Thursday, October 6, 2022

Basketball and Leadership: Fast Five, Lessons from Nelson Mandela

After decades of incarceration Nelson Mandela had a vision of shared leadership in a multiracial South Africa. 

What lessons can Mandela teach us? 

1. "Let it go." He wasn't interested in a "pound of flesh." He wanted a functional government for a black majority nation. This lesson applies for business, sport, and politics. 

This recalls the Chinese proverb, "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." 

Basketball lesson: Blaming our predecessor won't fix our problems. 

2. Listen. As a child, Mandela attended meetings with his father. He noticed how his father listened and always spoke last. Listen to other opinions and develop a more nuanced response. 

Basketball lesson: Great teams are collaborative, player-led. 

3. Don't believe you are the only solution. It takes more than a single heroic leader at the top to change the trajectory of an institution, or a nation. To be a transformational not a transactional leader, get more inputs. 

Basketball lesson: The players are the product. 

4. Model excellence. People notice character before they consider strategy. In leadership, character is more important than strategy. Mandela refused to succumb to the pull of revenge and the politics of hatred that infected large parts of the anti-apartheid movement.

Basketball lesson: "Our actions speak so loudly that players can't hear a word we say." 

5. Be inclusive. We forget inconvenient truths. Nelson Mandela said about the United States while on a visit there, “it is that racism must be consciously combatted and not discreetly tolerated.” He understood, "Nostalgia for the past – an impulse as prevalent in antiquity as in modern times – comes over people whenever they feel menaced, betrayed or disappointed."

Basketball lesson: Without teamwork, we will be neither happy nor successful. As Coach Wooden said, "happiness begins where selfishness ends." 

Lagniappe. What can we do better? 

Lagniappe 2. Grind. 

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