Mal Fletcher

A few years ago, at a rally organised by the Make Poverty History campaign, Nelson Mandela said: 'Sometimes, it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.'

In using the word 'generation' he was not, of course, referring to a specific age demographic. He was laying down a challenge to people of all ages, from all walks of life and ethnic groups.

Years later, the challenge carries even greater import. If this generation is to achieve any kind of greatness, it will need to wrestle with enormous global challenges and make the most of unprecedented opportunities.

Research into group dynamics reveals that human cultures have a strong impact on individual choice. Being social creatures, even the most individualistic of us will temper our choices to fit in with the accepted norms of the groups to which we belong.

Cultures shape choices and human choices are the stuff that makes tomorrow.

It is not technology that shakes the future; neither is it events, even wildcard - low probability, high impact - events. It is human responses to technology and events that will decide whether our future is a great one or something less.

This is where leadership is so important, for leaders build and reinforce positive and proactive cultures. The challenges of today and tomorrow will call for nothing less than Mandela-style leadership.

Of course, the former South African president was unique in our time. We are not all called to be global icons. Neither, thankfully, are we forced to endure the oppression and imprisonment that shaped this great man. But we can develop some of the skills Mandela used to articulate a vision for his nation and to marshal the kind of support that moved that vision forward.

Here are some key principles we need to adopt to achieve that goal:

Respond with More Grace Than You Are Shown.

For all of his many achievements, the one for which Mandela was possibly most lionised was his preternatural ability to forgive.

In the movie Invictus, which reveals much about the early days of Mandela's presidency, the captain of the South African rugby team is played by Matt Damon. In one scene, his girlfriend remarks on how it is amazing that the team has achieved a place in the World Cup final, against all odds. 'No,' says the captain, 'what's amazing is that a man can spend almost 30 years in a tiny cell and then manage to forgive those who put him there.'

For many people the world over it was Mandela's grace under pressue that inspired the most.

Mandela's forgiveness on release from prison showed that he was much less a prisoner than most of the apartheid authorities had been. He proved on Robben Island that you can be enslaved in body while free in mind and spirit.