Wang 1

Meredith Wang

Professor James McDougall

ENGCNP152-Section 8

25 October 2021

Needed Characteristics to Become an Effective Leader（comment version）

TITLE
“The bell sound marks the signal of returning home. In his life, there were highs and

lows. The meaning of black skin to him was lifetime dedication…”." That's a line from the

band Beyond made for President Mandela. So today, I will analyze the characteristics that an

efficient leader needs from based on the movie Invictus and combine them with my personal

experience. And I believe that is to envision, engage, enable, execute.

Envision

The movie Invictus's storyline was in the late 1990s when the conflict between two

races in South African became more and more fierce. And after Mandela became the

president, the black people had an even stronger aversion to the white people. But at that

freezing point, the national rugby team was entirely made up of white people. Thus, a feeling

of resisting the rugby sport began to crystalize among the black people. But Mandela did not

regard this team as a symbol of racial discrimination; on the contrary, he treated it as a

precious opportunity to cohere the black and the white people. He grabbed the stage of rugby

and the world cup and saw the political value behind the rugby. So, he supported the rugby

team to go deep into the South African children and visit foreign rugby teams as the South

African national rugby team. Thanks to his foresight and dedication, the rugby team finally

became a bond that connected South African black and white people.
 Wang 2

Many people could not understand why Mandela did so at that time. According to the

black people, he could dismiss the rugby team, for it was regarded as a symbol of racial

discrimination. And that will surely please the black people in South Africa, thus, President

Mandela will be able to consolidate his regime. But Mandela did not do so. Instead, he

envisioned the magnificent political opportunity behind that. He did not chase the immediate

interest but the long-term interest. This foresight made him the most effective and efficient

leader ever in South Africa.

The ability to envision is always an essential characteristic for an individual if he wants

to be a good leader. It acquires leaders to focus on the external demands, have a clear sight of

the situation, and find the very reason for the problem. Setting a foresight goal and a long-

term strategy that can be a game-changer is also indispensable. I believe our headmaster in

high school was such a person that can envision. Most of the high schools did not let students

rest until Sunday because of the heavy schoolwork. But our headmaster gave us a two-day-

off every week. Because she thought that students could have a good grade only if, students

could rest well. And that worked because our school's university enrollment rate was always

the highest in town. And that thanks to our headmaster’s foresight. It seemed that only one

day off every week could let students have more time to study, but the fact was that their

study efficiency would significantly decrease. Such decisions were made by a short-sighted

leader that only chases short-term benefit. So that’s why I say the ability to envision is pretty

crucial for a effective and efficient leader.

Engage

The ability to engage is made up of two key components, dedication and cooperation.
 Wang 3

“Be united” is a thesis that runs through the Invictus. When Mandela was in prison, he used

all the forms that he could use to fight against the white regime that controlled his

motherland. When he got out of jail and became the president, he was even more engaged in

eliminating the discrimination between the black and the white people. When Mandela's

black supporters wished to replace the national rugby team through a vote, Mandela came to

the site hurriedly to interrupt this behaviourbehavior that might cause conflict between the

black and the white people. And that acquired lots of determination to cooperate and tolerate.

To be engaged, a leader needs to think from two aspects, human and resource. When it

comes to building an ally, a good leader needs to respect and cooperate with the stakeholders,

such as the white people in Invictus. Furthermore, settle the disagreement constructively to

reach the conjoint goal, settle the discrimination in South Africa, for example. My group

leader during the National Teenager Innovation Match was a marvellousmarvelous leader that

was remarkably "engaged." When we hit the bottleneck, he reached out to other groups and

knew exactly how to cooperate reasonably with others. What's more, he also made a

considerable dedication to our work. So, an effective and efficient leader must learn how to

be well engaged.

Enable

A good leader should “enable” his teammates, which means that leaders should know

how to make their teammates perform the best of themselves. In the Invictus, Mandela shared

his own leadership story with Pienaar, who already had the leadership capacity to make

Pienaar have the best condition to lead the rugby team. What is more, Mandela kept teaching

his secretary Brenda lessons to make independent decisions when he was absent.
 Wang 4

An effective and efficient leader can enable his teammates in many aspects, and

through many means, the leader must know his teammates well and discover the shining

point of every teammate and help his teammates to make the sharp point even brighter

accordingly. That is what we call an enabling leader. Proper inspiration also enables the

teammates. For instance, before Mandela met with the rugby team, he remembered all the

teammates' names. Thus, all the teammates felt that they were essential and were willing to

obey Mandela. In the latter world cup match, they all reached beyond their limits and won the

cup. Their winning was significantly related to Mandela's enabling.

Our monitor was such a person that knew how to enable others, like Mandela. She

knew exactly how to make we classmate to give the best of us. She could always find certain

students that were good at one specific subject, and then she asked them to provide us with a

lecture in the classroom. On the one hand, those students who gave the speech would develop

reasonable confidence and explore further in this subject. On the other hand, the classmates

could learn a lot from their address. Thus, our class’s average grade was always the top in

school. One can easily tell that enabling the teammates is essential for a leader to be effective

and efficient.

Execute

A good leader must have an efficient execution. If a leader wants to execute well and

efficiently, it needs two major steps. First, leaders should build a clear expectation of the team

and the individuals. For instance, Mandela’s expectation towards the national rugby team is

to bond between the black and the white people. And his expectations towards the Pienaar

were that Pienaar should lead his rugby team well and win the world cup championship.
 Wang 5

Secondly, leaders should set feasible plans to reach that expectation. For instance, after

Mandela decided to use the rugby team as a conductor to build a new, racial-integration South

Africa, he informed Pienaar immediately and came up with a plan called "One Team, One

Country." Soon after Mandela created the program, Pienaar led his rugby team to the slum

and taught the kids how to play rugby. And that worked very well.

These two essential steps are indispensable, if one fails to achieve any single one, then

he/she cannot have an efficient execution. What is more, a good leader should set up an

example. For example, when it came to morning exercise, Mandela was “On time like a

clock.”, all these behaviors set up excellent standards for his men. One student in my high

school who was in charge of the studies of the class had such efficient execution. At the

beginning of the semester, he would always make a detailed study plan for the whole class,

and for those whose grades were not so well, he would make a personalized study plan for

those individuals. And he also worked very hard and set up an excellent example for us. The

whole class’s study stayed efficient and outstanding under his lead.

Conclusion

So, based on Mandela from the movie Invictus and my personal experience, I believe

that a good and effective and efficient leader should know how to envision, engage, enable,

execute. One can be a reasonably effective and efficient leader if he has all these

characteristics.