Binge Thinking

Leadership Lessons from Nelson Mandela

As Nelson Mandela celebrates his 90th birthday next week he has given an interview to Time Magazine to summarise his top 8 leadership lessons in life.

They are mostly practical. Many of them stem directly from his personal experience.

As Time says: “All of them are calibrated to cause the best kind of trouble: the trouble that forces us to ask how we can make the world a better place”.

The lessons comprise:
1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond
2. Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. Quitting is leading too
 
What stuck me was the similarity to the seven key principles of the Go MAD Thinking System.  Not immediately apparent perhaps but if you read the Time article then what strikes you, time and time again, is that in all of Mandela’s lessons he took personal responsibility, he involved others (and let them believe they were in front, or his friend, or sometimes both), he had massive self belief (and high personal standards) and he knew that you need to consider all possibilities such as knowing what risks or implications you might encounter (‘nothing is black and white’). 

Ultimately the part about ‘quitting is leading too’ correlates to the Go MAD Thinking cornerstone: ‘The Reason Why’.  If your reason why is no longer strong enough (because circumstances have changed to alter your perspective or your self-belief in being able to make something happen (or happen the way you had planned originally)) then you possibly need to rethink.  This will mean letting go (quitting in Mandela’s words) and redefining your goal. 

So, no surprises really that Mandela became such a great leader, and great trouble for many people who did not share his reason why many years ago!