The One Skill that will put you ahead - according to Nelson Mandela

As we are about to celebrate Mandela Day and contribute 67 minutes of service to others, it is time to reflect on the leadership lessons from Madiba.

In his book “Mandela’s Way: Lessons on Life”, Richard Stengel shares a conversation he once had with Mandela about seeing the good in others. Said Madiba:

“People feel I see too much good in people. So it's a criticism. I have to put up with and I've tried to adjust to, because whether it is so or not, it is something which I think is profitable.

It's good thing to assume, to act on the basis that others are men of integrity and honour because you tend to attract integrity and honour if that is how you regard those with whom you work.

"And one has made a great deal of progress in developing personal relationships because you make the basic assumption that those you deal with are men of integrity.”

RELATIONSHIP CHECKPOINT: When interacting with others, do you?grant them the benefit of doubt and assume they are people of integrity? Or do you start looking for what might be wrong with them??

Paying Respect Forward

Madiba’s lawyer and long-time friend George Bizos remembers his first visit to Robben Island: “In the middle of winter, he was brought to the consulting room where I was waiting. There were eight warders with him, two in front, two at the back, two on each side.

Prisoners do not usually set the pace at which they move with their warders. But it was quite obvious that he was - from the open van that they came, right up to the little verandah of the consulting rooms.

And I stepped down, past the two in front, and embraced him, said, "Hello." He returned the greeting [and] immediately asked, "How's Zami?" (short for his wife's first name, Nomzamo).

And he then pulled himself back, and said,

"George, I'm sorry, I have not introduced you to my guard of honour." And then proceeded to introduce each one of the warders by name. Now, the warders were absolutely amazed. I think that this was the first time that they saw a white man and particularly a lawyer, I suppose, coming and embracing a black man, but they were absolutely stunned, and they actually behaved like a guard of honor. They respectfully shook my hand. “

RESPECT CHECKPOINT: When you meet others, do you?express your respect for their humanity or do you wait for them to pay you respect first??

Applying the Gift of Recognition

At his first press conference after release from prison on 12 February 1990, Mandela aptly applied the gift of recognition when he addressed the international media.? Remembers John Carlin, then South Africa bureau chief for The Independent:

“I am absolutely excited at getting out and I am also excited to have the opportunity of addressing you because throughout these difficult years in prison the press, both local and foreign, has been a brick to us. I think it was the original intention of the government that we should be forgotten. It was the press that kept the memory of those who have been imprisoned for offenses they committed in the course of their political activities; it was the press who never forgot us and we are therefore indebted to you. I am happy to be with you this morning.”

According to Carlin, the press conference lasted forty minutes, and was an exercise in seduction from start to finish: “At the time we had no idea how artfully we were being manipulated. Those of us who asked questions had to identify ourselves by our names and by the news media we represented. He was especially attentive to the half dozen South African reporters who asked questions, almost all of whom belonged to what ANC dogma regarded as the enemy camp. To one from the chief arm of state propaganda and disinformation, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, he responded with a cheery, “Ah, hello! How are you?”

To another from a newspaper associated with white free enterprise, “Hi! I am happy to see you!” To a political writer from an Afrikaans newspaper, “Good to see you!” To another Afrikaans journalist whose name he recognized from his own reading of the newspapers, “Ah, yes! But I was expecting you to be a little taller and stouter!” Concludes Carlin:

“When the press conference was over, something happened that I had never seen before or have ever seen again in 30 years reporting on politicians."

Hypnotizing us into forgetting we were journalists, making a mockery of our pretensions to objectivity, he drew from us a long burst of spontaneous, heartfelt applause.” Such is the power of recognition - when you acknowledge another?

RECOGNITION CHECKPOINT: As we live our busy lives and hustle through the day to make ends meet, do you take the time to acknowledge others pay them genuine recognition??Do you put people first??

How Recognition boosts?Performance

More than any contemporary leader, Mandela was keenly aware of how recognition can boost a person's self-belief and ultimately their personal success. Quite apart from the fact that it is a clearly observable fact that those who are considered to be charismatic spend a lot of time in recognition and praise of others, there’s a huge body of hard research that shows the direct impact of recognition on employee engagement and productivity.

