I enjoyed your book very much and I agree with most of your ideas. Now, I’ve started a movement myself, a climate group called The Saners. I believe it needs to have a structure and leaders. But I think that leadership should not be a single person but a small group of people with formal authority rotating from time to time. A movement needs to have leadership but should really be powered by ideas and strategies.

Part of the problem with leadership is that it turns into a cult of personality and loses focus. And if something happens to the single person that leads, the group or organization is in big trouble. Indeed, when a movement depends too heavily on one person—a leader—the authorities need to only destroy or kill that one person.

I believe the main reason that hierarchies and leaders are so distrusted is that few leaders or managers understand their jobs. They are bad listeners and develop outsized opinions of themselves and their judgement. Who hasn’t had a bad boss? No wonder people get excited by leaderless groups and organizations.

A leader needs to be a listener and a vessel for wisdom, helping the group or organization to focus on the right things. But we have bad leaders, and we have bad leaders in part because we have organizations/companies/institutions that REWARD bad leaders.

WeAreSaners.org