Leadership Skills Project - Nelson Mandela & Martin Luther King Jr.

My leadership project involved discussing two leaders of your choice and to compare them to each other using what we learned in class. The two leaders which I chose were Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.

The information below is part of my leadership project.

Nelson Mandela & Martin Luther King Jr.

Introduction
I chose to investigate the leadership styles and techniques between Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. as my project.  I chose these two leaders because I felt that they are very inspiring and admirable leaders. I intend to discover the history about their past before they became public faces, and I also intend to follow their journey and work as influential leaders. I will also highlight the differences and similarities between their leadership techniques, and also to investigate if there is a similarity between the aims that they are both achieving

What is a leader?

A leader is a person who is able to take charge of a group, and is able to involve everyone so that they feel that they are an active member and important. However, to become and attain the standard of being a successful leader there are five common traits that any leader must follow, which can be very difficult to execute correctly. These traits separate the people that are able to relate and understand the people around them, and can therefore make them feel like equals and that they don’t feel intimidated, compared to a person that gets people to follow them because they bribe or give them false information so that they look like they can have power. As Dwight Eisenhower once said, ‘Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it’. These five traits are:

Have Conviction

To have a conviction means that you have a strong opinion. It is crucial for a leader to have conviction otherwise he/she will not be taken seriously. If you have a clear opinion on what your plan/aim will be people will sense your determined and positive energy which they will find easy to follow. This is because people do not want to invest their time into doing something which will fail. Therefore it is extremely important that as a leader you have no hesitation and are determined that your idea is one that people need to agree with. Having conviction will help you stand your ground and make it extremely easy for you and your followers to build confidence in your ideas.

Impose Context 

The world is a huge place, with the population and industry ever increasing. Therefore it is crucial that a leader must be heard over all the other people. They must remove all distractions and focus the people’s attention on what matters the most. You need to provide a clear set of tasks that are being carried out and make everyone aware of your goals and day-to-day achievements.

Challenge and Change

When being a leader it is important that once you have reached your aims that you do not just sit back. It is important that you challenge yourself and change the status quo by experimenting with different ideas and methods. People will be interested in following you if you keep them guessing what is next and therefore you will have their attention and they will want you to be their leader. The key is to think of new ideas before the people have the chance to think of them.

Generate Critical Mass

It is important that you listen to the people that are your followers. You must take their thoughts, feeling and ideas and try come up with a suitable solution. This is important as it will get others to follow you because they feel as though they are being heard and that they are able to get their own say in their community. It is extremely important to remember that when you are doing this that you channel their energy in an appropriate way.

Make Risks and Take Risks

As a leader it is your job to break the rules. As a leader you must make and take risks by understanding what opportunities exist, or can be created, and then converting them into results. However, it is very important that you are fully confident in your idea as it could damage your enterprise if it does not go the way in which you planned it to. Therefore, you must be able to distinguish when there is a window for success in the present or the future. It is also extremely important that you are able to move on with the times. A leader has to be modern, as it shows that you are open to new ideas and the changing world. In the movie Moneyball I think that they had a great way of explaining what happens when you chose to move with the changing world or not, they said that you will ‘adapt or die’ when you are a leader and you have to make decisions.

 Nelson Mandela

Before Mandela becomes a leader

Nelson Mandela was born on 18^th July 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa. He had a challenging upbringing compared to most children, at the age of 12 his father died, and after attempting to further is education he was expelled out of the University College of Fort Hare, finally has also his forced into a marriage which fortunately he manages to escape from. In 1942, Mandela begins to change his lifestyle. He completes a Bachelor of Arts within the University of South Africa and enrols himself for an LLB at Wits University. He also begins to attend the African National Congress (ANC) meetings which he becomes very fond of. In 1944, Mandela establishes the ANC Youth League and marries Evelyn Ntoko Mase, whom which he has four children with, however one dying only nine months after its birth.

Mandela becomes a leader

From an early age Mandela took any opportunity that he could get to use his natural leader abilities. For example he was made the president of the ANCYL. It is extremely clear that Mandela is a natural leader because of all the success which he has had with his projects. He was always determined that his plans were going to be a success, which is a key attitude to have if you are a leader.