One study by Towers Watson showed that recognition does raise engagement by as much as 60 percent. And raising engagement dramatically raises productivity and bottom-line results. According to a study undertaken by Michael Treacy (author of Double Digit Growth: How Some Companies Achieve It – No Matter What), managers in double-digit companies are most successful in improving engagement through recognizing their employee’s achievements, and showing how those achievements lead to greater opportunities for the employee. O.C. Tanner Company found the following:

Of the people who report the highest morale at work, 94.4% agree that their managers are effective at recognition.

In contrast, 56% of employees who report low morale give their manager a failing grade on recognition. ?Clearly, recognition contributes strongly to both employee engagement and bottom lines. Said Robert McNamara, former US secretary of defence and president of the World Bank:

“Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.”

In their article “In Praise of Praising Your Employees,” Gallup Management Journal reported: Recognition for good work releases Dopamine in the brain, which creates feelings of pride and pleasure. Better yet, that Dopamine hit cements the knowledge that more of that behaviour will create more praise, resulting in another Dopamine drench, and so on.

This is why recognition is so effective. People will alter their behaviour to achieve more recognition if it will result in the release of more dopamine. And recognition can be granted before the behaviour has been enacted, as evidenced very powerfully by the conductor of the Boston Orchestra, Benjamin Zander.

Leveraging the Power of 'Giving an A"

Zander has the distinction of conducting an orchestra that was created solely for him. After years at the helm of the Boston Civic Symphony, Zander was fired in 1978 by the symphony's board - because he had insisted on presenting ‘difficult’ music by such composers as Mahler and Bruckner. The entire orchestra resigned in protest and, with Zander, went on to form the Boston Philharmonic.

There's no disputing that Zander is a topflight conductor. But he sees himself more as a teacher than as a maestro:

“My job as a conductor, as a leader, is to teach musicians to be expressive performers of great music. The problem is that often they cannot let that music through to the audience - because of what I call the ‘conversation in the head.’ In any performance, there are always two people onstage: the one trying to play, and another one who whispers, ‘Do you know how many people play this piece better than you do? Here comes that difficult passage that you missed last time - and you're going to miss it again this time!’ Sometimes that other voice is so loud that it drowns out the music. As a leader, I'm always looking for ways to silence that voice.

I've developed a simple technique to quiet that second voice. On the first day of class, I make an announcement: "Everybody gets an A." There's only one condition: Students have to submit a letter - written on that first day but dated the following May - that begins: ‘Dear Mr. Zander, I got my A because ...’ In other words, they have to tell me, at the beginning of my course, who they will have become by the end of the course that will justify this extraordinary grade.” Explains Zander: “The A is easy to misunderstand. People say, ‘Oh, you mean it's just pretending that everybody is the same.’ It's not that at all. Nor is it about pretending that people can do things they can't do. The A helps you get at what is unique in people - and at the unique challenges that they face. Grades tell me only how one person stacks up against other people.

The letters that students write to me about what they will do to deserve their A give me much richer information about how the students stack up against their dreams. They write, ‘Suddenly I'm not shy anymore, and I enjoy playing’, or ‘I'm no longer depressed by criticism.’ That's the kind of information that I need to help them perform at their best.”

A few weeks into the first year of the Giving an A experiment, Zander asked his students how it had felt to them to start off the semester? with? an A, before? they? had? to prove themselves in any way. “To my surprise, a Taiwanese student put up his hand. Apart from a natural diffidence to speak up in a foreign language, it is rare for students from Asia, often our most accomplished performers, to volunteer to speak in class. ‘In Taiwan’, he explained, ‘I was number 68 out of 70 student. I come to Boston and Mr Zander says I am an A. Very confusing. I walk about, three weeks, very confused.

I am Number 68, but Mr Zander says I am an A student … I am Number 68, but Mr Zander says I am an A. One day I discover much happier A than Number 68. So I decide I am an A.’

Concludes Zander: “That simple A changes everything. It transforms my relationship with everybody in the room. As leaders, we're giving out grades in every encounter we have with people. We can choose to give out grades as an expectation to live up to, and then we can reassess them according to performance. Or we can offer grades as a possibility to live into. The second approach is much more powerful.”

When were You given an A in Life? ?

When is the last time somebody gave you an A? And what happened as a result? Please share your story of recognition and let others learn from your experience.