Leadership Platform has interviewed and profiled hundreds of top leaders from many walks of life. We have been able to engage average leaders, good leaders, great leaders, and the very rare exceptional leader. It is he last that I wish to refer to today. To begin this second instalment of our You(th) the Leader series, please answer the following questions: Do you want to be exceptional? And then, because this is a leadership page, do you want to be an exceptional leader? Your answer for both is probably a yes. Truth be told, you cannot be one without the other.

Mark Cutifani leads AngloGold Ashanti, a gold company that has presence in twenty five countries. It is the most globally spread and balanced gold company in the world, with approximately 63 000 employees, half of whom are in South Africa. They generate about $9 billion revenue a year, with approximately $3bn cash with which to pay dividends, capital, etc. What they do is technically not simple as they mine some of the deepest mines in the world. There are challenges like safety, environmental management, community relationships, and a whole range of other complexities.

BRLP: Tell us something interesting about your childhood that helped prepare you for leadership Cutifani: I was born and raised in an industrial town just south of Sydney where coal mining was prevalent. I am a product of a mixed family. My father was Italian, a migrant at about nineteen years of age and he couldn’t speak a word of the language. My mother is from an Irish background but Australian born. Her family owned pubs. So you had a young Italian migrant and an Australian girl with an Irish background. Quite a volatile paring.

For a seamless leader, repetition is a core element in the development of character and leadership competence. No skill of real value is possessed without the application of much repetition. Every skill we learn is the result of practice and experience. Think of learning to read and write, to drive a car, to speak a new language, to master a sport or to learn to paint. It is a human frailty to resent repetition. Without this ability we will not be able to reach our full potential. According to leadership psychologist, Colin Wilford, “all behaviour is made possible by a myriad of electrical pathways in the brain. As we learn new tasks and make them habits we create a new sequence of electrical impulses in the brain that continue to follow the same pathway in the same order. Changing the pathways/habits once set is not easy, but it is refreshingly possible as we overcome our failings and turn them into strengths”.

...What our National Planning Commission is in effect telling us here is that we need to change the way we understand leadership and adopt what we have coined: Seamless Leadership; if we are to accomplish that which has been asked of us.  Why am I mentioning all this? Because a truly seamless society, lead by seamless leaders – whether in homes, businesses or civil society – depends to a large extent on how and what we are doing to develop those who will be present when 2030 arrives... To the youth: ...We are launching an initiative right here in The Star Workplace. We call it our “You(th) the Leader Series”. What we are going to give you once a month is a lesson in leadership...

The critical role that a seamless attitude plays in life was sharply brought home to me a week ago when we heard the distressing news that two sons of friends from the Eastern Cape had died in a plane crash. The two brothers were in fact participating in a final flight before the one brother was to qualify for his pilot’s licence. After we heard the news we phoned the mother of the two boys and it was an intensely emotional experience. Why mention this matter? Life is about attitude. It really is! Life is also about traumatic and painful experiences as indicated above. The workplace is filled with challenging situations. Nothing impacts more on personal happiness and leadership ability than a heritage of a positive and seamless attitude towards life in general and in particular towards our leadership role in the work place and in our families. What is a seamless attitude?