 5th December 2013, at the age of 95. He will have a state funeral that millions around the world will no doubt watch. So what is it about Mandela that made him a great leader and, more usefully, what can we learn from his example to grow ourselves as leaders?
Above all, perhaps, we can learn that greatness is not inborn, but is created in the crucible of self-aware, self-willed experience. For the Mandela who entered prison in 1963 was not the man that emerged in 1990.
His closest ally, Oliver Tambo, talking in the early 1960s, described him in this way: “As a man, Nelson Mandela is passionate, emotional, sensitive, quickly stung to bitterness and retaliation by insults and patronage.”
Yet 30 years later people would talk of his “air of majesty”; his extraordinary dignity, repose and stillness; the remarkable absence of bitterness and the powerful sense of forgiveness, understanding and compassion; and his “golden, luminous presence”. Richard Stengel, his biographer, commented on the effect of being in his presence in this way: “You felt a little taller, a little finer.”
These characteristics of the post-release Mandela had a remarkable impact on those he met, which is partly why he’s seen as a great leader. The most extraordinary effects were on those who previously considered him their chief enemy.
Like Kobie Coetsee, South African Minister of Justice in the last 14 years of apartheid. When interviewed by a journalist years later, he wept as he recalled Mandela’s “nobility”.
Then there is Nïel Barnard, who was head of South African Intelligence during the 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, many saw Barnard as a sinister figure. Yet some years after Mandela’s release he talked fondly of him as “the old man”.
And perhaps most remarkable of all was the case of Constand Viljoen, head of the South African Defence Force between 1980 and 1985. He went on, in the early 1990s, to become leader of a far Right resistance movement preparing for terrorist war against a Mandela-led democratic government. Then Mandela met him secretly, which led Viljoen to abandon his plans. A reporter recalls seeing him at the opening of the new parliament at the moment Mandela entered the chamber. He reported that Viljoen’s “eyes shone with the purist’s devotion”. Viljoen later confirmed in an interview that this interpretation was correct. By then, for Viljoen, a farmer long-retired from politics, Mandela was a hero.
But he didn’t just affect individuals, which I refer to as “private leadership”. He could influence and win the trust of tens of millions at a time of extraordinary tension. In other words, he was strong on “public leadership” too. That’s why he was a great leader.
Mandela’s positive effect on the whole South African nation, especially the whites, probably stemmed from the way he addressed the nation on TV in 1993, a year before he became president, after Chris Hani, leader of the ANC, was assassinated. He said, “Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being… Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us.”
How did Mandela, previously jailed as a saboteur and enemy of the state, become like this – a man for everyone in South Africa; a man trusted by all; a man who could stop bitterness and revenge in its tracks and lead people on a path to non-violent reconciliation? And what can this tell us about how to become the greatest leader we can be?
Surely it tells us that he used his prison experience as the anvil on which he forged his character… and that we can use our experiences, however difficult, to do the same.
What happened in prison? I suggest that he learned to control the only thing he could control: himself. In other words, he learned to control his reactions to whatever was happening around him and to him. Thus, he developed what I have described in The Three Levels of Leadership as the first quality of pure leadership presence: Personal Power.
But he did more than that. He also developed the fourth quality of presence: Balance. Balance is a powerful sense of will, of purpose, refined by sensitivity to the dignity, rights, free will and importance of other people. It emerges as the will to serve. Archbishop Desmond Tutu recognised this balance when he said of Mandela, “Like the true leader that he was, he led for the sake of the led and not what he got out of it.”
The key, I feel, if we’re to use Nelson Mandela as an inspiration for our growth as leaders, is not to see him as a saint, the like of which we can’t match, or a perfect leader.
Those who knew him well insisted that he wasn’t a saint. There are stories of infidelities during his first marriage and his coolness towards his children. Indeed, Mandela himself said more than once, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” As a leader, his failure to consult ministers before announcing policy decisions seemingly infuriated them and made them feel undermined; and his poor judgement in appointing old friends to high office – and reluctance to remove them when they underperformed – attracted criticism.
The point is that we don’t have to be perfect as leaders. Perfection is just a man-made mental construction that’s of no use to us in our quest to be the best leaders we can be. Nelson Mandela showed us that it’s best to cast aside the idea of perfection, accept that perhaps we weren’t at our best in the past, take our own development in hand – hopefully, without the need to spend three decades to in prison – and forge our character, values and vision anew.
Thus, we first learn to lead ourselves. And then in leading ourselves, we’re better placed to lead and serve others.
The author is James Scouller, an executive coach. His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in May 2011. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE. You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.
