Invictus Paper

Title page

Communications for effective leadership

The film Invictus portrays Nelson Mandela as a leading character who possess certain leadership traits apparent in his presidency. Another prominent character who exhibits leadership qualities is Capitan of Springbok rugby team, Francois Pienaar. Both characters possess certain qualities that help them in attaining their independent goals. Mandala after spending 27 years in jail, becomes the first black president of South Africa. During his presidency he faced many challenges of post-Apartheid. Racial division between the black and whites, poverty and crime are central issued faced by him which require effective leadership skills. Irrespective of the complex situation, Mandela relies on his personality traits and skills for handling the situations tactfully. Francois is also motivated to become part of president’s mission of uniting the people. As a rugby team’s Capitan he uses his leadership attributes for facing the challenges and attaining the goal of uniting people of South Africa.

According to President Mandela, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman in this film, essence of leadership is to have faith in team and never giving up. His entire discussions with the rugby team capital revealed that he focused on uniting the team. His leadership emphasized on making things better than before. He focused on forgetting the past years of struggles and miseries because this was the only way of changing people for the better. He believed in optimism and keeping faith in self. Collective faith according to him was the biggest strength for attaining the goal of bringing progress in Africa. In the first meeting of Mandela with Francois he tells him the role of leader is to make the team believe that they can do anything. This reflects that the leadership of president stressed on ending hopelessness or negative feelings. In his meeting he also stated that a leader can make all horizons tangible. This reflects the focus of Mandela was to help Francois in realizing ways for achieving the impossible.

Analysis of the personality traits of Mandela depicts that he believed in equality. He exhibited a non-discriminatory leadership style by considering all humans equal. According to him color didn’t make people different because they share a strong bonding. He stood against the traditional stereotypes of classifying people according to race. The man promoted the model of social equality by treating all people equally irrespective of their color, race or ethnicities. This reflects that Mandela was working for a greater cause of removing disparity between whites and blacks. Another personality trait of Mandela depicts that he was courageous. He never feared to stand for a right cause and it becomes apparent in his presidency. He had recognized racial divide as the leading cause of poverty and social disparity CITATION Joh177 \l 1033 (Baldoni, 2017). He motivated people to stand together and bring change. This reflects Mandela was working for a great cause of bringing prosperity for the entire community. The role of coach is also visible as he guided François to fight and stand this last breadth. He inspired him to believe in future and work for the things that can be attained. The personality of Mandela also reveals that he believed on fighting for the right cause.

Good leadership of Mandela and Francois was the result of some important traits. Effective communications is the primary leadership skills which is apparent in the roles of Mandela and Francois. Mandela adopted appropriate communication skills for spreading his message of uniting the region. He managed to talk to the people in meetings which helped in understanding the root cause of divide. Analysis of Mandela’s personality depicts that he adopted transformative leadership style. This allowed him to tell people to change according to the situations for achieving success and making best out of the worst. The philosophy of Mandela also reveals that he empathized on changing the people. He stated that it is the people who change not the organizations. He explained to Francois about changing the behaviors for attaining the desired outcomes. Both Mandela and Francois stressed on making real change. This was apparent in Mandela’s discussion when he instruct Francois about sharing individual aspirations with the team. Francois during his captaincy encouraged the people to change their behaviors and follow plans for making real change. His important contribution was to remove unequal treatment towards players for their color. Good leadership of Francois was due to his active listening. When he was having a meeting with president he listened all the points and kept in memory.

The personality traits of François depicts that he focused on setting an example for the team. His efforts were aiming as giving a role model to the team members. The rugby team was the example of racism because white players were exhibiting supremacy CITATION Joh177 \l 1033 (Baldoni, 2017). Francois presented him agenda of treating players equally and encouraged them by doing the same thing. He possessed the leadership trait of motivating the people by showing them direction. When the team was losing hope, he gave them inspiration and hope for fighting till the end. Team-work was the philosophy of Francois as a rugby team Capitan. He throughout the film kept on telling team to work together and have faith in unity. He had realized that unity will guarantee success. He thus worked to build positive relationship among team members by ending inequality and bias.

Invictus for Mandela was “to do the unexpected”. This was because Mandela has realized that the conditions of Africa didn’t changed for a very long history so his mission faced challenges. Irrespective of all the challenges he believed on doing the unexpected. He focused on seeking new ways and innovative ideas for attaining goals. What people desire doesn’t always work so he adopted a realistic approach. The poem according to Mandela means achieving the unconquerable, unattainable. The poem was the source of encouragement because it gave him hope and courage. Invictus meant to work with hope and faith for ending miseries in post-Apartheid. On a larger perspective Invictus was the struggle for changing Africa by bringing prosperity and peace to all. Invictus means to South Africa as a nation to find hope even in the darkest times. The poem helped them to stay united and keep their spirits high.

Team performance can affect larger institutions that may be schools or nation. This is because unity is the strongest thing that can allow people to bring change by ending corruption or injustice. This performance can also be transcended in the form of leadership at schools by encouraging students to stay united. Leadership can bring change by ending disparity among poor and rich, black and white. This is a practical way of ending social inequality and injustice from society.

Invictus is a good film that served as a guiding light for many leaders who are struggling to change the world such as by ending racism. The leaders can adopt the principles and leadership traits portrayed in the film such as ‘transformational leadership style’ and ‘building effective relationship’ with the public. Leaders by acting as role models will play better role because this will help them in convincing people to stay united and end hatred.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Baldoni, J. (2017). Five leadership lessons from 'Invictus' . Retrieved 12 18, 2019, from http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/leadership_playlist/2009/12/five-leadership-lessons-from-invictus.html