The movie Invictus was a powerful movie that contained many valuable leadership lessons.

Throughout the movie Nelson Mandela embodied what it meant to be “a [servant] leader whose primary purpose for leading is [was] to serve others by investing in their development and well being for the benefit of accomplishing tasks and goals for the common good” (Page & Wong, n.d., The Concept of Servant-Leadership section, para. 4). At various points throughout the movie Mandela modelled all ten of the servant leader characteristics as identified by Spears (2010). He exercised these servant leader characteristics in tandem with transformational leadership principles and as a result, the entire nation of South Africa was transformed.

As an example, Mandela was a transforming leader because he had a clear, compelling vision (Northouse, 2016) of a united South Africa. He was sincerely committed to the growth of people as individuals because he knew that by investing in individuals they would begin to unite around this vision and therefore invest in it alongside him. This was demonstrated through his investment in Francois Pienaar. He wanted Pienaar grow in his own leadership, and as a result of Mandela’s encouragement and belief in him, Pienaar not only rose to the occasion and but began to invest in Mandela’s vision. This is a great example of what it can look like to be a transformational servant leader. The key lesson in this is that it is possible for a leader to unite followers around a common vision that produces lasting change, while not forgetting to engage with followers on a personal level and serve them so that they might also be transformed.

Mandela also modelled that character is central a leader’s effectiveness. Leaders can acquire competencies (Northouse, 2016), but “character refers to deep structures of personality that are particularly resistant to change” (Hillman, as cited in Spears, 2010, p. 26). Character can be seen as “consisting of 11 dimensions: integrity, humility, courage, humanity, drive, accountability, temperance, justice, collaboration, transcendence and judgment” (Gandz, Crossan, Seijts, & Reno, 2013, Leadership character dimensions section, para. 2). Judgement is central to a leaders character because the dimension a leader chooses to use in their response to a given situation is determined by their judgment (Gandz et al, 2013).

Mandela proves how important judgement is when he decides to go to the meeting where there is a vote on changing the name of the Springboks. He decides that the best approach is to use persuasion, instead of his positional authority (Spears, 2010), to convince the people not to change the name. He understood that keeping the name would be significant to uniting his country around their national rugby team, and that by uniting the country around a team, he would be able to unite them as people. The key lesson in this is that an effective transformational leader must possess strong character, specifically judgement, in order to determine the best course of action in a given situation.

As I reflect on the movie Invictus, I am reminded that leadership is multifaceted. In order to be an effective leader it is important that I remember to balance my own skills and character with my commitment to people and vision within my team.

References:

Eastwood, C. (Producer & Director). (2009). Invictus [Motion picture]. United States of America: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Gandz, J., Crossan, M., Seigts, G., & Reno, M. (2013, May/June). Leadership character and corporate governance. Reprinted in Ivey Business Journal [online]. Retrieved from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/leadership-character-and-corporate-governance/#_ftn1

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Page,D., & Wong, P. T. P. (n.d.). A conceptual framework for measuring servant-leadership. Retrieved from http://www.drpaulwong.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Conceptual-Framework.pdf

Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30. Retrieved from http://www.vizenllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CharacherAndServantLeadership.pdf