Proposition 6 — People are empowered when leaders let them be

This means that we need a new form of politics that puts a new form of leadership at its heart, one that facilitates rather than directs, convenes rather than controls. At Labour Together we see this as being part of a political culture where our leaders gather around tables to listen rather than standing on podiums to dictate.

Letting go of control

If our traditional political institutions and hierarchies hope to engage these emerging groups or create spaces for new ones to thrive they need to learn to let go of control. This means letting go of assumed structures imposed by the centre and letting communities and networks more organically emerge to meet demands or needs. It’s about giving people the resources and space to organise and not attempting to control what emerges. It’s only when you begin to give people the space and time to organise and cohere that you may end up with a very different kind of answer. Indeed, much work has been done on convening people who are interested in taking this approach by the Losing Control Network who are beginning work out the practices needed to enable this. As Mark Wilkinson writes “It’s a difficult thing to let go of that urge to control everything around us on a personal, intellectual or an organisational level, and to place our trust in a wider community to do the right thing by us. It questions the boundary between where the “I” ends and the “we” begins, our individual identities versus our collective responsibilities, at a time when our concepts of these are being challenged on so many fronts. It’s even harder to dovetail this into the day to day expectations of society which so highly values rational and intellectual thought over trust and instinct. But it feels like it’s worth exploring”.

Much of this “letting go of control” involves putting faith in different kinds of expertise as people or users of a service are trusted as much as more conventional “experts” or professionals. As Hilary Wainwright argues by expanding our definition of knowledge we can unlock a new transformative politics:

“This transformative capacity has its roots in the sharing of the practical — and often tacit — knowledge that institutions based on power as domination tend not to value. The ruling institutions of the post-war order have tended to presume that the knowledge that matters for government is the professional, science-based expertise of the civil servant….In contrast, the understanding of knowledge implicit in the new politics of the left is based on a recognition of the importance for public policy of its tacit as well as codified forms.”

Inspiring Leadership

This kind of leadership is more subtle with culture at its heart and focuses on empowering others rather than enforcing a strict hierarchy. In one model the leader has all the answers, the map, in the other they provide a guiding vision and an encouraging culture to help a team to find the answers together.

Professor Jon Stokes defines this as the difference between inspiring and charismatic leadership:

“we suggest that inspiring, as opposed to merely charismatic, leadership is what’s needed right now. Inspiring leaders help people build and sustain strength and long-term improvement, in an organisation or in a society. While charisma is based on an instant and uncritical falling in love…”

In one case the person is projecting an idealised version of themselves onto the leader, in the other they are being enabled to realise their own potential. From modelling behaviours and values to having difficult conversations to affirming the agency and power of their followers — Stoke’s model of leadership is much more light touch. Here the focus is on facilitating by empowering people. We need this other form of leadership to thrive if we are to build a truly empowered society; in our services, in our workplaces and most importantly in our politics.

It’s a model of leadership which does not encourage a blame culture but instead encourages a culture in which people step up to responsibility. A culture where the focus is not just on getting to the top but encouraging and empowering those who come after you.

Imagine if this kind of leadership was cultivated and embraced, alongside our other principles within a political party? Imagine a Labour Party that created a space for people to organise within imposing the limitations of our current out of date forms? Imagine a party that was open and transparent about its processes? Imagine a party where we nurtured and encouraged a different form of political leadership? For our politics to be fit for an empowered society we need to get our systems of leadership and governance right. New technology can facilitate these changes but they alone cannot transform our ways of working. As Paolo Gerbaudo has found in his book The Digital Party which chronicles the rise of the Pirates, 5 Star and Podemos; even though there has been a shift away from the television era party which is tightly controlled old power structures still persist. Direct democracy takes place online but the questions are tightly controlled and an easy-answers populism is used politically to control the movement, rather than deeper political deliberation.

This kind of political leadership in a party and within a country could unlock what Hilary Wainwright terms a “transformative power” practiced by people. Here a socialist government does not rest on state architecture being controlled or put in place by a Labour government, but in the people themselves. This deep democracy in a truly empowered and participatory society means that political parties could come and go with the power of the people to collectively build their own state architecture based on their collective need can never be taken away.

What could this look like?

• A new national academy of political leaders — a course on leadership which everyone who hopes to stand for office must complete, regardless of which party they stand for. They can take a sabbatical from work to attend it and it will mean more people have these leadership skills.

Conclusion