It’s time for a leadership revolution
This piece first appeared on Medium on the 16th of December 2021.
The climate emergency. An epidemic of violence against women and girls. Racism. A global hunger crisis. A pandemic still claiming lives around the world. This year has been full of yet more reminders of just how urgent the work of repair and renewal is in our hurting world. This is the decisive decade — the one where humankind chooses whether we want a fair, liveable future on a safe planet or whether we want to continue on a path that depends on our exploitation of one another and of nature. The nature of climate science means we have fewer choices this year than last and fewer still than the one before that. We are running out of time to get this right so it is worth being blunt: the future depends on the quality of our collective leadership and we aren’t good enough to win right now.
Earlier this year I was honoured to speak at the launch of Poles Apart, the book by Alison Goldsworthy, Laura Osborne and Alexandra Chesterfield and was asked to share my thoughts about a time I’d changed my mind (the theme of their great podcast). The format of the night was the terrifying PechaKucha — 20 slides for 20 seconds each. The photograph is of my notes for the final few slides but the basic thrust of the talk was an invitation to the audience — activists, funders, social entrepreneurs — to think about whether we are being as generous and focused with our leadership as these times demand. It’s easy to point fingers but are we all reflecting on our own role and obsessing about how to bring the best of ourselves in this movement moment?
I’ve spent much of this year collaborating with colleagues working on nature, climate, Covid, gender justice and international development as part of Crack the Crises, a coalition bringing together organisations representing more than 12 million people, and it is striking how few changemakers think we are currently more than the sum of our parts and have the right level of ambition and urgency among our leadership.
It’s become quite common in social change circles to shy away from acknowledging that there even are leaders in our work or to downplay their role lest it enable the kind of toxic behaviour that’s harmed so many people. I used to agree — I spent a lot of my time in activism and in politics thinking only movements mattered — but here’s the place where I’ve changed my mind. I no longer believe only the conditions facing a collective matter and think individual leaders — their skills, strategic abilities and character — matter just as much. And I think until we grasp the need for a leadership revolution, we’re going to keep losing — and deserve to.
This doesn’t mean a return to an old model of singular, patriarchal leadership, but a new model fit for the 2020s. This new leadership will come from people who, in the words of the IPPR’s Making Change report, focus on the things that are in everyone’s interests but nobody’s job description. The people who realise that relationships are everything.
These new leaders will have to be obsessed with the mission — not the brands or funding of their organisations. The leaders we need are people with a calling not a career. People who are relentlessly focused on measurable, sustainable, equitable change and whose starting point is strategy and how to play their best part.
They’ll hold themselves accountable for victory — not vanity metrics like the size of their list or lead generation for fundraising. When they lose they’ll not rest until they understand why and when they win they will worry more about identifying the variables that led to victory than fighting for the credit.
They’ll want to talk with the country, not preach to the choir and will do work that’s depolarising by design. The leaders of the 2020s will know that their job is to end the culture wars, not to win them, and they’ll build broad and unusual coalitions that can build 21st century solidarity.
And above all they will act like trustees of our movement — always thinking about the other leaders they can develop and where every single hour and pound is best spent. You’ll know them because they regularly make introductions, pass the mic and build movement infrastructure for us all.
That’s the leadership revolution I think we need. But if I’ve learnt anything in the last quarter century of campaigning, it’s that I get it wrong again and again and again. This might be one of those times so I’d love to know if I haven’t changed your mind and if so why not. But if I’m right, I think every single one of us needs to ask if this is how we are showing up and, if not, what we can do to support those who are. So let me end where I started. We’re not good enough to win today. It’s up to each of us to decide whether we will be tomorrow.