Page 10 – Comparison of Nelson Mandela & Abraham Lincoln
Introduction: In this project, I will outline the different leadership styles of both Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln, and compare them against each other. They were both avant in their battle against racism, with Mandela bridging the tide between the Oppressive white Minority, and the black majority, while Lincoln fought to abolish slavery. I will also have a quick glance at their many achievements and how they handled the difficulties and hardships put in front of them.
The Traits of a Leader
All communities need a great leader to strive and succeed. Leaders influence almost all decisions or actions you make or do every day, the way they can do this is by inspiring or instilling confidence into the populus through a series of manners. For example, Nelson Mandela used his qualities (i.e his speeches) to inspire the black populus to recognise their worth as a race and used their new found self meaning to fight for equal rights for all people. These qualities are called the “5 leadership traits” and are extremely important for the normal function of civilization.
1.Have Conviction To be a great leader you must have great belief in what you do. It is this great belief and conviction in themselves that gives them the power to communicate with the people around them with extreme authority. Having a very clear view of what you aim to achieve will help guide your decisions, inspire people to follow you, overcome obstacles, give you the courage to stand your ground and build confidence in your people.
Stephen Hawking was an example of a great leader who had conviction because he didn't let his physical condition or his worsening disease (motor neuron disease) get in the way of his scientific discoveries.
2.Impose Context
As a leader, you most get rid of the clutter and noise that surrounds our world today and impose control and concentrate people's attention on what matters. This means providing a clear sense of direction to the population; outlining what their key goals are, and distinguishingbetween the day-to-day actions that are important and those that are not. Martin Luther King Jr is an example of a leader who imposed context. He used his words to show how to the black minority how awful the white majority really treated them and what the real reason for their segregation was.
3. Challenge and Change
As a leader, you must challenge the norms and change things that affect the populus negatively by experimenting and exciting people people to grab their attention and helping them to make important decisions. President obama is an excellent example of a leader who challenged and changed the status quo of the united states. He was a very accomplished leader, being the first black president, creating the first universal free healthcare, and stimulating the economy in such a way that he ended the worst recession since the great depression. “The person who first comes to mind is President Obama. Whether you are for or against him, he shook things up pretty good just by the color of his skin. Becoming the first black president took courage and belief in one's self.” (excerpt=https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-examples-of-people-who-challenged-the-status-quo)
4.Generate Critical Mass
As a leader, you must generate critical mass by turning knowledge into action and influence people in a way that channels their power and energy into different activities, to make different tasks possible. Fidel castrowas an example of a leader who generated critical mass through the near clt following of his revolutionary communist party.
5. Make and Take Risks
As a leader you must be able to understand the risks involved in your actions and also ways to identify different severities of risks, which allows you to learn from your mistakes and find better ways to tackle obstacles Most great leaders are basically professional gamblers and are masters at identifying the best “risk to reward ratio” in their actions.
Jeff bezos is a great example of a leader who took risks just to learn from his mistakes. One of these mistakes was his idea of the amazon supermarket. “When Jeff Bezos launched Amazon’s grocery delivery service, AmazonFresh, in 2007, he didn’t choose a successful supermarket or delivery executives to help him; he chose the people who had failed with Webvan. It was one of the first online grocery delivery services in the Nineties, backed by millions of dollars. Two years after it went public, it went bankrupt.” (Excerpt from the telegraph)
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa. His actual name was Rolihlahla but he got the nickname Nelson from a teacher in school. Nelson was a member of the “Thimbu” royalty and his father was the mayor of a city called Mvezo. He got his education at the College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand. At Witwatersrand, Mandela got his law degree and would meet some of his fellow activists against the apartheid.
Nelson Mandela became a member in a political group called the African National Congress (ANC). At first he pushed hard for the congress and the protesters to follow Mohandas Gandhi's non-violence approach. At one point he started to doubt that this approach would work and helped start an armed branch of the ANC. He planned to bomb certain buildings, but only the buildings. He wanted to make sure that no one would be hurt. He was classified as a terrorist by the South African government and sent to prison.
