Nelson Mandela's father, a tribal chief, always spoke last in meetings. Clegg argues leaders should do the same: present the problem, listen without showing your position, then speak last. It reduces bias, gets better input, and makes people feel safer to contribute.
That comes from a story about Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela is a very important leader because different leaders of you differently depending on where you go. But Nelson Mandela is universally regarded as a great leader no matter where you go. That's true. And he was asked by a journalist once, how did you learn to be a great leader? And he told the story of when he was a boy, he was actually the son of a tribal chief. And he said he remembered going to.
Tribal meetings.
With his father. And he remembers two things. One, they always sat in a circle. And two, his father was always the last to speak. And if you think about it, even well intentioned leaders, we come in and sit at the head of the table, you know, and we say to the.
Team, okay, here's the problem we have. This is what I think we should do. But I want to know what you think.
Too late. You biased the room or you've made people feel like their opinion doesn't matter, as opposed to sitting down and saying, here's the problem, I want to know what you think. And then being good at having a poker face, you can ask questions, but.
Not giving away if.
You agree or disagree. And at the end, you can have the exact same opinion as you came in with. But two things happen. A, you actually get the benefit of more input, right? So you actually may change your point of view. And okay, other people feel like they could contribute, ever feel like they were contributing because they, because they were. Right. So yeah, it is a fantastic practice to literally practice being the last to speak.
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