Madhavan - Takeaways

Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership - TIME

An inspiring article on Mandela.

Here are the points i liked from the lessons:
- He was thinking in terms of not days and weeks but decades. He knew history was on his side, that the result was inevitable; it was just a question of how soon and how it would be achieved. "Things will be better in the long run," he sometimes said. He always played for the long run.
- The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said, "to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea."
- "people act in their own interest." It was simply a fact of human nature, not a flaw or a defect.
- Life is never either/or. Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors. To look for simple explanations is the bias of the human brain, but it doesn't correspond to reality. Nothing is ever as straightforward as it appears.
- Mandela's calculus was always, What is the end that I seek, and what is the most practical way to get there?
- Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.
- He knows that leaders lead as much by what they choose not to do as what they do.

And here are the 8 lessons.
1. Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
2. Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
3. Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
4. Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport
5. Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer
6. Appearances matter — and remember to smile
7. Nothing is black or white
8. Quitting is leading too