A Leader’s Legacy

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

It’s easy to be a leader when things are going well, but it is how we lead our teams under pressure and react in times of crisis, when projects are going wrong, that defines us. The world lost a great leader with the passing of Nelson Mandela, but what he taught us can last forever.

When I was growing up in England in the 70s I saw the t-shirts that said “Free Nelson Mandela” long before I understood the meaning of the message. Four decades later, the world is coming to terms with the fact that Nelson Mandela is no longer with us, and I can’t let that monumental event pass without attempting to pay a suitable tribute to the man. I am not an overly political person, and I cannot begin to do justice to his achievements as a statesman, but he was a great leader of people, and that’s what this series of articles is about, so that’s where I want to focus.

I don’t think that there will ever be a definitive answer about what specifically made Mandela a great leader.  When I spoke to people in preparation for his article they pointed to his ability to forgive those who had been the cause of his suffering, and of course that is one of the things that made him great in the eyes of the world. However, he was a leader long before that — he had a leadership position in the powerful youth wing of the African National Congress in 1948. Part…

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