Thoughts On Leadership - Round 2

One of the most influential people in the world happens to be one of my idols. He has spent years advocating for a better world and taking big steps towards accomplishing this goal. He is a man who's name is recognizable even to those with no knowledge of what he has done. He was once considered a terrorist by the U.S. government, and was jailed for a large period of his life. He is, in my opinion, the greatest leader in my brief lifetime. His name is Nelson Mandela, or Madiba as his friends call him, and he recently reached the ripe old age of 90.

About a month ago Time magazine released an article entitled, "The Secrets of Leadership: Eight lessons from one of history's icons" by Richard Stengel. The article was about Nelson Mandela and his experience with spending a good portion of his life in prison on Robben Island and his triumphant return to the presidency of South Africa and the dismantling of Apartheid. I am going to share these 8 secrets because I think they are essential for a leaders toolkit. As you also know, I think he is pretty darn awesome.

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

No 3.
Lead from the back-and let others believe they are in front

No 4.
Know your enemy-and learn about his favorite sport

No 5.
Keep your friends close-and your rivals even closer

No 6.
Appearances matter-and remember to smile

No 7.
Nothing is black or white

No 8.
Quitting is leading too

The full article is available here on the Time website and it is worth a read.

Nelson Mandela is a man I admire a great deal and who's philosophy on leadership mirrors my own in many ways. It is important to find someone you look up to and who you can draw experience from, even if it is just from a book about them. Leading a group of people can, at times, feel like trial and error. Some things work and others will fail miserably. The important thing is to take these important lessons, in success and in failure, and learn from them. There are many people who have walked down the unbeaten path and blazed a trail. It does not mean that they didn't draw inspiration from another source, it just means the destination they reached was one that had been ignored by others. When you look back at the feats you accomplish and take a moment to admire where you came from and where you ended up, you may recognize the distance you have traveled, others will probably only see where you ended up.

Which brings me to one of my favorite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Life is a journey, not a destination."

Leadership, like life, is a journey. You will have some innate skills and others will be picked up along the way. Your philosophy on how to lead will be ever evolving. You do not need to have the answers now, nobody does, what you need is the courage to try. When you get where you wish to go the failures and bumps along the way will end up being the reason you got there. No one gets everything right all of the time, but that one magical moment, the only one people will recognize in the end, that will be part of your journey. No one remembers the failures Nelson Mandela was dealt, all they remember is the icon he became. You shouldn't be afraid of failure, or the difficult journey. If there is one thing we can all learn from Madiba it is that we are all capable of special things in our lives if we are willing to learn from our failures and accept the difficult journey on our way to success.