The Leader of my Choice: Nelson Mandela (Essay Sample)

The Leader of My Choice: Nelson Mandela
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Introduction
Nelson Mandela is a globally recognized transformative leader standing for the ideal of equality of humanity. Mandela has played various crucial roles during his lifetime, and despite the fact that he started as a pacifist leader, he later changed to be a revolutionary leader, a prisoner, and eventually a president (Mandela, 1994). Mandela, just like many other prominent global leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Cher Guevara have developed deeply rooted ideals and principles among their subjects by changing their perceptions. Mandela was born on 18 th July 1918 in a small village called Mvezo, in Transkei, South Africa. Mandela belongs to the Xhosa tribe and born to a royal family of the Thembu tribe. After the demise of Henry Mgadla Mandela, his son Nelson Mandela had to be groomed to take up the position of the village High Chief. The oppression emanating from white South Africans as well as the ethnic wrangles with the Zulu tribe led to the cutting short of Mandela’s ascend to High Chief position. In 1939, due to his strong quest for education, he joined the Fort Hare University enrolling for a Bachelor of Arts. However, he did not finish his degree since he escaped to Johannesburg so as to get away from an arranged marriage. However, he did not abandon his quest for knowledge and in 1943; Mandela joined the University of Witwaters and enrolling in a Bachelor of Laws degree. It is during his stint at the university that he joined the African National Congress (ANC) political party. However, Mandela was dissatisfied with the ANC old leadership and therefore in 1994, he was among the founders of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
Transformative leadership
Transformative leadership is depicted in a leader when he/she strictly adheres to certain set of ethical obligations, cares for the welfare of the entire team of his followers or subordinates, other servants and stakeholders, as well as the entire global community (Caldwell, Dixon, Floyd, Chaudoin, Post, & Cheokas, 2012). Mandela can be said to be a transformative leader since he fits in all six of the different leadership perspectives.
Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership mainly entails the matching of a leader’s follower interests to that of the entire organization or country (Caldwell et.al, 2012). This leadership style was greatly depicted by Mandela since as a leader he was forced to balance the interests of ANC and South Africa or his countrymen. Mandela’s contribution at the ANCYL helped redirect ANC’s leadership focus towards peaceful policies. Moreover, after discovering the perception that non-violent demonstration was a weak tool towards the establishment of a united South Africa, through Mandela’s leadership, the MK acted in such a way that the outcome of their actions were not considered to be a form of retaliation, but for the perceived good of ANC and his countrymen.
After Mandela’s rise to the helm of South Africa’s presidency in 1994, Due to the fact that the Whites restricted the recruitment of black South African’s into South African rugby team, many black South Africans were pushing for the abolishment of the emblem representing the country’s rugby team, the Springbok; to them, it had become an oppression symbol. Mandela’s view was to establish a middle ground between the good of the entire country and the good of his followers and this prompted him to leave the emblem unchanged since doing so would fuel ethnic clashes between black and white South Africans since rugby had formed such a significantly huge part of the culture of white South Africans. In the same regard, South Africa went ahead to clinch the 1995 rugby world cup in what was tagged as "the game that brought a nation together”.
Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leaders are often perceived to be those who "champion for a highly moral goal that may be equated to a calling" (Caldwell et.al, 2012). Mandela would very exquisitely fit in this category since his perceptions were beyond his realities and into his imaginations that developed a vision or ideology of a better future. Millions have been inspired globally through Mandela’s commitment to his course (for instance his 27 year incarceration) and therefore he differs from other leaders who only do empty rhetoric while he portrayed his commitment with actions. Though people only perceive charisma as the ability of churning out captivating speeches, people should focus on the charismatic traits of Mandela over and above his general nature of such a vision and relentless push to commit, inspire, and achieve support from nations and individuals. In this regard, he qualifies to being a charismatic leader.
Level 5 Leadership
Level 5 leadership "is basically a combination of a leader’s humility trait coupled with an almost ferocious and unrelenting objective to attain previously unattained organizational goals" (Caldwell et.al, 2012). In this regard, Mandela falls in this category due to his unending resolve to attain oppression –free nation. Even during the height of Mandela’s greatest achievements such as heading the ANCYL and establishing the first law firm in South Africa, he still maintained his humility. However, in his quest to successfully change the South African social class system, he is forced to shelve his humility and take a somewhat hostile approach. In most of Mandela’s speeches, he scarcely used the word ‘I’ when even sharing about his goals and beliefs, he however used the possessive form ‘we’ in reference to actions, goals, and achievements. This showed how much he valued shared ideology. In Mandela’s autobiography "A Long Walk to Freedom”, he does not grant himself all the praise and honor in winning the fight against apartheid, but rather that despite him leading the mission, ‘we’ won the fight (Mandela, 1994).
Principle-centered leadership
Among Mandela’s most pronounced leadership traits is this form of leadership. Principle-centered leadership shares a couple of traits with servant leadership, in regard to the fact that a leader ought to oblige to implicit duties that they owe to their followers (Caldwell et.al, 2012). What distinguishes this form of leadership from servant leadership is the fact that leaders have to come to terms with their principles and values that play a vital role in governing themselves and their relationships. Mandela’s integrity and central belief system came to a trial in 1985 during his 27 years incarceration by the fact that he was offered an option of freedom by President Botha and despite his spending over 20 years in prison at that moment, he still felt that there was too great a cost in dropping his values and beliefs for the sake of freedom. Being a principle-centered leader and leading by example, Mandela became a beacon of hope for the South African black population especially due to his adherence to his unshaken belief in universal values and principles.
Servant Leadership
Despite the servant leadership sharing features with principle-centered leadership, servant leadership works under the principle that a good leader, "leads to serve and serves to lead" (Caldwell et.al, 2012). During Mandela’s trial for freedom, he demonstrated this principle when from the dock he stated:
"My entire lifetime has been dedicated to the struggle for African freedom. My fight has been against both white and black domination. My hope lies in the principle of a free and democratic society whereby all individuals harmoniously co-exist and with equal opportunities. This is a principle to which I have dedicated myself, and hope to achieve. Nonetheless, if need be, I am also prepared to die for this ideal" (Mandela, 1994). Mandela was groomed to take up leadership roles very early in his childhood. He was prepared to be High Chief of his village and dedicate himself to serving the needs of his people. Nonetheless, even during incarceration, he never portrayed an aorta of selfishness and only portrayed a...