Tipping Point: Mandela-isms Part 3

Mandela's Rule Number 3

Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front.

Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. 

"You know, you can only lead them from behind."

Mandela often called meetings in his home in an old suburb of Johannesburg.  He would gather around the dining room table or 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.

Whe he finally did speak at those meetings, he slowly and methodically summarized everyone's points of view and t

hen unfurled his own thoughts,

subtly steering the decision in the direction he wanted,

without imposing it.

The trick of leadership is allowing 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."

For you:

Listening as a Tipping Point...

Summarizing as a Tipping Point...

Letting Yourself be Led as a Leader as a Tipping Point...

Letting Others Own the Idea as a Tipping Point...

What would these give you?  What could you accomplish if...