Leadership – Madiba Style

I guess its a cliche now, but we all know Nelson Mandela in many ways embodies leadership and is one of the greatest leaders of our time, not only in South Africa, but worldwide. I recently finished reading a book by his personal bodyguard, Rory Steyn which tells about the many behind the scenes incidents that characterised Madibas time as President of SA. Some stories are quite funny, some are quite poignant, but mostly the anecdotes and stories tell of the depth of conviction that Nelson Mandela has to be a great leader. Having read the abridged version of his autobiography “A Long Walk To Freedom” and now having read this book “One Step Behind Mandela” a few things come to light about his leadership style and what made him a great leader. These are in no particular order and are simply my observations of a great man:

• Humility: Nelson Mandela it seems never became big headed about his position and always was surprised at how people revered him. He fully understood his shortfalls, he knew himself and knew his strengths and weaknesses.
• People: He loves people, in his words “people come first” and he lived this out daily in the people he met whether they were heads of state or the cleaning staff of the hotel he was staying in, apparently he alwasy made a point of greeting as many people as possible, no matter what their position in life. He used to tell his bodyguards “smile as you push the people away”
• Keeping it real: He was never too proud or arrogant to do the basic things in life. Even on his International visits and staying in Buckingham Palace, he always made his own bed. He never left that for the staff to do.
• Sense of humour: He apparently has a great sense of humour and most importantly is able to laugh at himself. He often jokes with those he meets and has a very disarming ability to lighten the situation with laughter
• Values: He has held to some core values, things like honesty, openess and ethics run high on his chart. According to Steyn, if you have lied to Madiba and he finds out, thats it, he never trusts you again
• Forgiveness: He has an amazing capacity to forgive. Consider that he was in prison for 27 years, many of those years on Robben Island and yet he came out and brought a message of hope, reconciliation and peace…amazing!
• Having fun: He loved what he did and still does, he therefore made sure he had fun and wasnt always in favour of protocol i.e. his dress code, the now famous Madiba shirts did not go down too well initially with his advisors. He was also known to give his bodyguards “the slip” from time to time and would find this quite funny when he managed to get it right, even though it could have been highly dangerous in some cases.
• Consistency: According to his staff and bodyguards he was almost always the same. He was congenial, friendly and a true gentleman to everyone.

There is much more, but for me these are the things I picked out. I hope this doesnt come across as a “suck up” to Nelson Mandela, I just feel that as South Africans we have much to be proud of and one of those things is one of our greatest sons…Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Thank you “Tata” for showing some of the western world how things should be done, African or Madiba Style!

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