No1 courage is not the absence of fear-its inspiring others to move beyond it

In 1994,During the presidential election campaign,Mandela got on a tiny propeller plane to fly down to the killing fields of Natal and give a speech to his Zulu supporters.I agreed to meet him at the airport,where we would continue our work after his speech.When the plane was 20 minutes from landing,one of its engines failed.Some on the plane began to panic.The only thing that calmed them was looking at Mandela,who quietly read his newspaper as if he were a commuter on his morning train to the office.The airport prepare for an emergency landing,and the pilot managed to land the plane safely.When Mandela and I got in the backseat of his bulletproof BMW that would take us to the rally,he turned to me and said,Man,I was terrified up there.




Mandela was often afraid during his time underground,during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment,during his time on Robben island.Of course I was afraid.He would tell me later.It would have been irrational,he suggested not to be.I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.But as a leader,you cann't let people know.You must put up a front.



And that's precisely what he learned to do,pretend and ,through the act of appearing fearless inspire others.It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Roben Island,where there was much to fear.Prisoner who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard,upright and proud,was enough to keep them going for days.He knew that he was a model for others,and that gave hime the strength to triumph over his own fear.



No2 lead from the front-but don't leave your base behind
Mandela is cagey.In 1985 he was operated on for an enlarged prostate.When he was returned to prison,he was separated from his colleagues and friends for the first time in 21 years.They prostated.But as his longtime friends Ahmed Kathrada recalls,he said to them,Wait a minute,chaps.Some good may come of this.


The good that came of it was that Mandela on his own launched negotitations with the apartheid goverment.This was anathema to the Africa National Congress.After decades of saying prisoner cannot negotiate and after advocating an armed struggle that would bring the government to its knees,he decide that the time was right to begin to talk to his oppressors.When he initiated his negotiations with the government in 1985,there were many who thought he had lost it.We thought he was selling out,says Cyru Ramaphosa,then the powerful and fiery leader of the National Union of Mineworkers.I went to see hime to tell him,What are you doing?It was an unbelievable initative.He took a massive risk.



Mandela launched a campaign to persuade the ANC that his was the correct course.His reputation was on the line.He went to each of his comrades in prison,Kathrada remembers,and explained what he was doing.Slowly and deliveratedly,he brought them along.You take your support base along with you,says Ramaphosa,who was secretary-general of the ANC and is now a business mogul.Once you arrive at the beachhead,then you allow the people to move on.He's not a bubble-gum leader-chew it now and throw it away.



For Mandela,refusing to negotiate was about tactics,not principles,Throughout his life,he has always made that distinction.His unwavering principle-the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man,one vote-was immutable,but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic.He is the most pragmatic of idealists.He's historical man,says Ramaphosa,He was thinking way ahead of us.He has posterity in mind.How will they view what we've done?Prison gave him the ability to take the long view.I had to,there was no other view possible.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.




No3 Lead from the back-and let others believe they are in front
Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoon herding cattle.You know,he would say,you can only lead them from behind.He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy.
As a boy,Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba,the tribal king who raise him,When Jongintaba had meeting of his court,the man gathered in a circle,and only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak.The chief's job,Mandela said,was not to tell people what to do form a consensus.Don't enter the debate too early,he used to say.




During the time I worked with Mandela,he often called meetings of his kitchen cabinet at his home in Houghton,a lovely suburb of Johannesburg.He would gather half a dozen men,Ramaphosa,Thano Mbeki(who is now the South African President)and other around the dining-room table or sometimes in a circle in his driveway.Some of his colleagues would shout at him- to move faster,to be more radical-and Mandela would simply listen.When he finally did speak at those meetings,he slowly and methodically summarized everyone's point of view and then unfurled his own thoughts,subtly steering the decision in the direction he wanted without imposing it.The trick of leader is allow 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.