Dr. Barbara Ransby wrote, in a piece titled “Ella Taught Me: Shattering the Myth of the Leaderless Movement:”
“Leadership and organizing cannot be simply tweeted into existence. Movement-building is forged in struggle, through people building relationships within organizations and collectives.”
She further elaborated on civil rights legend Ella Baker’s legacy to explain:
Those who romanticize the concept of leaderless movements often misleadingly deploy Ella Baker’s words, "Strong people don’t need [a] strong leader." Baker delivered this message in various iterations over her 50-year career working in the trenches of racial-justice struggles, but what she meant was specific and contextual. She was calling for people to disinvest from the notion of the messianic, charismatic leader who promises political salvation in exchange for deference. Baker also did not mean that movements would naturally emerge without collective analysis, serious strategizing, organizing, mobilizing and consensus-building.
These words of wisdom and depth have greatly influenced and guided me as I continue to navigate my own role in helping chart a New Way in our politics.
In an era of personality-driven everything, what does it look like to build a movement? How do we balance the need for exposure, fundraising, media and “reach” with the grounded truths leaders like Baker, Ransby and Fannie Lou Hamer have taught us?
What I’ve concluded, and am acting on as we build the New Way Politics Leadership Network, our spring Summit and our plans for 2024 and beyond, is the following:
Leaders are absolutely critical and necessary. In some movements we are seeing a pendulum swing away from “leadership” and toward a sort of “collectivism” as a rejection of certain unhealthy realities such as inequity, lack of diversity, shallow social-media driven work and legitimate leadership abuses. This is a mistake.
We have to build diverse rooms. Don’t organize events and manage relationships in such a way that favors “elites.” In order to stay grounded, equitable, diverse and authentic, include people who are truly leaders but who may not have “platforms” or “influence.”
For impact, Lead the Leaders. In order to grow a movement and not just convene people, assume that everyone, from the biggest name to the newest organizer, needs to grow and will benefit from being led and fed. Pour into them.
Now, let’s unpack these a bit, with some real life examples that apply to everything from a local city council campaign to building a national brand and network.
Leaders are Absolutely Critical and Necessary
Here’s how I define a movement: A group of people, with leaders and shared purpose, who work together to bring about lasting change.
But how do we do this? What steps do we take? And most importantly for us at New Way Politics, what kinds of people do we need to assemble to see the change we desire become reality?
If you’re someone with passion and a desire to improve your neighborhood or the lives of those around you, create new things or even change the course of history, these are questions you have to wrestle with. I know. I have wrestled deeply with these questions.
My journey to understand movements came as a result of my deep longing to see one emerge here in America for a new way in our politics. When I was willing to step out and speak up, I began to see that indeed there were a whole bunch of other folks longing for this too. Then I realized how hard it was as I racked up tough losses over the subsequent years of trying to chart that new way in our politics. However, I’ve seen some wins too. Some progress. And most importantly, there has been a community emerging.
Others have been seeing this hunger for a new politics too, but no one had seemed to have a framework, a vocabulary or a way of interacting that is truly constructive to bring it all together. We’ve tried. But everyone was also reacting to the realities on the ground, so to speak, in the form of a presidential race, a rogue legislature or a news cycle. Actually building something durable and forward-thinking is very difficult.
Many of us know how to create or step into a moment but we find ourselves deeply disappointed when that moment fails to become a movement.
What this ultimately leads to is a lot of disparate, if well-intentioned efforts. Diffusion of resources. And worst of all, a lack of the truly creative and innovative collaboration for the good that is necessary to bring creative disruption and change where it’s needed.
This is where leaders must lead.
Unfortunately, many leaders lack a framework or language to think about true, constructive collaboration for the good. If you’re reading this, you’re a leader looking for change. This is why I started the New Way Politics Leadership Network: To give all types of leaders a framework and intentional gathering space for bringing lasting change to the world – or to your neighborhoods.
After all, as Ransby noted,
Many of our sisters and brothers are masterful users, but social media does not have magical powers. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are tools like any other invention. The printing press revolutionized movement-building and revolution-making. So did the radio, telephone, television, personal computer, cell phone and a whole variety of media.
