Nelson Mandela: Reflections on Leadership

Nelson Mandela’s death made a huge splash in newspaper headlines ... and it went on for days. Truly here was the death of a recognised leader par-excellence, possibly unmatched in today’s world. I began to reflect .. 

Some ‘leaders’ are good managers: they have practical sense, people skills and the ability to get excellent team results. But there is a huge difference between true ‘leadership’ and ‘management’.

True leadership is about example and integrity, living a vision and being passionate about it, and even if unknowingly, imparting it to others; it is choosing to live outside one’s restricted circle and exist for a wider one.

Leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Ghandi and Martin Luther King lived what they taught and managed to affect the conscience of a nation, indeed of the world. Their vision was imbedded in a sense of justice and their own personal lives were deeply caught up in it. They loved their people and each in turn was a ‘father’ to them.

They were leaders not just by the fact they spearheaded movements; they were leaders by virtue of what they were.

God calls for leaders; I’m not talking about those who’ve been to theological college or leaders’ training events. They’re not even people who aim to be leaders; they’re leaders because they live a vision and their words and actions match; they lead because their ambition is to love the things God loves with passion. 

The world is short of great known leaders; it’s short of great-unknown leaders too; the latter can be old, young, male or female and come from any strata of society; they may not make newspaper headlines when they die but those around will have been deeply affected by their lives.

Loan Sharks, Credit Unions and Justin Welby

“Walking up the shadowy, half-lit path towards the flat where we sat, he knocked on the door and entered.  He did not look round at the little group of people sitting in the room.  Instead his gaze went straight toward the older lady in the wheelchair by the door. She felt for her purse and handed him some money. Then he was gone. “A while ago he lent me some money,” she explained. "Now I have to repay at 30-40% interest.”

‘Loan shark!’ I thought.  ‘What a beastly thing to do!  Preying upon the poor who find themselves in debt and then charging them exorbitant interest.'

In ancient Bible times God commanded His people never to charge interest on loans to their neighbours. Why? Because God is on the side of the disadvantaged, the poor and the destitute and is against all who oppress them. He does not want anyone to be short of food and the everyday things that are needful.  God says that when the poor cry to Him, He will hear for He is full of compassion towards them (Exodus 22:25-27).


The above is an extract from my diary when I lived on the St Ann’s estate in Nottingham.  (I lived there for seven years: 2004-2011.) The woman mentioned did live in poverty and, no, she did no smoke, take drugs or for that matter drink alcohol to eat away her benefits.

 Middle-class people take some things for granted; an annual holiday (at least one), new furniture when the old gets scruffy, enough credit to pay the electricity bill, a car. Indeed, one middle-class colleague at the college where I worked made this comment to me when a fourteen year old girl, Danielle Beccan, got shot and later died whilst walking home one late evening from the Goose Fair: “Why didn’t her parents pick her up from the fair?" I looked at her, incredulity in my eyes. Most people I knew in St Ann’s did not have a car. In the close where I lived, only one person out of twenty-two, as I far as I knew, owned a car.

In the same year as I wrote this extract (2008), Nottingham City Homes, which manages council owned properties in Nottingham, published this statement: "Up to 10,000 households in the East Midlands are exploited by loan sharks each year. Loan sharks charge extremely high rates of interest and often use violence and intimidation and blackmail people who fall behind with payments.”
 
 I really welcome Justin Welby’s intervention in recent days, his support for credit unions* with their low interest rates, his offer of church property to house them and his encouragement to church members to offer their expertise in running the unions and so help the poor out of debt.  He’s siding with the poor. He’s standing in a great tradition.
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest.  If you take your neighbour’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, because that cloak is the only covering your neighbour has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.” Exodus 22: 25-27 NIV

*Credit unions are organisations offering financial services and are owned and run by their members for their members. Interest rates offered by credit unions are much lower than most loan companies.