3 Leadership Lessons From Nelson Mandela

What if I was to say that Covid was going to last for 27 years, that we were going to be in lockdown, in quarantine, not having all our luxuries and our liberties for 27 years? That would feel horrible, right? So when we think back to late, great Nelson Mandela, he spent 27 years in prison, 27 years of his life in prison, most of that on Robben Island. And many of you may have seen the footage from Robben island, his tiny little cell where he slept on the cold ground, where he worked out in the mines. And horrific things happened to him during those 27 years. He was treated inhumanely. But as we all know, he came out of prison and went on to become the president of South Africa and went on to forgive those people who were horrible to him. So in today's session, I want to talk about three amazing leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela and how we can apply that to our careers, our business, to our families, to our relationships, to our lives. And I think it's so important to look at the lessons he has imparted along the years. Now, what I do every year is I pick a leader and I dive deep. I mean, dive deep. I get every book I can find, look at all the YouTube videos of them, look for any films that have been made. And as you know, they've been quite a bit focused around Nelson Mandela, or Madiba, as he was affectionately known. And so I spent all of last year right before COVID hit. I decided Nelson Mandela is my man. And it could not have been a better year because he traversed adversity, he traversed isolation. And so I spent the year studying. I ended up getting the fortunate opportunity to interview his grandson, Indaba Mandela, and what a beautiful human he is. He's an ambassador for the United nations, and he was raised by his grandfather, Nelson Mandela. So he was able to give me some really intimate insights into his childhood and the lessons he learned. He also wrote an amazing book, Adaba Mandela wrote an amazing book about the lessons he learned from his granddad. So today, we're going to look at what does it mean to you to be in isolation? What does it mean to you to be going through this uncertainty right now? And then we're going to look at these three amazing leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela. So we all know that Covid has brought about a certain feeling of hopelessness for millions, probably billions of people, and a sense of despair, and most importantly, like, a sense of fear. And when fear kicks in, often it's the fear of the unknown. And Covid we cannot see it. Right? It's untouchable. We can't tangibly look at it and go, oh, there it is. Let's avoid it. It's an enemy that we can't see. And that brings a lot of fear for a lot of people. And when you look at Nelson Mandela, he had a fear of what's the next day going to bring in prison. You know, one of the stories was, you know, he was asked by his prison guards to dig his own grave, to lay down, and at which point he thought he was going to die, but then one of them peed on him. They urinated on him. How horrific. Yet, when Nelson came out of prison, he invited those prison guards to sit and join him at his ceremony with where he was crowned president, not to gloat, but to forgive and truly show that he was a man of forgiveness, a man who wanted equality and to bring people together. He truly led by example. So for you, what are some of the feelings you're going through as you go through Covid? And let's look at how these leadership lessons that Nelson has imparted and I've learned throughout the years, these are the top three for me, so I wanted to share them with you and for you to apply them to your life. So the first leadership lesson from Nelson Mandela is make a stand, right? That's one of the greatest things I've learned from him. Make a stand. Because if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything, right? If you stand for nothing at all, you will fall for any old thing that comes your way. Make a stand. What did Nelson make a stand for? Well, he made a stand for equality, racial equality. He didn't stand for black rights, white rights. He stood for human rights. Everything else was a strategy to help him get there. Everything else was noise. He was very willing to change his mind once he got new facts or his environment around him changed. He was willing to change direction or change his ideas. But the one thing he was relentless on was what he stood for, and that was equality. What do you stand for? What is it that you stand for in life? Are you hooking yourself up to something bigger? A bigger purpose? Do you have something you stand for? For me, kindness is one of those things I stand for. Seeing people treated unkindly doesn't sit well with me. And I think when you see someone or. Or whether it be a human or an animal, when you see them being treated unkindly, it's your duty as a human to stand up and say something. And if you don't and you turn a blind eye, then you're just as bad as the person performing the unkind act. So kindness to me is super important. Does that mean I've been kind my whole life and that's just who I am? No, not at all. There's been times where I look back and go, wow, this, that wasn't kind. But I learned from those things. I reflect on those things. I try to become a better person because kindness to me is like one of the greatest values of all time. So what do you stand for? And if you don't know what you stand for, write that down. What do I stand for? And then start to think, what is it? Is it equal rights? Is it giving people freedom? Is it your community and making sure that your community is looking after the environment? What do you stand for? Because if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. The second amazing leadership lesson from Nelson Mandela is think long game. Think long game. Think with the end in mind over the long term. One great thing that he talked about was, hey, don't judge a person or have a summation of, of a person based on an act that they did this month or last month or a couple of years ago. Don't do that. If you're going to judge a person or assess them, look at them as a human across their entire lifespan. Wait till the end, because then you can look at the balance of who they are. And a fair example is Nelson himself. If he was to be judged at the time when he went to prison and he'd committed crime and there was awful things that had been happening, then maybe we would look at Nelson Mandela in a very different way. But if you were to look at him as the father of the nation of South Africa and the father of forgiveness towards the end of his life, you'd have a very different picture. So as someone who has studied him for a whole year and throughout my life, I've been very, very interested in Nelson Mandela. But over the last year, formed a viewpoint, a long game viewpoint of who he was. And he was an essential, essential ingredient to this planet. Not just South Africa, but the world. And he has taught us so much, particularly about forgiveness and the ability to forgive. So think long game in your relationships. Think long game with your business. When you're thinking short game with your business, you're thinking short term strategy, you're thinking cash flow. But you've got to have a vision for something greater. Is your business hooked up to a larger purpose, a community purpose, a global purpose? If not.

