By Neil Patrick
The passing of Nelson Mandela has already prompted millions of words in tribute to his accomplishments. It has also led to all sorts of petty squabbles on internet forums, about everything from racism, to the legitimacy of the ANC’s terrorist activities to his personal life.
I have no intention of starting any debates here about any of these things. I feel it's much more constructive to talk about what his life can teach the rest of us.
The world has lost one of its most charismatic and inspirational figureheads. Nelson Mandela was a great man. He was also an imperfect man, born into a very imperfect world.
It's a simple fact of life that none of us are perfect. And our pasts are a cocktail of successes and failures. But in the eyes of those whose professional business it is to make judgement about others, imperfections, deviations and failures are often used in the calculation of our future value and potential.
Despite being frequently attributed to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, it was originally the Cherokee tribe of Native Americans, who said, 'Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes'.
Nelson Mandela spent a total of 27 years in prison. He emerged without a trace of bitterness towards his captors. In later life he always looked for the best in people, even defending political opponents to his allies, who sometimes thought him too trusting of others.
Mandela was a devout believer in democracy and would abide by majority decisions even when deeply disagreeing with them. He held a conviction that inclusivity, accountability and freedom of speech were the fundamentals of democracy, and was driven by a belief in natural and human rights.
His achievements and personal qualities have elevated him to the level of a saint in the eyes of many. But he was characteristically modest about his accomplishments, saying "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."
Another legend, Walt Disney was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1920 when his biggest client went bust. However, after few years, Walt launched a new company and created Mickey Mouse in 1928, which brought him financial freedom.
If we take anyone’s past record and assign it any importance as an indicator of the future, we are failing to understand that what people do is the outcome of a complex and unique blend of time, place, circumstance, personality, learning, aspirations, beliefs and options.
It’s a common notion that ‘past actions are the best indicator of future performance’. It may well be that people's basic characters do not change much. But character interacts with all the other situational factors to produce differing outcomes. In other words, put the same person in a different environment and a different outcome is more or less guaranteed.
So here’s the point. If we are to try and judge others, we’d better have a really good understanding of every aspect of their life history. If we don’t, our judgements cannot be reliable.
Just consider the common practices involved in recruiting people. The application pile is quickly reduced by rapid scanning to a small pile of 'best fits'. Average time spent - about 10 seconds per resume.
These remaining resumes are then examined forensically to try and find grounds to diminish an applicant’s suitability. Answers to interview questions are scrutinised to try and see if they reveal shortcomings. Ridiculous surrogates are used to try and assess an individual’s character, like their handshake or details of their hair and clothing.
How would Nelson Mandela stack up against these sorts of measurements?
“Mr Mandela, we've been looking at your application for the post of President of South Africa. Have you had any previous experience of being a national leader?”
“Could you tell me about a situation in which you had to overcome opposition to your ideas and how you went about it?”
“We operate a strict policy that all heads of state should have a clean police record. Have you ever been in trouble with the police or convicted of any offence?”
The future performance of an individual will be determined as much or more by the circumstances and experiences they have in the future as it will be by what has gone before.
The past is not a reliable predictor of the future.
And if organisations want to attract and keep the best people, they've got to try much harder to provide the conditions that allow their people to flourish. Create the right culture and environment and everyone performs better than they have ever done before.
The HR agenda should worry less about pseudo-scientific psychological evaluation and much more about how the daily work experience and environment equips and encourages people to be the best they can be.
Unless you are lucky enough to hire someone like Nelson Mandela who is so special, that punishment motivates them to do their greatest work. But you won't, because people like Nelson Mandela won't pass your screening process.
