History shows us time and time again, that what we
ordinarily
consider to be the greatest
leadersour world
has ever seen (indeed, our whole notion of what
leadership
actually is) are those who lead the packs and head the charges and
some of them even make pretty good galvanizing speeches to boot ...
and yet ... in so doing, they leave their followers
totally dependent on them for guidance and for inspiration and even for
permissions. That's the old model: it's the
leaderscreating
the followers.
Here's one thing (in retrospect, it's one very obvious
thing) I've discovered about great
leadership:
beyond a certain point, being completely dependent on anyone for
guidance and inspiration and permission (even being completely
dependent on a great
leader
for guidance and inspiration and permission) is a sure fire way of
making certain that any possibility of actually becoming a great
leader
yourself, is killed off. At some point you have to pick up the passed
ball and run with it. Acknowledging the great
leader
for being the best ball passer
the world
has ever seen, even if
true,
isn't enough. It doesn't cut it. Acknowledgement is merely the
precursor to
action.
I was never skeptical of
Nelson Mandela's
leadership
style nor of his mythical status. The man's aura is a human lighthouse.
I was, however, skeptical (at least, at first) of how far the ball he
passed would be carried, given how many in
South Africa
(and countless others around
the world
as well) acknowledged him for being the best ball passer
the world
has ever seen, while never taking over (even though they understood)
his essential point which was to pick up his passed ball and run with
it for themselves if his legacy was ever going to be realized. In and
of itself, his
leadership
was never going to dish out a house and a cow and resources to everyone
he
led
in
South Africa.
The thing is: no one's can. Yet without picking up and running
with the ball he passed, there was this
god‑damned
pernicious expectation his would.
Listen:
everyone knows there is a lot to
love
about
Nelson Mandela.
And the thing I personally
love
about him the most was expressed in one almost dismissed remark I heard
him make when some overly enthusiastic TV news
interviewer
went on and on and on about how
Nelson
had
transformed South
Africa.
I mean, he was literally slathering
Nelson
with acknowledgment like you would put gobs of chocolate syrup on an
icecream sundae, until finally
Nelson
said "You don't get it, do you?
Nothing
of
what happened
in
South Africa
was the work of any one individual:
the transformation of
South Africa
came out of a partnership between many, many people ...".
That for me is who
Nelson Mandela
really is. But even more pertinent for me is that's who
South Africa
today is becoming. I don't live in
South Africa.
And neither do I visit frequently - say, once every seven years on
average. So any
opinions
I have about the place should be taken with a bucketful of salt. That
said: in my
opinion,
in the early days of
Nelson's
astonishing ascent to global icon for the ages, many in
South Africa,
too many in fact, were being an overly enthusiastic TV news
interviewer
(and understandably so). Those times have changed. My experience of
South Africa
today is they've gotten it and they're running with it. They're not
being an overly enthusiastic TV news
interviewer
any more as much as they're now being the partnership between many,
many people. Not surprisingly, the quantum shift is palpable.
At a certain point, the
leader
sitting in the
interviewees
chair must morph himself into the very men and women ie
into the many, many people he
leads,
and they into him - which is to say they must morph themselves into the
being and
speaking
of a
leader.
And if this process doesn't complete ie if this mutual
interchange doesn't occur, it doesn't preclude or impede a
leader's
actions
from being deemed to be greatleadership
... but it's unlikely they will be cast as or deemed to be
extraordinaryleadership.
In the new
extraordinaryleadership
paradigm, it's no longer the old model of the
leaderscreating
the followers. It's now the
leaderscreatingmore
leaders.