Leadership: Nelson Mandela - A Reflection of Democratic Leadership

This article discusses the life and leadership of Nelson Mandela, the first black chief executive of South Africa. It explores his upbringing, personal life, and political career, highlighting his democratic leadership style and how it made him an inspirational leader for the world. The article also discusses the challenges he faced during his presidency and his efforts to combat them.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP: NELSON MANDELA
Leadership
September 26
2018

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Leadership
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in village of Mvezo in Umtala. It was a
then part of South Africa’s Cape Province. Rolihlahla is a Xhosa term meaning
“troublemaker” was given to him for his childhood nature. Mandela’s early life was
dominated by the Thambu custom and taboo (BBC NEWS, 2013). He grew up with his two
sisters in the village of Qunu. Both his parents were illiterate but being a devout Christian, his
mother took him to a local Methodist school when he was seven years old. Then his mother
approached to the “Great Place”, a place at Mqhekezweni for his further studies. He did not
see his mother for a long time when he was there at the “Great Place”, he felt like Jongintaba
and his wife Noengland helped him to grow in appropriate environment as same as their son.
This also helped him to absorb essential skills to become a privy councillor for the Thambu
royal house, after that he started his secondary education at Clarkbury Methodist High School
in Engcobo in 1933. With the support of Jongintaba, Mandela started working on his BA
degree at University of Fort Hare in 1939. This was considered as an elite black institute with
approximately 150 students in Alice, Eastern Cape (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2018).
Nelson Mandela married three times and was a father of six children. He also had 17
grandchildren. He first married to Evelyn Ntoko Mase from his homeland in Transkei in the
month of October of 1944. He went to jain after his marriage and when he came back he got
to knew that his firat wife had moved out and also had taken the children. Then he married to
Winnie Madikizela in 1958. She was the first black social worker that Johannesburg had. His
second marriage lasted until 1996. He was sent to Robben Island in 1962 so he missed his
children’s up-bringing. After this on his 80th birthday he married to his third wife Graca
Machel in 1998 (Aberdeen, 2013).

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In 1994, first act of the newly elected assembly was to elect Nelson Mandela as South
Africa’s first ever black chief executive in the form of their president. Mandela leaded the
Government of National Unity. At that time he was 76 years old, he felt so many ailments.
He exhibited a continued energy but he felt isolated and lonely at times. During his leadership
he met with the Queen Elizabeth II during his state visit to South Africa in March 1995. He
stepped out as president in 1999 after his one successful term of president. In his lifelong
political career from joining ANC youth league in 1944 to the successful term of president he
showed wonderful leadership qualities. From the time of fighting for peace, winning over
enemies with his smile, embracing forgiveness and always demonstrating a positive attitude
towards a master plan he became an inspirational leader for the world. Inn his leadership
qualities there is a reflection of democratic leadership (Staff, 2013).
His democratic reflection in his leadership qualities shows his participative nature.
Democratic leadership as the name itself reflects, it is a participative or a shared leadership.
This is also known as most desirable leadership style for politics and basic rights (Cherry,
2018). This leadership can be described with the help of two different concepts. First one
states people elected or leaders acquired their position with the support of majority of their
society (Kaushik, 2017). Another concept states that leaders consider people even if they play
a role or not in their authority. In this leadership the concept of management and leading
behaviour with the underlings is mainly focused on:
 Involving people while making decisions
 At times of minimized running of command supervising the subordinates
 If subordinates are talented they does not induce any detailed work to them
 Democratic leaders can differentiate between opinions and plurality of opinions while
implementing the suggestions
 Leaders believe in decentralization

LEADERSHIP: NELSON MANDELA 3
 Leaders support the team work instead of individual work
In paradoxical contest the democratic leadership is admired but controversial, respected but
often ridiculed, relevant but still blamed by many, explained but still uncertain (Iqbal, Anwar,
and Haider, 2015).
In the research it is found that the democratic leadership is the most effective and as well as
productive leadership style with a better contribution from the side of group members and
also increases the morale of group members. Also the researchers suggest that a democratic
leader possesses Honesty, Intelligence, Creativity, Fairness, Courage, and competence.
Nelson Mandela possesses all there behavioural traits into their personal and professional
behaviour (Beerbohm, 2015). His fairness quality to see all people with the same
consideration has taken him to the battle for a superior mankind that he believed in. His
perseverance had made him to trust that the day will come when he will succeed to free his
people from the bias they have experienced in the past (Yahaya, and Ebrahim, 2016). In his
democratic leadership Mandela had two most inspirational leadership qualities that are:
Brilliant communication skills and morality at top priority (Carlin, 2013).
While confronting arguments, defences and challenges he always expected the opponent to
viable communicate their response based on the issues only. In his leadership,
communication was the key element of his political successful career. Also being the first
black president of South Africa, Mandela always displayed a very strong moral values among
his folks by consistently managing them to keep their focal point in mind and evade all the
violence as well.
During the political career’s peak, as president Nelson Mandela came to face some major
challenges. Among these challenges, education and corruption were the biggest. In his
presidency, overhauling of the education system was most challenging for him. For this

