Background Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, Qunu in 1923. He was born into to the Royal Family of the Xhosa tribe. His royal stature was not what one would expect. His childhood home did not have electricity or even running water. He worked as a herd-boy herding cattle while growing up. His non-luxurious upbringing allowed him to learn some very valuable life lessons. During this time, one of the more important lessons and future teachings Nelson Mandela learned was that he believed to best help and guide followers is to give them direction not to control them. Mandela would stand at the back of the herd to get the cattle to move. He was guiding the herd by giving them direction and allowing the herd to move for themselves(Gray 51).

Not all of Mandela’s leadership skills were self taught. He also learned many lessons from being led. Chief Jongintaba, who led the Thembu tribe, was Mandela’s guardian. Mandela observed that when the Chief would conduct meetings, he would not allow the meeting to end until everyone expressed their opinion and spoke their mind. Mandela learned another key lesson from these meetings, which was to “listen in thoughtful silence” before speaking aloud(Gray 53). This means that the best time to speak is at selected times, intermittently. At these selected times, he would then only speak enough to keep the consensus.

Mandela’s amazing ability for silence came with a lot of practice and self discipline. Due to his violent acts against the government in 1960, Mandela received a 27 year sentence in a South African prison for sabotage . This gave him plenty of time to think about himself, his ideas and to plan for the future. Mandela also completed his Bachelor of Law, which he began before he was sent to prison, through correspondence. This was a great demonstration of his persistence and ability to face obstacles