Nelson Mandela on Leadership
Posted By Rob Millard - 0 Comments -
You know that old game about naming the person, living or dead, whom you would most like to meet? In my case, Nelson Mandela would easily elbow out other heavyweights like Warren Buffet and the Dalai Lama for first place in the "living" category.
"Madiba," as he is affectionately and respectfully known to all South Africans that have a functioning brain, has just turned 90. The Time Magazine of July 21 is running an article titled: Mandela at 90 : The Secrets of Leadership : Eight lessons from one of history's icons.
Well worth a read. Here are the headlines:
No 1. Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it
No 2. Lead from the front - but don't leave your base behind you
No 3. Lead from the back - and let others believe that they are in front (shades of Lao Tzu with that one, but with a uniquely African twist.
No 4. Know your enemy - and learn about his favourite sport
No 5. Keep your friends close - and your enemies even closer (shades of Sun Tzu this time.)
No 6. Appearances matter - and remember to smile
No 7. Nothing is black or white
No 8. Quitting is leading too.
These eight lessons give some indication of the brilliance of the man as a strategist, amongst his many talents. His actions have often been counter-intuitive. His ability to let others (sometimes even his enemies) lead whilst playing the role of a powerful background influence has been uncanny. He is one of those rarest of strategists that does not try to reduce everything to simplistic binary choices where his own assumptions dictate what must be enforced. To quote from the narrative accompanying Lesson 7:
"Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn't correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears."
The essence of strategy is to embrace complexity; not to deny it. Economies, firms and relationships within groups of people are all both complex and dynamic systems. What worked yesterday does not necessarily work today, because the world is changed. Humility is needed to acknowledge that a course of action that one previously advocated is no longer the best, and to back down gracefully. (See Lesson 8.)
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