Saturday, March 22, 2014

Mandela moment

This week I took a webinar from the Queen’s School of Business entitled “Lessons in Leadership from the Life of Nelson Mandela”. It was presented by South African Professor Dr. Julian Barling. It was very interesting and the session passed quickly. In a nut shell, here are the ten lessons in leadership from the life of Madiba that were discussed:

1.    Role modelling your vision.
2.    Know and respect the opposition.
3.    Influencing your opposition is more important than rallying your supporters.
4.    Reciprocity – the fundamental principle of effective persuasion.
5.    The power of many.
6.    It’s never too late for wonderful leadership.
7.    Is leadership born or made?
8.    Humility builds respect.
9.    Your successor (developing your successor is important)
10. Leadership is about moments, and the smallest possible things you do in those moments.

In everything discussed, there was one thing about Madiba’s leadership that I had not heard before. That was his failure to address the pandemic of AIDS, recognized as Mandela’s biggest failure during his tenure as President of South Africa. The reasons for this were discussed – age, cultural beliefs, etc. It wasn't until his own son died of AIDS in 2005, when the disease affected him personally, that Mandela addressed and took a leadership role in the AIDS pandemic. This of course speaks to number six above - it is never too late for wonderful leadership:

Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like tuberculosis, like cancer, is always to come out and say somebody has died because of HIV/AIDS, and people will stop regarding it as something extraordinary. (Nelson Mandela)

I continue to be intrigued by every facet of this man’s life. In the webinar, Professor Barling talked about “Mandela moments”. These moments when everyday people like myself met him, and he made them feel special. He made them feel like he was excited to meet them. He made a “moment” in that person’s life they will never forget.

Sometimes I still have to pinch myself when I think about my Mandela moment. In the summer of 2006, I was chosen to participate in an Internship at his Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. On a Friday morning, three weeks upon my arrival in Jo’Berg, I was led into his office and was given the opportunity to meet this great leader and shake his head. Yeah, this farm kid from rural PEI had a Mandela moment. I still wonder how my life brought me to that moment. However I got there, I am grateful.

When I got home from work the day he died last December, I can’t say I was surprised to hear the news. His health had been in decline for quite some time. When anyone lives to be 95, it should be celebrated, yet I couldn’t help be a little sad. Let’s face it; the world needs people like Madiba. It’s always hard to let these people go.

As I sat there and watched the TV coverage from South Africa, I was happy to see the people that gathered outside his home in Houghton singing in celebration. He would have loved that. I then recalled his 88th birthday celebrations in 2006 and I got out my photos from that day. I had never posted any of these photos on social media with the exception of one blog post a few years ago. So, I posted a photo to my Facebook (FB) page to share it with friends and family. It was a photo of Madiba cutting his birthday cake surrounded by staff of his Foundation. And I am standing in the back row.

What happened next still boggles my mind.

My brother David had never seen this photo before so he proudly shared it on his FB page. Because he is PEI’s Fire Marshal, a lot of media personalities are contacts on his FB page. Literally within hours, I was contacted by CBC Radio (Charlottetown). I agreed to do a five minute interview the following morning. It went well. Radio interviews are always so much easier. I had done a couple of radio interviews with Matt Rainnie in the past and it always went smoothly. As soon as I was finished, though, they asked if I would consider taping another short segment for the CBC (Charlottetown) supper hour news. D’oh. My immediate typical introvert reaction was to (a) dig in my heels or (b) bolt. Bolting is even easier to do on the phone. But I thought of my Mom and Dad and that they would probably want me to do it. So I agreed. I asked my manager to take ½ vacation to make the trek down to the CBC studios on Front Street to do the taping. When she heard what I was going to be doing, she told me I could do it on work time and after the interview was over, I could work the rest of the day from home!! Like the radio interview, the CBC news segment was short. I enjoyed talking to Bruce Rainnie and I brought up his recent book (Thank you David for giving this to me last Christmas!!). Before I knew it, it was done – in one take. I wiped off my lipstick and got untangled from my microphones. What *was* cool, was that it was taped in the main newsroom. I had been in that room once before with a friend who used to work at the CBC, but never did I think I would ever be taking anything for the news here.
I went home that afternoon and was glad it was over. Or so I thought. I wasn’t home an hour when the PEI Guardian newspaper contacted me. I did that interview right away to get it behind me. And I was done. I am seriously shy by nature and the older I get, the more introverted I get. All I could think was, “How do people do this every day?”
Friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances all left kind responses on my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter sites. Just when I thought it was over, my fellow Archivist and mentor Loryl MacDonald sent the link to my radio interview out over the Archan-l listserv. This resulted in my Director and Assistant Deputy Minister (the Archivist of Ontario) also finding out about this Mandela moment of mine. I can’t remember who initiated it – it may very well have been my Manager – but I was contacted for another interview by MGS (Ministry of Government Services – my ministry) Communications. So another article appeared there, as well as on the Intranet of the OPS (Ontario Public Service).
It was *my* Mandela moment, but in all these interviews, I was able to take my family and my community on a fun ride. After the interviews and articles, so many people called my parents, which sincerely touched me. That’s what it is like when you grow up in a small town. Many were proud that a local gal had been able to have this experience. Although I found the entire thing rather stressful, it felt great to do this for my family. My Mom, Dad, brothers, sister-in-law, aunts, uncles and cousins all seemed to get a real kick out of it.
And I’m just glad I didn’t fawk up.
Here is the photo that started it all. Rest in peace Tata. at hwat


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