Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a
four-part series on what journalists can learn from the leadership of
South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.
To appreciate Nelson Mandela’s achievements as a leader, one need only look across the South African border to the state of things in Zimbabwe. There another leader, Robert Mugabe, is presiding over the disintegration of a once-hopeful nation.
To be sure, South Africa in 2008 faces enormous challenges; some would argue its stability as a multi-racial society is very fragile. Rampant corruption, violent crime and a host of other social problems threaten to overwhelm the country’s government.
But South Africa has hope — a hope that springs from Mandela’s remarkable, and perhaps unique, understanding of what must happen for his country to be truly free. It is a hope that requires a leader to see beyond the obvious, and to help us see it, too. It is the kind of hope that all leaders — including those who lead journalists through these challenging times — need to offer their organizations. This is how Mandela explained his vision for South Africa in his memoir, Long Walk To Freedom:
It was during those long and lonely years (in prison) that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as sure as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken away from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say this has now been achieved. But I know that this is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed … For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.
Surely, Mandela would be remembered as one of history’s great leaders for helping to free his people from the oppression of apartheid. But what sets him apart from other liberators is his understanding that a more important goal lay beyond the obvious one. That’s why Mandela made racial reconciliation a cornerstone of South Africa’s new government. That’s why statues recalling the British colonial era and the regime of the segregationist Smuts still stand in the public spaces of Cape Town today — because for black South Africans to be truly free, they must live in a place where all people “respect and enhance the freedom of others.” White and black — people of all colors — must live together in peace, or in Mandela’s mind, no one is truly free.
I am reminded that on the eve of my arrival at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1982, the Philadelphia Bulletin — the city’s much respected evening newspaper –- announced it was ceasing publication. Evening newspapers were closing in many cities across America in those years, and in almost every case, the surviving newspaper responded the same way: open the bank vault and sweep up the profits.
The Inquirer did something different.
With the support of Jim Batten and the other Knight-Ridder leaders at that time, the Inquirer immediately expanded its news hole — by 28 percent on Day 1 — and began building a staff capable of providing “for the record” coverage of the eight-county Philadelphia region.
“We must fill the void left by the Bulletin,” executive editor Gene Roberts told us at the time.
For over a decade, the Inquirer had pursued an obvious goal: Survive the newspaper war. But Roberts and his fellow leaders knew that survival was just the beginning. Being the only major metro newspaper didn’t guarantee Philadelphia excellent journalism — and that was the real goal. Achieving that would require further investment and a long-term commitment to excellence.
Am I the kind of leader who sees beyond the obvious goal?
For example, the obvious goal is: (Pick one)
- Get the breaking story covered
- Increase circulation
- Win the ratings sweepstakes in my time slot
- Build online ad revenue
- Create an interactive Web site
Achieving any of these goals might get you promoted, and in these challenging days, would be a credit to your competence. But are these goals ends unto themselves? Or can I see a greater goal beyond these?
Am I, as an assigning editor, satisfied with covering as many stories as I can, accurately and in a timely fashion? Or do I aspire to something bigger: offering my audience a sense of what the news means?
Am I, as a media leader, interested in attracting traffic to my Web site in order to build advertising revenue? Or am I focused on establishing my company as the most credible source of information for my community?
Am I, a news organization leader, leading a staff that is focused on building a great media company — or a great community?
Achieving the obvious goal is important. Great leaders help us understand that having done that, our work is just beginning.
Am I that kind of leader?
