To see the world in a grain of sand,
And heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
— William Blake

Although William Blake may have been inspired by something other than moral leadership, his poem expresses the best that leadership can achieve to renegotiate reality:

The microcosm and detail of a grain of sand could stand for a leader’s keen understanding of the global relevance of particular social problems and the connection of individuals in a network. Heaven in a wildflower parallels ability to see the beauty and potential in a thing that grows wild, like talent, chaos and ideas. All time sits there in the hand, suggesting imagination and perspective about world systems in a mind that can readily engage those capabilities. Such accomplishment in action that an hour is as precious as eternity.

Recrafting reality means standing for moral convictions even when mistakes or backlashes can lead to brutal consequences. In Robert Coles’ book Lives of Moral Leadership, Men and Women who Have Made a Difference, a janitor-turned-bus driver in Boston rose to the challenge of fighting segregation in education, though he risked being beaten. He could sleep at night and look himself in the mirror knowing his actions were elevating more than his busload of black schoolchildren. As he grew into his new leadership role, he shared, “It’s important to be busy, but if you don’t find the time to change the world, then you’re busy keeping it the way it is.”

Source: The Guardian

In the public eye, a figure that characterized moral leadership was Nelson Mandela, whose leadership of black South Africans and negotiation with white Afrikaaners dramatically changed the social landscape of the southern tip of Africa. He could harness popular anger to direct social capital at strategic targets, showed rare courage and self-sacrifice, had moral authority and credibility, displayed pragmatism about the current reality and used vision to shape the future. His prestige and wide social network gave him leverage to demand the release of all his ANC constituent prisoners, and his cross-cultural fluency facilitated friendship with the white government’s chief negotiator. In other words, he shaped the desired future social structure as a designer would. He communicated his insights about the shortcomings of the apartheid reality as a teacher. He served the people’s goals faithfully and released talent and energy as a steward. 

Something like integrated thinking and adaptive capacity lent Mandela a hand. Mandela the political prisoner did have ironically fortuitous distance from the fray of ethnic violence and time to reflect on his country: the points that he could leverage, the leaps of imagination to demand the impossible, and the systems that influence and control the human capabilities of his people. In his cell he was not so removed, however, that he lacked an accurate picture of reality—prison guards and visiting government officials performed similar roles in his decades in prison that the white elite played over the general populace during centuries. With sources of power and influence and an understanding of reality intact, his actions and logical arguments at formal and informal negotiating tables found resonance with followers and detractors. He could think and adapt, creating zones of agreement where none had been, through a combination of flexibility and firmness, listening and articulating.

Thus, what happened in South Africa and what should happen wherever and whenever moral leadership takes place is primarily learning and teaching, along lines of interrelationships and social networks, where trust and information flow. Moral leadership emphasizes the relationships that form the basis of leadership, when motivations of leaders and followers merge.  Acting for vital change, leader-follower is a symbiotic relationship—sustainable and evolving purposefully beyond single transactions. Therefore the best leadership shares the tasks and encourages leadership by everyone, concurrently releasing people’s talent and energy.  After all, there is more than enough hard work to go around.

Because moral leaders mobilize and lift groups to new capabilities, leaders’ individual charms and peculiarities can get lost in the historical significance of what they have accomplished by seeing the world in a grain of sand. The personalities involved in such leadership have a profound impact on the process and outcome of campaigns. As leadership theorist James MacGregor Burns notes, “Leadership in the shaping of private and public opinion, leadership of reform and revolutionary movements—that is, transformational leadership—seems to take on significant and collective proportions historically, but at the time and point of action leadership is intensely individual and personal.” The individual that intuitively galvanizes, prods and triggers in her or his particular way changes what people are capable of achieving. Moral leadership takes as many faces as there are personalities designing, teaching and stewarding positive change. Seemingly ordinary people gripped by conviction can accomplish extraordinary change.

I wrote this as an essay for a class on leadership in the face of conflict with Professor Hannah Riley Bowles at the Harvard Kennedy School. In the week after Nelson Mandela’s death, it feels like we are all South Africans for a while.

My colleague Cheryl shared yesterday:

The greatness of Nelson Mandela extended to the woman at his side. His wife Graca Machel was a fearless freedom fighter & humanitarian in her own right and is the only person in history to be the first lady of 2 different African countries. I'm praying for her and the whole Mandela family. Here's a quote from Machel:

"It is the meaning of what my life has been since youth, to try to fight for the dignity and the freedom of my own people. Therefore my challenge to each of you ... is that you ask yourself what you can do to make a difference. And then take that action, no matter how large or how small. For our children have a right to peace."

We give you a moving Hip Hop Tribute to Nelson Mandela from a friend Cheryl admires, the incomparable Jasiri Xtra — a music video that will rock you: