曼德拉的领导力进化史

    然而，在深入挖掘的过程，我们发现曼德拉给予我们的启示远不止于此，这一切取决于我们如何定义卓越的领导力。

    有人曾经问曼德拉，他是不是因为教师的种族歧视，才没有学好法律。“是的，我的老师确实是一个种族主义者，但这并不是我没有学好法律的原因。”他知道，他必须为自己的表现承担责任。曼德拉在罗本岛服刑期间坚持自学，还组织其他犯人一起学习。即使囚犯们被迫去采石场从事一整天的辛苦劳作时，每个工作队都被安排了一位向他们传授历史、经济学和政治学等学科的讲师。这些囚犯称其为“罗本岛大学”。他后来回忆说：“为了学会如何成为一个好学生，我必须去蹲大牢。”

    曼德拉在狱中专心致志地学习他的压迫者（即南非白人，又称布尔人）的语言和历史，甚至还帮助一些狱警撰写要求升职的信函。

    被捕入狱前，他曾经在一位朋友的庄园里躲避过一段时间。有一次，他使用一支气步枪射杀了一只麻雀，非常骄傲地展示了一下他的枪械技能。结果当他转身向朋友的儿子吹嘘时，这位年仅5岁的小男孩泪眼婆娑地对他说：“你为什么要杀死那只鸟啊？它的妈妈会难过的。”曼德拉反省道：“我觉得这个小男孩比我更为人性。对于一支新生游击队的领导者来说，这是一种奇怪的感觉。”

    卓越的领导者把人生视作一所学校。他们总是在学习。没有什么情势——狱中的一天，一个小孩的斥责——是微不足道，无关紧要的。

    像美国的马丁•路德•金一样，曼德拉起初拥抱的是甘地的非暴力理想。他后来忍痛放弃了这个理念，创办了非洲人国民大会的武装力量。“甘地仍然致力于非暴力理想；我尽可能长时间地追随甘地的战略，但我们的斗争后来迎来一个节点，压迫者的野蛮暴行再也无法仅仅通过消极抵抗来还击。我们选择采取破坏行动，因为这种策略不会造成生命的损失，它是未来种族关系最大的希望所在。”

    后来，曼德拉承认非国大的行动导致了一些侵犯人权的事件，并对那些不肯承认这一点的党内人士提出了批评。

    在非国大执行委员会抨击他要求降低选民年龄至14岁的立场之后，他选择了退让，并在日记中写道，“我做出了一个严重的误判。”

    卡翁达落选后，曼德拉再次来到赞比亚，对公众说：“我此前选择支持对象的行为是错误的。我知道，赞比亚曾经为南非解放做出过不可估量的牺牲，肯尼思•卡翁达博士当时是国家元首。我此前的姿态看起来似乎是，为我们的斗争事业提供帮助的仅仅是卡翁达博士一人，而不是全体赞比亚人民。虽然我们或许可以选择卡翁达博士提供的卓越领导力，但谁应该当选，可不能由我自己来确定。”

    But when we dig deeper, we find there is much more to him, and it all hinges on how we define great leadership.

    Mandela was once asked if he did poorly as a law student because of racism among the faculty "Yes, I did have a racist lecturer, but that is not why I didn't do well." He knew he had to take responsibility for his performance. When he was a prisoner on Robben Island, Mandela organized a process for educating himself and other prisoners. Even as prisoners were forced to go out to the limestone quarry for a day of hard labor, each working team was assigned an instructor who taught them history, economics, politics, and other disciplines. They called it "Island University." He later reflected, "I had to go to prison in order to learn how to be a good student."

    While in prison, Mandela focused on learning the language and history of his oppressors, the Afrikaaners, and then even helped certain prison guards write their letters for promotion.

    Once, when he was in hiding at a friend's estate prior to his arrest and imprisonment, he shot and killed a sparrow with an air rifle in a prideful display of his firearms skills. As he turned to boast , his friend's five-year-old son turned to him with tears in his eyes and said, "Why did you kill that bird? Its mother will be sad." Mandela reflected, "I felt that this small boy had far more humanity than me. It was an odd sensation for a man who was the leader of a nascent guerrilla army."

    Great leaders approach life as a school. They are always learning. No situation -- a day in prison, a scolding from a child -- is too inconsequential.

    Like Martin Luther King in America, Mandela had initially embraced Gandhi's ideals of non-violence. He only reluctantly parted with this philosophy to start the armed wing of the ANC. "Gandhi remained committed to nonviolence; I followed the Gandhian strategy for as long as I could, but then there came a point in our struggle when the brute force of the oppressor could no longer be countered through passive resistance alone. We chose sabotage because it did not involve the loss of life, and it offered the best hope for future race relations."

    Later, Mandela admitted that the ANC's actions led to some human rights abuses, and criticized those that refused to acknowledge it.

    After the executive committee of the ANC attacked his position on lowering the voting age to 14, he backed down, and wrote in his diary, "I have made a grave error of judgment."

    When Kaunda lost the vote in Zambia, Mandela went back to Zambia and said to the public, "I was wrong to have chosen sides ... I know that Dr. Kenneth Kaunda was the head of state when Zambia sacrificed immeasurably for the liberation of my country. I made it appear as though it was only Dr. Kaunda and not the whole country of Zambia that helped in our struggles. While there is room for us to single out the great leadership that Dr. Kaunda offered, it was not for me to determine who was to be elected."