Lessons from Madeleine on grit, resilience

I have been re-reading Madam Secretary: A Memoir, the autobiography of Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State who died of cancer on Wednesday. As our foreign policy experts reflect on her leadership during the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Middle East, Kosovo and Haiti, I chose today to interrupt my ‘normal programming’ to honour a woman whose life, leadership and industry present significant learning moments.

“Madeleine wasn’t my original name,” she writes in her memoir. Born in Prague on May 15, 1937, Madeleine was born Marie Jana Körbel to two Czech refugees who were escaping the Nazi and communists. Her childhood, though toughened by the surrounding political environment, was anchored in her parents’ love and devotion. She would later come to learn the extent of the sacrifices and harrowing decisions her parents made to protect their family.

Madeleine’s ascent to become the first woman Secretary of State teaches young women a lot about grit, persistence and resilience. However, it was Madeleine’s capacity to remain comfortable and confident in her own skin that really stood out for me in her remarkable life.

Women in her position – and in leadership generally –are often tempted to conform to certain standards, pretend to be who they are not in order to fit in, or be accepted. They will often not remain true to themselves for fear of being judged and what others will say about them.

Not Madeleine. The moment she took up the assignment of Secretary of State, Madeleine did her job in her own unique way, in her own style, remaining true to herself, never ashamed or apologetic of her background, status or personality and became incredibly successful while at it.

Confident and self-assured

In her memoir, which is the closest we can get to her thoughts and heart, she acknowledges that the adjectives used to describe men (“confident, take-charge, committed”) were starkly different from those used to describe women exhibiting the same characteristics. Such women, instead of confident, take-charge and committed, were often described as “bossy, aggressive and emotional”.

While it was hard at first, to remain confident in who she was, Madeleine writes that she eventually “developed enough faith in my judgement to do my job in my own way and style, worrying at least a little less about what others thought”.

And she really did personalise the job. Whether it was through using jewelry – that is her famous elegant brooches – to convey messages on foreign policy or through public appearances to reassure the American public at the height of Soviet nuclear attacks, or by strolling through crowded cities, Madeleine Albright never contorted herself to meet other people’s expectations. She came as she was; you like her, you don’t like her, that was none of her business.

It is this confidence and self-assuredness that some of us wish to develop over time. This ability to self-embrace, have faith in yourself and bet on yourself would appear to be what made Madeleine the icon she was.

The writer is the Director, Innovation Centre, at Aga Khan University; [email protected]