Grappling with failure now and again is a sign that you are trying, and it is an opportunity to learn, therefore failure must not be viewed as final judgement but an essential part of the leadership process. Hence, giving up whenever you face a new challenge is unforgiveable. Zimbabweans woke up to the news that Nelson Chamisa has left the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party; if true, the decision raises eyebrows about his personal motivations and leadership credentials. One wonders if he is a victim of his ego and/ or bad advice.
Chamisa’s unhinged advisors in the media fraternity have already come out fighting his corner; the Chamisa friendly media platform and personalities are trying to portray his latest decision to leave CCC as a masterstroke; they know it is not that is why they are catching at straws trying to justify that assertion. As far as masterstrokes go, this does not sound like one; to call it one is a misnomer. He botched it, that is reality.
And to suggest he has pulled the rug from underneath unspecified members’ feet is nothing but a self-serving hero-worshipping claptrap, a dereliction of duty to the public who deserve better information, and such statements belong in a poor excuses box. In fact, the rug was long pulled from under his and his advisors’ feet when their cynical moves sold under the ‘strategic ambiguity’ policy were undone.
His friends in the media live in a parallel reality where Chamisa cannot do no wrong, it has got to be somebody else who has interrupted or misinterpreted him. They are busy trying to reconstruct and influence how the public views Chamisa’s latest antics; to try and sanitize him and claim the CCC organisation was too toxic for him when he was the leader and the toxicity happened under his watch belies reality. CCC reflects Chamisa – no cherry picking.
Was CCC unmanageable or Chamisa failed to manage the organisation? This is an inconvenient question; so, it will never see the light of day in the Chamisa friendly media space.
There is obvious dearth in innovation in Chamisa’s leadership caucus or his style suppresses innovation. The characteristics of innovative leaders include effectiveness at: managing attention, sustaining policy relevance, and maintaining trust. Political leaders should know how to support party members by making them feel significant and valued, focusing on the importance of competence, and emphasising engagement of all members in the party’s processes. All these entities require structure and clear mechanisms.
The idea of ‘strategic ambiguity’ regardless of its origin will haunt him for a while yet. Chamisa has been in a leading role yet not leading and that has been destructive to the main opposition. Instead of helping him find excuses, his advisers in the media need to support him find a way, and this requires challenging him to self-introspect and change direction.
His charisma and popularity are unquestionable, yet he has been unable to transfer those qualities for the greater benefit of the opposition political space. Personality over principle cannot sufficiently sell ideas, inspire the organic growth of a political party, and oversee a political transformation that will alter millions of Zimbabweans’ socioeconomic and political experience.
No leader is perfect, it is how leaders manage failure which distinguishes good leaders from bad ones. Below we discuss some fundamental inadequacies that we believe make Chamisa’s successful leadership of any future opposition party untenable without major changes:
- Chamisa lacks leadership influence beyond his charisma and thus fails to understand how that influence should maximise organisational dominance and growth within the political space and discover the full potential in others. This has created a feeling that without Chamisa the public is incompetent and ineffectual.
- Time and again he has shown lack of courage to embrace diversity of thought and find like-mindedness in people within their differences to build effective relationships in the party built on collaboration and trust.
- Despite being in politics for most of his adult life, Chamisa has not been able to articulate his personal brand value proposition, how his political values are understood and what opportunity gaps his brand address within the political space.
- Another key failure has been his failure to drive organic growth of his party through the Cultural Demographic Shift and targeting the distinct needs of diverse population groups in the country to make politics work efficiently and effectively for all.
- Finally, Chamisa is guilty of complacence which has seen him refuse to stoop down to the level of ordinary party membership and engage dissent decisively and diffuse conflict before it implodes to toxic levels. Fundamentally, he has failed to make active attempts to bridge the gap between diverse and competing interest groups to strengthen corporate culture, create a better party climate and promote organic growth.
Despotic tendencies blind people to reality; a political leader who cannot comprehend the importance of retaining party membership and maintaining ideological cohesion is bound to fail. Chamisa is guilty of playing to the media and ignoring his source of power – the party membership. Running a large institution without a working constitution and conflict resolution mechanism was always a disaster waiting to happen. I believe Chamisa’s experience will be invaluable for opposition politics in which he has a greater role to play, but he must stop believing in his lies and surround himself with principled men/ women not the yes men/ women.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 