Learn to Create Working Relationships Like Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela is a revered man who has done his part to be the change that he wanted to see in the world. As a leader, you can take a lot away from him. He had offered precious leadership lessons, including the importance of relationships. By reading here, you can learn all about these many leadership lessons he taught as well as how he valued human relationships.
Something that Nelson Mandela especially valued is other people. He understood that relationships with other people are so meaningful. Mandela managed to get an entire country to work together to move their country forward from their complicated past, and it was made possible by emphasizing communication. You may think that communication is incredibly easy, but real communication involves more than just words, and it includes listening, watching body language, and other things that make up proper communication. Communication is key to developing working relationships and is what made Mandela such an effective leader.
Nelson Mandela was also very much a “people person.” He had this unique ability to motivate people due to his very dynamic personality. Mandela wasn’t only focused on his goals and his beliefs; he was focused on developing relationships with people. Instead, he wanted to focus on building relationships with people so that he could achieve his goal of creating a prosperous and united country in South Africa.
Did someone wrong you? That doesn’t mean that you can’t develop a positive working relationship with them. One of the most important lessons that you can learn from Nelson Mandela about creating working relationships is that you can work with someone despite having every reason to search for revenge. He could have spent all of his time planning his revenge on those people who jailed him. Rather than let his feelings of bitterness overwhelm him, he became a better and stronger leader. By finding common ground with these people, he was able to work together with them to make their country even better. Forgiveness can help you overcome problems so that you can move forward with your life.
Is it imperative to be right? When you think about your relationships, does it matter in the end if you were right? You can fight until you’re blue in the face about how right you are, but in the end, you’re just hurting the relationship, the same principle for every single relationship in your personal and professional life. Instead of focusing on being right, focus on compromising, and collaboration.
Nelson Mandela may have had a lot of things to teach us about social justice and equality, but everything he taught with that lesson also applies to your professional life. He was a true leader, which is why he was so successful in achieving his goals of uniting South Africa. As a leader, you need to be able to develop strong working relationships to be successful. Take these lessons from Mandela to improve your skills as a leader.
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