Invictus: Lessons Learned

(1) The leadership of both Mandela and Francois in Invictus was particularly exemplary of the importance of guiding, rather than blinding following, the desires and beliefs of constituents. Even though the people voted to restructure and change the name of South Africa’s rugby team, Mandela stepped in to offer them the information and views they lacked in their initial decision making process. Rather than bending to their hasty and overly passionate intuitions, Mandela influenced and led his people to a more beneficial option. Because he had a central purpose in mind, Mandela was able to guide his constituents away from impulsive action based on intrinsic feelings and towards a more long-term, constructive decision for the common good – upholding the nation’s rugby team and helping it transform from a symbol of oppression into an emblem of unity. Similarly, Francois held firm to this same bigger purpose rather than getting caught up in the emotions of his fellow teammates, helping move the team towards a positive end goal rather than towards self-destructive prejudice. As captain, Francois showed his reluctant teammates the importance of singing the national anthem and participating in community service; although inconvenient and time consuming, Francois knew these tasks were imperative to positively rebuilding the team’s image and reconnecting the nation on the precipice of divide. Francois and Mandela’s leadership both incorporated a common thread: holding on to an overarching vision, rather than personal beliefs, in guiding and directing people towards a better tomorrow.

(2) I have encountered a number of ethical leadership dilemmas in my community, particularly:

·      My sophomore year, the beginning of my shoulder injury forced me to pull out of a relay I was in at the States meet. In choosing a replacement, my coach faced a dilemma: choose the next fastest swimming for this position, a freshman, or choose a swimmer who, although slower, was a senior – this would be her last meet ever. My coach put the senior girl in my place instead of choosing a replacement based on speed.

·      When my high school got a new headmaster, she asked our school paper for prior review, meaning that she would have the right to edit and omit articles before we published anything. In MA, this is illegal if done in a public school unless the paper gives consent. We had to decide between keeping the peace with someone very powerful or maintaining our paper’s complete integrity as an open and uncensored forum. We ended up denying prior review.

·      In math class, our teacher gave us a problem that was intentionally almost impossible to solve as extra credit. However, almost half the class turned in almost identical, and completely correct, proofs. Our math teacher recognized the proof from an online website, which meant that some of these answers could have been the result of cheating, especially due to its difficulty. She had to decide between believing that no one cheated and giving credit or nulling the assignment and giving no one credit for the problem; she chose the latter.

Miriam El-Baz