LEADERSHIP: NELSON MANDELA 4
challenge the re-integration of the system was partly successful in the state school.
Furthermore, the ability of government to provide most basic education to the poorest in
society was proved a desperate struggle for the government. During this he manages to
influence people to save money to fund the private education for their children instead of
relying on new state schools.
In the presidency of Mandela, contraction of AIDS in South Africa remained high. The
Apartheid government did a little to address the seriousness of this issue. Mandela’s
government and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, were likewise slow to respond to the issues that
has ravaged the poorer sections. Mandela was very instrumental in highlighting the issues
sufferers before the international community. He generated policies or societal the awareness.
These efforts effectively combat the prevalence of the disease at the home.
Nelson Mandela’s whole leadership career was magnificent and transformational. Although
his leadership was basic and most easiest leadership style, he skills and leadership qualities
made it most inspirational leadership. In 20th century he was turned to be the most powerful
figure that had fought to lead against the apartheid in South Africa. He inspires people with
his skills of communication to help people in understanding the value and significance of his
vision. He kept insisting to build an understanding of what is the imperative for a nation. His
leadership qualities drag people to visualise the better side of their vision. Also, his leadership
teach to be participative and always make efforts for the betterment of all no only one. He
always fought for the mankind and kept influencing people to fight for the same. He believed
that mankind in the biggest achievement that the world can achieve. His lifelong journey of
leadership reflects the kindness he had for the mankind. For some extent he succeed in
making people to believe in mankind. His leadership style tells so much about his beliefs and
his work he has done for the mankind.

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The above discussion about the leadership of former president of South Africa, Nelson
Mandela, concludes that leading people is an opportunity to help people in understanding the
values and significance of some of the most important aspects of the human life. His personal
life, full of struggles and being the first ever black president of South Africa reflects the
power of democratic leadership. His capability of managing such transformational change to
introduce in the society was the biggest achievement of his life. This made him to influence
people to work for the mankind instead of being materialistic. His up-bringing and his
achievements show his vision and persistence as well.

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References
Aberdeen, Z. (2013) The three women in Nelson Mandela’s life. [online]. Available from:
https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/the-three-women-in-nelson-mandelas-life-1620229
[Accessed on 24/09/2018].
BBC NEWS, (2013) Nelson Mandela’s life and times, [online]. Available from:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12305154 [Accessed on 24/09/2018].
Beerbohm, E., (2015) Is Democratic Leadership Possible?. American Political Science
Review, 109(4), pp.639-652.
Carlin, J. (2013) Nelson Mandela: the freedom fighter who embraced his enemies, [online].
Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/07/nelson-mandela-freedom-
fighter-john-carlin [Accessed on 24/09/2018].
Cherry, K. (2018) What is democratic leadership? [online]. Available from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315 [Accessed on
24/09/2018].
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. and Haider, N., (2015) Effect of leadership style on employee
performance. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 5(5), pp.1-6.
Kaushik, K. (2017) Leadership style of Nelson Mandela, [online]. Available from:
http://www.thecareermuse.co.in/leadership-styles-nelson-mandela/ [Accessed on
24/09/2018].
Nelson Mandela Foundation (2018) Biography of Nelson Mandela, [online]. Available form:
https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography [Accessed on 24/09/2018].

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Staff, P. (2013) Life and Career of Nelson Mandela, [online]. Available form:
https://www.politico.com/gallery/life-and-career-of-nelson-mandela?slide=5 [Accessed on
24/09/2018].
Yahaya, R. and Ebrahim, F., (2016) Leadership styles and organizational commitment:
literature review. Journal of Management Development, 35(2), pp.190-216.