Social media tools can lend themselves to many different—and contradictory—purposes. They can bring attention to injustice, communicate the logistics of demonstrations—and they can sell you just about any worthless new commodity on the planet. And while Twitter is a uniquely open platform to exchange ideas, argue, celebrate, commiserate and mobilize, a Twitter following does not take the place of an organization.
Or, I would add, of great leadership.
Build Diverse Rooms
One common tactic in politics and among political organizations, including my own, is to gather a group of serious, successful people and try to attach your work to them in the form of an advisory council or board. I have done this with my own version at New Way politics, who you can see below and for whom I’m deeply grateful. Their willingness to lend their names to this Network means so much.
But even as their prestige lends credibility, I remain committed to “building rooms” both virtual and in-person, which include lots of leaders who have yet to establish any big national footprint or accomplishments. Instead, I look for character traits, tangible results from their work, and a commitment to certain values.
Diversity, in this sense for me, is not just about race, gender or life situation - but also about where you stand on the long timeline of your own movement journey. This means including both young and inexperienced leaders. It means not allowing yourself to ignore a “smaller fish” when they are doing real things, even if it doesn’t fit your narrative. Sometimes, as my friend Matt Ulrich has said, you’re looking for those who are simply “hungry, faithful and fruitful.” Leaders like this will often move the ball further down the field than a more accomplished or notable leader simply because they have yet to be pulled in more directions than they can handle, or be bogged down by the responsibilities that come with increased notoriety.
What this means practically, for me, is that any “room” I build I try to invite in younger and less seasoned or flashy leaders but whose “fruit” I can easily see and know they’re getting things done. Three such leaders for me are Caroline Anderson, Leslie Villegas and Christian Fyke. None of them is likely known to you, has more than a few hundred social media followers or extensive “political” experience. But I’ve watched them closely as they’ve put in the work, learned, adjusted and borne the very real and most important fruit of movement building: more committed people joining and finding their place. They’ve made the calls, sent the emails, attended and organized the meetings and done so much to advance the causes they care about. I am so excited to be sharing a variety of “rooms” with them right now.
So, as we “build rooms” in our movement for a New Way in America, we have to be mindful of both types of diversity - that of backgrounds and that of stature. In this way, I believe we can preserve the critical and energizing nature of a flatter, more grassroots movement while also fully leveraging the great minds and experience that will help us grow more broadly.
For Impact, Lead the Leaders
Here’s an uncomfortable reality to speak in today’s hyper-sensitive culture: some people are not leaders. There are, have always been and will always be a large portion of citizens who, at least in terms of the political future of our nation, are followers and only followers. This isn’t a judgment statement about their character or worth, but an observation of a truth.
What this means for me, as a movement leader and organizer, is that the highest impact for good comes through leading the leaders. I’ve already defined the broad diversity that needs to include. Here’s what I think it means to Lead the Leaders:
Find leaders and call out their leadership traits clearly. Help them discover their place in the movement, to own it and to not feel like they need to do more than simply be the best version of who they are as a leader. I created the Eight Types of Leaders framework for this purpose.
Help leaders cast clear vision for their piece of the movement. Ask good questions and help them define how their unique work fits into the broader movement, and why it’s critical. And to be able to say what they’re not.
Equip leaders with wisdom by sharing experience and pointing them to others. Some say “wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from mistakes.” That’s true to a point - but wisdom can also be imparted. Connect leaders with the ideas, stories and experienced leaders who will help them navigate the turbulent waters of movement building.
Give leaders a framework. Don’t just cast them into the wilderness. After you’ve helped them find their own strengths (#1 above) then help them find other leaders with different skills and strengths who will complement theirs, and work together. I’ve done that with my Eight Types of Leaders framework. Steal it and use it.
Build real relationships. Too often, especially in politics, relationships are limited to the purely transactional. Leaders need more than that. They need to truly know, trust and count on one another. There is no substitute for sharing face time and real life stories, beyond the movement work, to do this. It’s why I’m hosting our first ever New Way Summit in Nashville in April and why I have, for my entire career, travelled way more than my wife would like. To build trust, we have to know one another.
As we work to build the New Way we need wins and we need tangible progress. I believe the key to unlocking all that is cultivating leaders and connecting them. There’s a good chance you’re one of them. Join us in the work and let’s keep building.
Excellent advice, Joel.