Leaders must embrace our spirit and all its complexities, not work against it, if they want sustainable success

In May 1994. Nelson Mandela stood at the absolute zenith of his long political struggle against the horrors and injustice of the apartheid system in South Africa. At the age of 77 he was inaugurated as President of the government for national unity of his country following the famous election victory of his party the ANC in the previous month - his long road to personal freedom was indeed complete, but for him that was only the beginning not the end of his journey.

For Mandela, this was the opportunity he had waited a lifetime for, to correct the wrongs and injustices of that political system. It was a fight that had cost him 27 years of his life as a free person, it had cost him the lives of a number of his close friends and it had cost his country countless hours of hostility, bloodshed and conflict. South Africa was and is a beautiful and proud nation with a rich and long heritage. It was a country he was very proud of to his absolute core, no matter what had happened in its recent history. This was his moment.

Yet for all of that, and all of his popularity on a world stage and within his own constituency, he knew he lead a divided nation and where a significant proportion of the population would view his presidency with trepidation and fear. He would face a choice, whether to bulldoze through reforms buy unleashing the pent up fury of a group scorned by many years of subjugation or by trying to capture the hearts of his fellow citizens using every means possible to engage with them at a human level. For Mandela there was no choice, to deliver sustainable and lasting change the path of winning the human heart had to be taken.

The journey of how he did that is beautifully captured in the film “Invictus” - for any aspiring leader the messages of that movie should be deeply digested and reflected upon. They stand as absolute learnings for all of us who endeavour to improve our approach.

We are not all the President of a newly emerging rainbow nation rising from the darkness of oppression and inequality. We may all not have the scale of that challenge, but as leaders we face the same reality of choices in whatever theatre we operate. The choice of coercion or the path of winning hearts and minds.

Leaders would do very well to always remember that they deal in the currency of human emotion and character above all else. You cannot expect to lead well if when you become a leader you lose sight of that or you become isolated from that reality. Leadership is not about numbers, or process’, or rules, or procedures, or policies. It is about the human heart and how we treat and inspire it. 

And to do that our day to day mindset and behaviours must be prepared to accept and deal with the fact that as human beings.

• We all have doubts and insecurities.
• We like to be treated fairly
• We all like an input and to be genuinely listened too in what we say.
• We can all make mistakes
• We all occasionally need help and support
• We all like to feel valued and be treated as individuals with our own needs and capabilities fully understood and recognised.
• Our loyalty and commitment is ours to give only to those who earn it, not those who demand it. It is the most precious of gifts that we hold and it should be treated as a very fragile and special commodity.
• We like to be treated with kindness and respect.

Those that accept those most fundamental principles of humanity, and do not try to suppress them, and are then prepared to adapt their leadership style, may have the longer and more arduous route, but it will be a route with the greatest prizes at the end. Results with people alongside them not at their expense.

A challenge/support based culture with peoples heart and an appreciation of personal contribution at its core on day to day basis, is the model we all need to aspire to. It’s application and delivery is the ultimate test for all leaders.

There are no short cuts, and there are no easy solutions. Success in leadership has no golden ticket fixes. It lies in how we apply our judgement of minute by minute situations and then how we respond as human beings to other human beings in those situations. So apply yourself as a human being in those situations.

Nelson Mandela was an exceptional human being and leader, the magnitude of the challenge he was prepared to accept and ultimately overcome truly astonishing in its scale and achievement. However his approach had at its core the most simple and basic principle that we can all apply - that if we want to achieve goals we must embrace the complexity of the human spirit with all it beauty and fragility, not try work against it or change it. If we are prepared to do that then what can be achieved does indeed know no bounds.