曼德拉的领导力进化史

    辞去总统后，曼德拉终于如梦方醒地意识到艾滋病的祸害。他积极发声，强调检测和治疗的必要性，承认他的政府没有把艾滋病作为一个重大优先事项是个错误。此外，他还打破禁忌，透露称他的儿子正是死于艾滋病并发症，并以此为契机教育他的人民，有必要公开探讨、应对这个问题。

    卓越的领导者敢于迎接巨大的挑战，在前行的道路上，他们有时会犯下严重的错误。他们的伟大之处在于他们始终致力于辨别是非。当他们发现自己犯下错误时，他们承认自己的过失，纠正航向，然后继续前进。

    但曼德拉不只是满足于承认自己的缺点——他还积极地致力于消除这些缺点。

    他在狱中努力培养对自己满腔怒火的自我控制力。有一次，被激怒的曼德勒差点暴力攻击一位监狱官员，但最终只是口头攻击了一下。那天返回牢房后，他开始反思：“尽管我让监狱官闭上了嘴，但他已经让我违背了我的自我控制原则。这一次，我认为我败在了对手的手中。”

    后来，他在《奥普拉•温弗瑞秀》( The Oprah Winfrey Show)反思说：“要是我没有进监狱，我就不能完成世间最困难的事情——改变自己。”

    一路走来，他真的变了吗？有一次，在回到自己小时候长大的村庄参加一个葬礼时，曼德拉陷入了沉思：“如果一个人试图发现自己在哪些方面有所变化，再也没有比返回一个保持未变的地方更好的方式了。我意识到，我自己的人生观和世界观已经发生了演变。”

    狱友不断透露的细节让我们得以了解，在罗本岛服刑的漫长岁月里，曼德拉是如何逐渐成为一位情绪更加平静，思想更加集中，更有耐心的领导者——一位南非迫切需要的领袖。

    这正是卓越领导者的不平凡之处——他们视自己为“一件正在演变的半成品”，他们不断地塑造自己，逐步接近自己的理想形态。结果就是，他们对世界的影响呈指数级增长。

    在一封写给妻子温妮的信中，当时还在狱中的曼德拉写道：“永远不要忘记，所谓圣人就是不断尝试的罪人。”

    曼德拉的崇拜者遍布全球，对他们而言，曼德拉的最大贡献也许是，他促使我们意识到每个人都具备实现卓越的潜能。像曼德拉一样，我们唯一需要做的就是，不停地尝试。（财富中文网）

    本文作者希滕德拉•瓦德瓦是哥伦比亚大学商学院全职非终身教授、个人领导力研究所创始人。

    译者：叶寒

    And after resigning as president, Mandela did finally awaken to the scourge of AIDS. He took on an active voice in highlighting the need for testing and treatment and acknowledged that his administration had been wrong in not making it a bigger priority. And, breaking a taboo, he revealed that his son had died from complications related to AIDS, using the occasion to educate his people about the need to talk openly and deal with this problem.

    Great leaders take on great challenges, and along the way they sometimes make great mistakes. Their greatness lies in how committed they remain to discerning right from wrong. When they find they have erred, they acknowledge their lapse, correct their course, and move on.

    But Mandela was not just satisfied with acknowledging his flaws -- he actively worked on eliminating them.

    In prison, he worked hard to cultivate more self-control over his anger. Once, he nearly physically attacked a prison official upon being provoked, ultimately assaulting him verbally. That day, he returned to his cell and reflected, "Even though I had silenced Prins, he had caused me to violate my self-control and I consider that a defeat at the hands of my opponent."

    Later, he reflected on The Oprah Winfrey Show, "If I had not gone to prison, I would not have been able to do that which is the most difficult -- to change yourself."

    Along the way, did he actually change? On one occasion, returning to his boyhood village to attend a funeral, Mandela reflected, "There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. I realized that my own outlook and world views had evolved ..."

    Stories from fellow prisoners abound about how, over the course of many years on Robben Island, Mandela gradually became a calmer, more centered, and more patient leader -- a leader South Africa dearly needed.

    This is what great leaders do -- they see themselves as a work in progress, and they sculpt themselves to get progressively closer to their ideal form. And their impact on the world, as a result, grows exponentially.

    In a letter Mandela wrote from jail to his wife Winnie, he wrote, "Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps trying."

    To his legion of admirers around the globe, perhaps Mandela's greatest contribution is to awaken us to our own potential for greatness. All we need to do, like Mandela, is to keep trying.

    Hitendra Wadhwa is Professor of Practice at Columbia Business School and the founder of the Institute for Personal Leadership.