In Case You've Forgotten What A Leader Is (Reflections On Nelson Mandela)

It was six years ago that I’d returned to the U.S. from my first trip to South Africa. The profusion of sights and sounds, both human and animal, sent my mind reeling. Reflecting on that trip, one question had begun to weigh most powerfully on me: How was a single individual able to lead his compatriots and followers to take the brave actions that eventually dismantled the barbaric system of apartheid under which black South africans suffered decades of violence and oppression??Add to this, the fact that it was done?without the nation hurling into bloody civil war and you come face to face with a human being who accomplished what seems nigh on impossible.?

I thought I knew something about the difficult history of South Africa. I had read about it and seen movies about it. However, actually being there, listening to the stories and viewpoints of people from various walks of life gave me a far deeper understanding of the enormity of Nelson Mandela’s contribution, not only to the people of South Africa, but to a fractured world.

Greatness is a word we use often, perhaps too often. We use it in connection with artists and athletes, business people and political leaders. But the word can be hyperbolic. Not so with Nelson Mandela. He was a legitimately great man and I have been moved by his legacy. Thinking about him again this morning has caused me to consider more deeply some of the qualities that make up truly great women and men.?

Just in case you’ve forgotten what a leader is, here’s a reminder.

Self-sacrifice

Great women and men give themselves over wholly to a cause or to individuals. While they are concerned with their own welfare —they’re human after all — the degree to which they use their resources for the advancement of something or someone other than themselves is extremely uncommon. The kind of commitment they make has little to do with size or scope. There are people who risk their lives to save a comrade on a field of battle, just as there are those who are devoted to the care of a single child. Self-sacrifice should not be measured only by its quantity, but also by its quality.

Vision

Clarity of vision is common to all great people. They are individuals who, through the force of their creativity and imagination do the nearly mystical task of seeing that which is not yet apparent, of envisioning possibility where none seems to exist. Most of us can imagine a better life for others and ourselves but because our vision is not strong enough, it fades away a bit more with each new challenge we face. Over time our goals become less real, less relevant in light of what we consider to be more pressing problems and so we tuck them away for later. Unfortunately, as we know, “later” seldom comes. Great people are different in this respect: They are able to hold so fast to their vision that it never retreats from their minds. As a result they do not cease taking the concrete and strategic actions that make their vision manifest in the world.

Courage

Courage, the quality perhaps most often associated with greatness has more to do with reacting with urgency to a specific situation than it does with an inherited characteristic or personality trait. Because courage?comes about in response to need, it is closely connected with a high level of empathy?to the needs of others.?Great men and women evince courage?when the demand?for immediate action becomes stronger than their own tendency towards self protection.

Consensus

There are those who impose their ideas on others, those who build using force or coercion. While their achievements may be great in the quantitative sense, where there is no consensus the staying power of any endeavor is limited. Greatness demands that the widest set of stakeholders feel vested in a particular vision. Consensus of this sort is a very difficult thing to achieve and it’s one of the most striking features of Mandela’s many accomplishments. Self-effacement, honesty, and a true desire to hear dissenting viewpoints were hallmarks of his uncanny ability to create consensus.

Integrity

In order to create broad consensus there must be a feeling among individuals that the person whose vision they are following is willing to suffer for their beliefs. Suffering is of course, subjective, but in this instance it denotes a leader willing to forgo personal benefit to enable a nascent idea to be made evident. This is a very difficult thing for any human being to do. As a species we are hard-wired to fend, first and foremost, for ourselves. A person of greatness has trained his or herself to circumvent this natural brain function.?Only by moving with what seems like super human passion and clarity toward their vision, are they are able to achieve this.?To be near someone who has?this quality is incredibly inspiring. It is through inspiration of this kind that ordinary people learn?to raise their own potential for greatness.

My visit to South Africa deepened everything I thought I knew about Nelson Mandela. Being there allowed me to feel his presence and sense the enormity of his role as the leader and father of a liberated South Africa. It has inspired me to emulate —to the degree that I can— his capacity for self-sacrifice, his ability to foster consensus, and his vision for improving the lives of people with courage and integrity.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”?—Nelson Mandela

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