Mandela spent the next 27 years in prison but was eventually released in 1990 due to international pressure. Once released from prison, Nelson continued his campaign to end apartheid. His hard work and life long effort paid off when all races were allowed to vote in the 1994 election. Nelson Mandela won the election and became president of South Africa. There were several times during his time as president where violence threatened to break out but Nelson was a strong force in keeping the calm and preventing a major civil war.
Throughout his political career Mandela showed all of the five leadership traits necessary for a great leader. For example during his time spent imprisoned on Robben Island Mandela showed no fear or regret of what he had done. This was inspirational to many other prisoners and as a result many of them began to follow his belief system. It was qualities like these that made Mandela a great leader. Looking at Mandela’s career it is clear to see that he was a man of compassion. Throughout his life, Mandela learnt Afrikans, the main language of the white minority, which he used to his advantage as a strategy to get the white people to trust him more, and to help him understand their strengths and weaknesses and formulate tactics accordingly.Mandela imposed context and helped his followers focus on what was important. He taught them that they must forgive their oppressors and move on with peace. Mandela displayed this trait while imprisoned when he helped the prison guards with legal problems they were having. Mandela truly believed in what he was doing. He was dedicated to getting rid of racism and apartheid. Mandela was an excellent public speaker and in his speeches he always identified a clear view of what he aimed to achieve.To get a large scale change in South Africa Mandela needed to generate critical mass. The most important thing that a leader needs is a group of first followers that convene with their friends and family and spread the word of the leader in question, therefore creating critical mass. Mandela used all of the skills available to him to be a great leader and join the rival races of South Africa into one unified state.
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln is most famous for leading the country during the American Civil War and also pushing for the freedom of all slaves throughout the nation during a time of turmoil.
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in a single-room log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky. His parents were Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. His father lost everything when Abraham was young and they had to move to Perry County, Indiana where they struggled to get by, then, when he was just nine years old, his mother died and his sister Sarah took care of him until his father remarried. Abraham had very little formal education, but had a very strong interest in books and learning. Most of what he learned was self-educated and from books he borrowed.
Lincoln won the 1860 election and was inaugurated as president in March of 1861. The southern states did not want Lincoln to be president. They did not agree with his policies. But before he was officially in office, they began to leave the country. The first state to leave was South Carolina, but soon six more states followed and together they formed a new country called the Confederacy.
The American Civil War began on april 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Lincoln was determined to keep the states together so what ensued was a bloody war that lasted for over 4 years and killed 600,000 people.
On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which was an order that freed the slaves in the confederate states. However all the slaves were not free, but the order gave way for the 13th amendment which was introduced a few years later.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15th, in the ford theater, Washington .
Lincoln showed many traits of a great leader such as his use of conviction to win the civil war against a seemingly impenetrable and impervious enemy, and to also fight for the freedom of slaves. He also showed a great ability to generate mass and build confidence in his followers using amazing speeches and written pieces. An example of this would be his “Gettysburg address”, which was considered to be on of the best military speeches of all time. Lincoln also showed great risk taking skills, as shown by him taking in the confederate states in the civil war, who were clearly the better side: Also if lincoln hadn't taken on the confederate states, chances are there would still be millions of slaves living in America.
Comparison between Mandela and Lincoln. Both Lincoln and Mandela were amazing leaders for a multitude of things. Some of their traits would have been considered as similar, while others wouldn't. For one, Lincoln's main goal wasn't necessarily the freedom of slaves, (while one of his main driving factors), his real goal was the unity of the southern and northern states. While Mandela's main goal was the freedom of the black majority of South Africa from the apartheid that had crippled them for decades.
A trait that both Lincoln and Mandela possesed was public speaking. They both used their voice to captivate their followers into helping their cause and spreading their message. Both leaders wrote and spoke multiple speeches that have been put down in the annals of history as some of the most motivating and powerful uses of the english language for motivation of their people.
Lincoln was personally my favourite leader as he did not only pave the way for a world without slavery but he also held the fighting states of America together during a time of great stress and uncertainty.