There are leadership traits portrayed in the movie Invictus. A leader should be able to inspire not only his subjects but also other people perceived to be in other leadership positions. In their conversation, Mandela is asking the rugby captain his philosophy on leadership. He goes ahead to point out that one needs to figure out how he can inspire himself and the people around him. This gives an impression that to Mandela, inspiration is key when it comes to leadership matters. Strategies, practices, and skills are rendered fruitless if the aspirations of leaders and their constituents are not understood ( Kouzes, 2011). Another leadership trait has been exemplified through Francois on how he relates with his players. Asked about his leadership philosophy, the coach states that his best definition of a leader is one who leads by example. Through action, he motivates his rugby players upon realizing that he commands home support across all races. Leadership traits are noticeable in the two characters when they portrayed a sense of commitment by standing tall despite the whole country being skeptical about the unity of blacks and whites who have been in racial antagonism for more than 50 years.
The main characters have both portrayed leadership traits. As seen from Mandela and Pienaar, there is the sense of leadership marked by their commitment and passion in seeing into it that they stop racial adversities faced by South Africans. This could be seen when both characters meet in the field together to celebrate the hardly achieved victory claimed by Springboks in the rugby competition. According to Mandela, the essence of leadership relies on the ability of a person to inspire first himself, then discharge inspiration to the people around him. When talking to the rugby captain in his office, the leader asked the captain about his facade in leadership quality. In which despite his response being satisfactory, he goes ahead to point out at inspiration as one of the rare qualities one can have.
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The remarkable leadership traits possessed by Mandela is delegation and empowerment. In the film Invictus, Mandela encouraged the national rugby team captain to win rugby as a measure to end cases of racism in South Africa ( López-Calvo, 2012). As seen in his conversation with Mandela, Francois was inspired together with the rugby team to the extent of visiting Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned during apartheid. The remarkable leadership trait for Francois is empathy. This is characterized by his visit to Robben Island prison. For Mandela, Invictus poem is about inspiration. In his conversation with Francois, he points out that when he was at the prison, it could reach a time when all he wanted to do was lie down. However, the poem made him withstand adversity and be inspired through its contents. For South Africans, the poem means creating a sense of sociological integration of people of different creeds and races through sports to bring nationalism and togetherness ( Assumpção et al, 2016). Unity is essential in Mandela’s leadership as it will prevent adversities looming in case of differences. As a concern to President Mandela upon his assumption to the office, he fears that the post-Apartheid era could bring violence among blacks and whites. Therefore, in order to prevent cases of racial insurgencies, it is of importance to see into it that there is unity among all South Africans.
Performance by the Springboks creates a lot of impact on different national institutions and schools in South Africa. It created an impression that through unity greater achievements could be realized. On matters of leadership, the performance of the team enlightens leaders on how they should go about decision making and judgment. It should be remembered that leaders style of conflict management is borne in their respective distinct cultures (Gelfand et al, 2012). We can draw leadership qualities of inspiration and motivation from the Invictus movie as these traits have been amicably portrayed in the success of the society.
References
Assumpção, L. O. T., da Silva, J. B. L., da Silva, N. B., & de França, N. M. (2016). Sports, Nationalism and Symbolic Efficiency: The Film Invictus. International Journal , 18 .
Gelfand, M. J., Leslie, L. M., Keller, K., & de Dreu, C. (2012). Conflict cultures in organizations: How leaders shape conflict cultures and their organizational-level consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology , 97 (6), 1131.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2011). Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
López-Calvo, I. (2012). Peripheral transmodernities: South-to-south intercultural dialogues between the Luso-Hispanic world and 'the Orient' . Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Pub.