Is your business really serving your community fully? You've got to ask yourself that question. Because when your business serves the community, it's really performing the act that it's there to perform. One, a business needs to make profit, but two, it exists to support society and enhance society. Whatever you do as a business, it should solve a problem for the customer, the client, the recipient, right? In life. Think long game. Maybe you've came out of a really rough relationship. Maybe you're currently in one. Maybe you've done some wrongs that you want to right. Think long game. Can you right those wrongs? Can you set your bar higher? Can you be more consistent at showing up and creating a rhythm? Can you do that? Of course you can. Think long game. And don't judge someone with just what they've done right now or what they did last year. Give people an opportunity to live their life and then you can be like, oh, that's who that person was. Look at Nelson Mandela. How would you.

Sum up Nelson Mandela? What's your thoughts? Nelson Mandela? The third and final leadership lesson from Nelson Mandela that I wanted to share with you is live for a better tomorrow. We all want to live for a better tomorrow. And I know we're told over and over, be in the moment, be present. But sometimes being in the moment is darn tough. Sometimes the present isn't very nice. Sometimes it's tough. There's lots going on. There's adversity, there's change, there's uncertainty. There's. It's not nice to be in the present sometimes. So living for a better tomorrow is living with hope, hoping that things will turn out better, hoping that you will be able to move forward in life, hoping that health will be abundant in your family and with all of your loved ones. But hope is pointless if you don't take action. There's no point hoping your life away if you don't take action. And that's the difference between people who live a fulfilled life and people who live glass half empty. Taking action is so important. And to me, that's one of the key ingredients is act upon your hopes. If you hope for a better community or a better planet, take action. Start doing things, get out there and help the community. Maybe, you know, go plastic free, go meat free, Think about what's better for the community. But whatever your hope is, if, if it's for better health for you and your family, then start making better choices. Drink a little less alcohol, eat a little cleaner, maybe you have less takeaways, but take some action because there's no point in hoping and hoping and hoping if there's no action to back that up. So important, so important to take action and follow through. So I hope you've enjoyed those three leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela. He's simply an incredible man. I look up to him. I hope that the bar is up there. I hope that I can move even a quarter of the way up close to that. He is an amazing bar to set and it helps me to realize that I've got a long way to go. I've got all of these steps to learn, all of these things to do to improve, be a better human, be a better leader, be a better dad, be a better partner. So for me, it's about truly being humble and taking action. Also, the one big takeaway, and I hope you guys think about this, is forgiveness is a superpower. And forgiving doesn't mean you need to forget. Because sometimes the person who's done wrong by you, they haven't grown, they haven't developed, they may continue to do that, but you can forgive and you can let it go and you can move forward without that baggage. Nelson Mandela was the king of forgiveness. So get out there guys, and live life on purpose. And be sure, hit that subscribe button below and head on across to my website. And in fact, if you come to my blog, you'll be able to sign up and get weekly success strategies from me. So it's jjlochlan.com blog. I look forward to connecting with you guys. Then I'd love to know who is your mentor, your role model, the person you look up to, dead or alive? Nelson Mandela is one of my key mentors and although I can't speak directly to him, I can learn from him through his books. The books written about him and the family members are still around. And for you guys, I want you to think about who could you model, who could be someone that you look up to and how can you learn from them to help you live life on purpose? Hey guys, if you enjoyed the content today, please smash that subscribe button below. And if you want to become part of my community, I've got an amazing free Facebook group. Please come and join us. The link is in the description below. And also if you've got any questions about today's session, I'd love to know. Just comment below and I'll be sure to get back to you guys. Have the most amazing day.