Mandela felt that it was his duty to stop the apartheid and racial abuse that was occurring in South Africa. Unfortunately his plans were cut short when we was caught organising armed attacks, this led to him being sentenced for life imprisonment. He only had to complete 27 years, and 18 of those he spent on Robben Island, a small remote island of the coast of Cape Town. During his time in prison he wrote his famous biography, Long Walk to Freedom. He was eventually released from prison in 1990. I can notice his determination to make a better life for himself because he spent his time in prison wisely, he reflected on life by writing the book, he taught himself Afrikaans and their history, which meant that he was able to talk to the prison officers and become the master in his own prison. He also spent the time thinking about how he can change the world once he has been released. This shows that he is a leader as although he cannot communicate with the outside world, he is planning ahead and thinking about his future ambitions and goals.

Between 1990 and 1994, Mandela was able to talk to members of parliament and try to achieve an equal country. This time he used only non-violent methods to try and convince the members of the parliament. His determination had paid off and managed to get the first multi-racial election. Mandela was then elected president that year, this was a huge turning point and showed that they were seeing all races as equals. This provided the country with hope.

Mandela proved to be an amazing leader. He had all the qualities which a leader needs, he was determined, ambitious, treated everyone as equals and most importantly was involved in the community. Mandela was a very clever man and his methods to get the country to work together were relatively unusual, they would not have been the normal methods of other leaders. However, this did show that he was able to understand his country and their interests. Mandela recognised that the entire country had a common interest, rugby. The Springboks are the Afrikaans team, which were never liked by the blacks because they were only ever white players aloud to play. Therefore when they would have a match they would go to cheer on the other team so that they would be beaten up. However, Mandela changed this theory. He introduced a new member to the team, Chester Williams, a black man. This meant that they were now a mix-raced time, this appealed to the people as it showed that they were seen as equals. Mandela was very smart when he came up with this way to unite the country. For the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final, for the first time the black and whites were all in agreement with each other, and had a common interest. After winning the World Cup it showed the country that they are not different from each other. Mandela’s leadership skills are very admirable, he was able to bring rivals together and get them to acknowledge on their own that they are both very similar. Celebrating this win together was a major turning point in history.

Mandela is a special leader for this reason, he did not use politics, speeches etc. to win over the two races. This shows the intelligence which no other leader had ever shown before.

 Life after presidency

In 1999, Mandela officially finished his time as the president. Mandela felt that he could still help the country. He established multiple organisations, such as the Mandela Rhodes Foundation in 2003. He used his well-established leadership skills and the name which he had gotten himself to promote the foundations. This resulted in Mandela being able to raise millions of rand for multiple children’s foundations which he had begun since 2000. However in 2004 Mandela decided to remove himself from the public life. Although he was not able to remove himself completely from the public eye, he decreased the amount of work by a huge amount due to health problems.

Mandela continued to live his life surrounded by his family. After being admitted and discharged

from hospital on a frequent basis, eventually on the 5^th of December 2013, at the age of 95, Mandela died in his home in Johannesburg.

His leadership skills and the achievements which they created are still admired on a daily basis. Mandela was given a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 to represent the gratitude of the people and to thank him for all the work which he has put into the country.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Before Luther becomes a leader

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on the 15^th January 1929 in Atlanta Georgia. Faith was very important to the family as he was growing up, his father and grandfather both being pastors. Martin Luther was very good at school, as a result to this he left school at the age of 15 and continued to Boston University where he studied of three years. I can identfy here that Luther was already a natural leader at a young age, indentifing the importance of education and taking charge in his own life. Luther than married, oved to Alabama and had four children. In Alabama he followed in the family occupation and became a pastor.

