A511.1.3.RB_DellElceCamila

A511.1.3.RB – Leadership vs. Management

            Many men and women have been of great inspirations to individuals like myself, some more than others. The question is what makes a human being so inspirable to the point of naming that person a leader? Under my umbrella, a leader cannot be just anyone who does one thing right, in the contrary, my type of leader is one that inspires me to do the same and better. For that reason, when I think of a leader that has provoked such feelings of going against the odds, I think of Nelson Mandela. He recently passed on December 5^th, 2013 and his death was noticed by the entire world. Mandela was a man with distinctive goals for humanity and peace around the world. He was able to inspire me as an individual and also as to the causes he was focused on.

            Mahatma Gandhi, another big time peacemaker, inspired Nelson Mandela. What interested me the most from Mr. Mandela was his power to overcome challenges and the way he led the country of South Africa to democracy. He believed in principles of forgiveness and a world of freedom. He was able to convince a community of black and white people to look beyond their skin color and learn to share a future to come. Moreover, Mandela’s personality captivated everyone’s attention, because everything he did was with a smile on his face. As he is described by the journal, “Mandela was charismatic by his strength of character, standing up for what he believed was right and fair, against authoritarian White rule of South Africa, and by the power of his humility and modesty” (Jahanbegloo, 2013, p. 66). In addition, he was incarcerated for twenty-seven years and when he got out all he had to say is. “As I walked out the door towards my freedom I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred and bitterness behind I would still be in prison” (Jahanbegloo, 2013, p. 68). In addition, he followed his own ideals by example. He truly believed in forgiveness and in order to live the freedom he so wanted; he decided to move on despite all he had gone through in those lost years behind bars. He did it all in the name of the world and his believes. Therefore, his leadership skills and perseverant personality match what I pursue and aspire to become as a leader.

            Nevertheless, Nelson Mandela brings me back to what Simon Sinek had to say in the TEDx talk about the “why” of leadership. I take it as if Mandela was the example of an apple product in comparison to the rest of the competitor brands. Sinek explained how important is the way a message is delivered and why some leaders are more successful than others. On the TEDx talk, he mentioned the “Golden Circle,” where he describes three very important components of it, the what, the how, and the why. He also stated the order in which the golden circle was directed to the public, in this case maybe your followers, made a huge difference. The why of a leader talks about the purpose or believe and the why does an organization exist. Why in order words, drives behavior from the limbic brain making it feel good about it. As leaders, if we start by informing our followers with the why of our ideals, then there is no doubt people will seek to stick with this kind of leadership, the one of a kind. Consequently, out of hundreds of people in the world, we all have pretty much the same opportunities to be successful but very few have the gift to go beyond that, and that is what Nelson Mandela was and represented. He pursued the why of violence, why not freedom, and ambitioned a world with peace, and people followed his ideas because they saw the good of it for themselves more so than for Mr. Mandela. 

            In one of Simon Sinek’s examples he talks about how a Captain saved a soldier who was shut in the neck and then gave him a kiss before going back to rescue more soldiers. He goes on explaining, “You know, in the military, they give medals to people who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In business, we give bonuses to people who are willing to sacrifice others so that we may gain. We have it backwards. Right? So I asked myself, where do people like this come from?” (Sinek, 2014). With this in mind, I feel as Nelson Mandela sacrificed himself for the better of the world.

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References

Jahanbegloo, R. (2013), Mandela Belongs to the World. New Perspectives Quarterly, 30: 66–68. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/store/10.1111/npqu.11392/asset/npqu.11392.pdf?v=1&t=i5341uso&s=11446b91925c18ea5400031bc57b9e61e332ef9f

Sinek, S. (2013). Transcript of "Why good leaders make you feel safe." TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_why_good_leaders_make_you_feel_safe/transcript?language=en#t-142070