Leadership Lessons Nelson Mandela

This is a book about a many-sided man whose legacy is his unquenchable desire to spend himself for the well-being of others. Through a series of stories told by men and women about how Nelson Mandela touched their lives, the book shows what it is that has made him one of the greatest people of our time: the way he has managed to inspire people through ordinary human actions. Here in essence are some of the key qualities of great leadership. Most of the stories in this book are from ordinary men and women. A few came from newspapers, television and magazines. Whether they happened exactly as they are narrated is not important. What is true about these stories is that they are an attempt by people to describe the 'Madiba phenomenon'. They are a way in which people seek to treasure what Mandela has taught the world. Their significance lies in their ability to inspire those that share and listen to them.

Nelson Mandela is one of history's truly remarkable figures, the father of the new South Africa and an inspiration to all. A shrewd realist whose leadership was not just based on character and charisma, he keenly observed the examples of others and had a deep understanding of friends and foes alike. Here, in this short-form book, is what leaders the world over can learn from his example.

"Time" magazine editor Stengel, who collaborated with Mandela on his bestselling autobiography, distills Mandela's wisdom into 15 vital life lessons that have the power to deepen lives.

Nelson Mandela was born into a royal family, attended elite schools, became a lawyer, and could have settled into a comfortable life as a member of South Africa’s black middle class. But his sense of dignity and injustice was fierce, and he dedicated himself to the struggle for freedom and democracy. He paid a heavy price for his choice, often putting his life in danger and spending 27 years in prison, away from his family, barely knowing his children. Guided by a deep pragmatism, he evolved into one of the greatest leaders in modern history, a man who inspired and uplifted the world. His story offers valuable lessons for leaders everywhere. Nelson Mandela is a fierce opponent of injustice, a proponent of nonviolent resistance, a moral beacon for the world, a man who changed the course of history and created today’s South Africa. He occupies a place in the Parthenon of great leaders--a symbol of the struggle for freedom and human rights, an inspiration to us all. But his has been a complicated life, filled with nuance and ambiguity. Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, yet he once advocated the violent overthrow of South Africa’s apartheid government and was instrumental in creating a guerilla army dedicated to that end. A child of privilege born into a royal family, he benefitted mightily from his family’s connections but was suspended from college and ran away to the slums of Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage. New Word City, publishers of digital originals, contributes 10 percent of its profits to literacy causes.

"Nelson Mandela was born into a royal family, attended elite schools, became a lawyer, and could have settled into a comfortable life as a member of South Africa's black middle class. But his sense of dignity and injustice was fierce, and he dedicated himself to the struggle for freedom and democracy. He paid a heavy price for his choice, often putting his life in danger and spending 27 years in prison, away from his family, barely knowing his children. Guided by a deep pragmatism, he evolved into one of the greatest leaders in modern history, a man who inspired and uplifted the world. His story offers valuable lessons for leaders everywhere"--Resource description page.

'Professor Marwala has sought to understand what good leadership should mean by drawing on the collective experience of authors who have written on many topics.' – Former President of South Africa, THABO MBEKI We cannot underestimate how critical strong leadership is in all aspects of our lives. It enables us to run our lives, homes, communities, workplaces and nations. Given its importance, it is pertinent to ask: What is the source of good leadership? Albert Einstein once said, 'The only source of knowledge is experience.' Many philosophers have observed this and, if we accept experience as the only source of knowledge, can we extend this conclusion to leadership? Or is the basis of good leadership intuition or instinct? Or is it perhaps a combination of these? In Leadership Lessons From Books I Have Read, Tshilidzi Marwala adopts the thesis that the source of good leadership is knowledge, and the source of knowledge is experience, which can take many forms: reading widely, listening, and engaging in discussion and debate with other knowledge seekers. If leadership is derived from knowledge and knowledge is derived from experience, the 'experience' in this book is from 50 books that Tshilidzi has read, and so the source of knowledge informing leadership is the collective experience of the more than 50 accomplished authors who wrote those books including, among others, Chinua Achebe, Thomas Sankara, NoViolet Bulawayo, Nelson Mandela, Mandla Mathebula, Eugène Marais, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Daniel Kahneman, Karl Marx, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Nassim Taleb and Aristotle. Divided into four sections, Tshilidzi shares his leadership lessons in the areas of Africa and the diaspora, the search for the ideal polity, science, technology and society, and the leadership of nations. 'Those who do not read, should not lead.' – THILIDZI MARWALA

In The Science of Leadership, Julian Barling takes an evidenced-based approach, relying primarily on the knowledge generated from research on organizational leadership conducted around the world and personal reflections based on two decades of involvement in leadership research and leadership development with executives. While leadership has been studied within all the major social sciences, Barling mainly focuses on findings from psychological research. The first part of the book explains the nature of organizational leadership, responds to the question of whether leaders "matter," and explains how leadership works. A longstanding issue is whether leadership can be taught. Barling explores the debate over whether leadership is "born or made" as well as the effectiveness of leadership development interventions in organizations. He gives consideration to what can be learned from leadership in other contexts such as sports, the political arena, and schools, and devotes individual chapters to topics that include gender and leadership, destructive leadership, and followership.