Luther becomes a leader

On the 1^st of December 1955 a women called Rosa Parks changed the life of Martin Luther for ever. Rosa refused to give her seat on the bus to a white women resulting in her arrest. When Martin Luther discovered what had happened he realised that he had to do something about the racial abuse which they were given on a daily basis. Martin Luther began the Civil Rights Act, and became the leader of a major boycott of the cities buses. This boycott continued for 381 days. Luther shows his leadership skills at this early point in his life when he recognises that he must take a risk in order to achieve any results. Luthers risk paid off, on the 20^th of December 1956, the Supreme Court decided that cegragated buses  are unconstitutional. This was a major victory for the Civil Rights Act, it showed Luther that non-violent methods get the same result.

Luther was desplaying great leadership skills throughout the next period of his life when he began to become a public figure and many people had hatred  towards him. He showed these skills by have determination that he could continue his work even though some people did not agree with his teachings, which led to him being arrested over twenty times, he also never quit because of the people that did not agree with him, instead he just stayed focused on the poeple that appreciated his work. 

During the years of 1957-1968, Luthers popularity really increased. He was an admired leader, who was open to talking with others and giving them the help which they need.  During that time frame he travelled an estimated 6,000,000miles, he wrote five books, completed 2,500 speeches and wrote countless amounts of articles. During this time Luther preformed what is now one of the best known speeches, ‘I have a dream’, infront of 250,000 people in Lincoln Memorial. This depicts is amazing leadership skills, Luther had a huge amount of people following him, he was able to connect with the people which is why they liked him. He was able to make changes and gave people hope which are very important traits to have when you are a leader.

In 1964, Luther became the youngest person to ever receive a Nobel Peace Prize. It was because he believed in fairness and that everyone had an equal opportunity.

However, his life was cut short. In April 1958, Luther preformed what would be his last speech called, ‘I’ve been to the Mountain Top’, in Memphis. Only that while standing on the second floor of the motel balcony he was shot and he died.

 After Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death

Luther was such an influencial leader that after his death everyone thought that they could not forget about him. Therefore to solve this problem, in 1983, Ronald Reagan the future president, decided that the third Monday of every January would be a public holiday and known as Martin Luther Day.

This depicts the amzing leadership skills which Luther had. He had amanaged to make such an impact on the world that they even celebrate a day in his rememberance.

  

Conclusion

After looking at these two great leaders, Mandela and Luther you can see that they had many similarities in their leadership styles but also differences which make them unique. Both Mandela and Luther wanted to improve the relationship between all races, and they wanted to make their countries a farer world giving everyone an equal opportunity. However, their leadership methods are very different. Mandela began his leadership role with the intention to use violent and destructive tactics, however quickly noticed that his method was not going to make him a successful leader or get him any results. Luther on the other hand used non-violent methods, which were extremely affective and meant that no lives were at risk. Although, later Mandela acknowledged that in order to achieve results he could do this also through non-violent methods. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. were both very successful and their leadership qualities were very similar. They were both very determined and they both had a passion and lust for success, they also had a large group of followers that supported them in their decisions and goals. However, there way of getting change were different to each other, they both had different non-violent methods. Mandela recognised that he could change the world through a common interest, rugby which made all races mix and learn that they are not that different on their own. Whereas, Luther used speeches, books and articles to get the countries support.

Overall I think that Mandela was a better leader because I think it is very important that you understand your country. He also tried different techniques to discover what worked best with the country. I think that this is very admirable because although he soon discovered that violence wasn’t that correct method, his determination did not stop and he took the risks of trying different skills to communicate with the country.  He managed to get the majority of a country to united through one day, the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He showed the people that everyone is equal and that no one should be segregated because of the colour of their skin. I can identify that Mandela had great leadership skills as had he not, he would not have been the first black president. I admire his determination and that he always took risks to try and make the country a better place. I also appreciate that after he was done being the president he used his leadership skills to establish multiple organisations to make the world a better and more equal place. By the end of Mandela’s life he was getting praise from the former white opponents for his amazing work. This is a major achievement as at the beginning of his life white people would have never taken him seriously because of his race.

However, I do believe that both leaders were very special. They were both awarded Nobel Peace Prizes to represent their amazing dedication and work which they both had done. Luther was also the youngest person to ever be awarded this prize which was an amazing achievement on its own. I can see that both Mandela and Luther were inspiring leaders as they are still admired and recognised for their great work.