We Need Great Activists and Great Leaders

In politics, governors and mayors lead states or cities, while representatives or senators, at both the state and federal levels, are legislators. The complaint is that governors and mayors can never escape the responsibility of governing, while legislators can switch to activism without actually creating legislation that those who govern need. This point was recently driven home by Ross Barkan in the New York Times as he distinguished the candidacy for New York mayor by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani with this statement about some well-known left-leaning legislators...

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are famous and influential leftists, but they do not oversee the machinery of government in the way mayors do. And governing, unlike legislating, cannot simply default to activism.”

Great leaders need great activists and vice versa.

The world needs activists (and not just on the left), but it really needs activists who will work with leaders (and not just in politics) to govern effectively. Corporations and small businesses, schools, and nonprofits alike are crying out for those who can be great leaders, while the ratio of such leaders is too small compared to the number of activists who don’t implement change. It seems that everyone has discovered it is much easier to complain about the state of things without actually initiating the change they advocate for.

What is needed are activists who can offer solutions by working with those who govern to make sure change is implemented for the public good.

For Activists:

If you see a problem that needs solving, work towards a solution, and not just the one that is most advantageous to you. Do your due diligence in exploring the implications of what you see as wrong and in need of change. How will it affect others? How will it impact people least like you? Can it be implemented? What are the selling points?

Then look for the great leader(s) with whom you can work to produce action steps leading to change.

Approaching activism from this perspective takes it out of the unproductive realm of complaining and places it in the productive realm of beneficial change.

For Leaders:

Great leaders need great activists. Leadership is predicated on hearing constructive voices that are passionate about change. Lone-ranger leaders who believe that they have all the answers fall short because they miss the valuable input of others.

Leadership is not providing everyone with what they want, but providing everyone with what is best at the moment. The voices of activism can help to identify what is best at any given point in time.

The dearth of solution-focused activism hinders the quantity of great leadership. Leaders can overcome this by encouraging and listening to good activists. Who are the ones who have their pulse on the underserved, underrepresented, who are not being listened to? Those are the activists who will encourage great leadership.

Complaining is Not a Strategy

Division either creates a stalemate or a winner vs. a loser. This is the consequence of a culture of complaining. Win/win solutions are few and far between, and in the meantime, people suffer the consequences.

Great activists and great leaders rise above complaining to work for timely solutions.