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<\/p>\n“How did you become such a good leader?” someone asked Nelson Mandela.
\n“Because I learned to speak last,” Mandela succinctly replied.
\nHe recalled that as a child he\u2019d accompanied Jongintaba, the tribal king who raised him, to meetings. At these meetings Jongintaba would gather his men in a circle and wait until they\u2019d all spoken before he himself spoke.<\/p>\n
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Later, as a leader, Mandela would practice this lesson in his own meetings. “The chief\u2019s job,” Mandela said, “is not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. Don\u2019t enter the debate too early.”<\/p>\n
Richard Stengel, the journalist who worked with Mandela on his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom said Mandela would hear his colleagues\u2019 opinions and end meetings by summarizing their points and offering his own, “subtly steering the decision in the direction he wanted without imposing it.”<\/p>\n
As leadership expert Simon Sinek explains: “You don\u2019t agree or disagree or give away what you\u2019re thinking \u2013 but rather, you take input and you ask questions to better understand where their perspective comes from. And, at the end of it, not only do you make everyone else feel heard, but you also get the benefit of all of their thinking.”<\/p>\n
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They\u2019re done by a team of people.” \u2013 Steve Jobs<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rivoniabb.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/steve-jobs.jpg\")
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Rivonia Premier Lodge is located 2kms from Liliesleaf Farm (now a world-class museum), where, in 1961 Nelson Mandela hid out to escape the attention of the Apartheid police force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“How did you become such a good leader?” someone asked Nelson Mandela.
\n“Because I learned to speak last,” Mandela succinctly replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n