MBS Events
Leadership The Nelson Mandela Way: Lessons For Business
Andrew Feinstein in Conversation with Moira Benigson
Mon June 09, 2008
| The Soho Hotel, London
The cowhide-seated screening room at The Soho Hotel is a suitably African-inspired setting for a conversation with Andrew Feinstein, former ANC politician-turned-business advisor, and author of the South African best seller After the Party. Andrew was fortunate to have worked closely with Nelson Mandela from the time of the negotiations that led to South Africa’s first democratic elections, until Mandela’s retirement from politics at the conclusion of his five-year term in office. An audience of 50 business leaders working in consumer industries around the world is eager to hear what Andrew has to say on his former boss’s leadership style and, as at all MBS Group events, to engage in stimulating debate about issues and trends in business and beyond.
Andrew begins by asserting that, while there are significant differences between the role of political and business leadership, Mandela exhibits characteristics that are required for both. Indeed, Mandela transcends the political and is rightly regarded as a global leader across countries, disciplines and creeds.
Interestingly, Andrew believes that it is Mandela’s uniquely counter-intuitive decision-making ability that sets him apart, and that has ensured his success:
“Such a leader is able to read a situation and realize that the best and seemingly most obvious outcome is not, in fact, a solution, but instead will compound the problem. An alternative solution may look strikingly improbable but it is in this improbability that its power lies. The leader then has to sell the unexpected outcome and, for this act of salesmanship, truth and absolute integrity are decisive attributes.”
Nowhere was Mandela’s counter-intuitive decision-making more in evidence than when he first arrived on Robben Island to begin his life sentence. Unlike other political prisoners, who refused to converse with their captors, Mandela immediately set about learning Afrikaans, so that he could communicate with his guards on their terms. By forging a bond with his enemies, he managed to eke far more concessions out of them, including the right for fellow prisoners to study.
20 years later the same, counter-intuitive, unorthodox methodology led Mandela to begin informal and secret negotiations between the ANC and the apartheid state. Mandela managed to persuade his colleagues in jail, in exile and inside South Africa that sitting down with their oppressors was the only way forward. This approach ultimately saved the country from a bloodbath, even though it was opposed by his purist ANC colleagues.
Counter-intuition, bolstered by tremendous courage and steely nerve was in evidence when, on his release, Mandela was faced with the spectre of an insurrection, led by the army generals. He stood up in front of a meeting of the generals and said the following:
“If you go to war, I must be honest and admit that we cannot stand up to you on the battlefield. We do not have the resources. It will be a long and bitter struggle. Many people will die and the country may be reduced to ashes. But you must remember two things: you cannot win, because of our numbers – you cannot kill us all; and you cannot win because of the international community, who will rally to our support and they will stand with us.”
General Konstand Viljoen, the head of the defence force was forced to agree, acknowledging their mutual dependency and bowing to his authority.
Andrew expands further on Mandela’s powers of negotiation:
“Mandela’s technique is to concede to the relative strength of an adversary, thus buttressing their self-confidence. He then points out the ultimate logic of following the path of conflict, making clear the low-value outcome to either side. At this point, mutual interest emerges and is further affirmed by an agreement to explore a different path.”
This mechanism of confronting the truth of mutual dependency gives recognition and legitimacy to the need to align, while seemingly holding opposing standpoints.
In addition to Mandela’s clarity of thinking, his strong sense of purpose, his moral and visionary authority, Andrew says that he also shows genuine respect and empathy for everyone he encounters. Self-awareness and self-deprecating humour are also central to how perhaps the best-known person on the planet manages to make everyone feel comfortable in his presence. His humility is genuine and comes through constantly. He is also the master of the symbolic, as seen when he chose to wear a Springbok shirt at the 1995 rugby World Cup final.
In order to succeed, Mandela has managed his own failings and insecurities, ensuring they do not dominate his interpersonal interactions and decision-making. And, if he feels people are disrespectful of others, regardless of their seniority, he is not afraid to show controlled and strategically-deployed anger.
Mandela is also an astonishing listener, even to criticism of himself. By listening to ANC members’ concerns over a period of months, he managed to persuade a highly sceptical, historically socialist party to adopt orthodox capitalist macroeconomics. The decision to adopt such a different economic approach has been the bedrock of South Africa’s success.
Andrew sums up the way Mandela’s humanity influenced the destiny of a nation:
“Mandela’s genuineness, his passionate belief in a vision of a fairer society, the equality of all people, a clear set of values and related practices and behaviours together enabled him to oversee an almost miraculous transition, not just in terms of politics, justice and human dignity, but in the way that his government created a functioning, non-racial state, reversing almost a decade of economic decline, and laying the basis for ten years of consistent growth and some meaningful improvements in living conditions for the poorest.”
Andrew proceeds to field questions from Amanda Le Roux of Aveda on Mandela’s lack of success at succession planning (which Andrew attributes to Mandela having upheld party loyalty over his own judgment); from John Jackson of the Jamie Oliver Group on political and economic corruption (Andrew is not hopeful that democracy always provides the checks and balances to prevent it); and from Mark Sebba of Net-A-Porter on what Mandela would have done about the decline of Zimbabwe.
In sum, Mandela is clearly, unique: an incomparable human who reached the pinnacle of achievement as a leader. While we businessmen and women cannot all emulate him, there is no better example from which to learn.
Download PDF
