Leadership renewal in the MDC-T: should it be change of personalities or change of style?

Since its founding the MDC has gone through very debilitating tragedies that have hampered its thrust to end dictatorship and authoritarian rule in Zimbabwe.

The party's supporters have been subjected to arbitrary arrests, wanton dismissals from employment, torture, rape, disappearance, murder, demolition of their dwellings and so on and so forth.

The split of the party in 2005 and the refusal of Zanu-pf to vacate office after its electoral defeat on 29 March 2008 are further challenges that the party has had to deal with.

But it is the 31st July 2013 electoral "defeat" by a style of rigging hardly witnessed before in the history mankind that has triggered a fierce but, unfortunately, incoherent debate about leadership renewal in the party.

Two schools of thought have emerged from this debate namely the removal of its founding President, Morgan Tsvangirai and the dissolution of the entirety of the Standing Committee.

In my opinion the Party of Excellence would be pressing the self-destruct button if it opts for either of the two.

 Therefore it is of paramount importance that incumbents of strategic positions in the top leadership retain their positions for stability and continuity of the fledgling party.

However, the leadership style of the party's top hierarchy, both as individuals and as a collective,  cannot be maintained as it is if the party wishes to make headway in its mission to end the despotic rule of Zanu-pf and  create a just and democratic nation.

The leadership style prevailing in the party's leaders is what Barb Allen of the Spiritual Capital and Moral Leadership Institute (SCMLi) calls "power-over others" style as opposed to what she calls "power-with others" style of leadership or, in short, moral leadership.

The "power-over others" style is the dominant leadership style of the past that makes a leader regard him/herself as the "Boss" who has answers to every organizational problem, what Barb Allen calls "silver bullets" or "pearls".

 With this style leaders believe that they have a divine right to impose prescriptions for what other people should or should not do.

A few examples of the futility of the "silver-bullet" leadership style would do here:
Following 5 weeks of waiting for the March 29 2008 election results, the MDC-T leadership accepted them although it was clear to the voters that Zanu-pf had used the delay to manipulate results to force a run-off election.

If a robust dialogue with the voters had been conducted the leadership could have settled for an outright rejection of the results and a refusal to participate in the bloody run-off election that subsequently ensued.

The power-sharing coalition government agreement of September 2008 (GPA/GNU) is another "silver bullet" solution fashioned by the party's leadership against the overwhelming collective resistance of the ordinary supporters of the party.  

The "power-with others" style of leadership (moral leadership), on the other hand, is one that requires leaders to consult their followers, their moral conscience and genuine friends, extensively and honestly, in search of solutions to organizational problems.

This style is overwhelmingly being accepted as the pillar of virtuous governance of organizations and interest in this style is burgeoning. The key word in this style is "moral" which arouses the idea of right or wrong.

It is natural that every organization craves for right or moral leadership. In mass organizations like the MDC-T with many stakeholders possessing huge competing interests, finding right or moral solutions to organizational problems can be quite elusive for the leadership.

 Providing moral leadership to such an organization requires introspection, critical thinking and some robust dialogue with diverse groups according Barb Allen.

Implementing this leadership style calls for hard work and a not-so-common ability to operate in the discomforts of uncertainty.

To be a moral leader one has to be in a state of constant search and discovery and be ready to explore and learn.

 In other words moral leaders need to be always searching and operating in a mode of perpetual learning if they want to get true and effective answers to organizational problems.

It is most disconcerting that there has not been much evidence of convergence of solutions to major problems implemented by the party's leadership and those desired by the party followers.

This has been so because of ineffectual performance of the critical processes of introspection, critical thinking and dialoguing, with the last of those as the most neglected. A few examples will again help here:
 After the persecution and killings of their supporters in the June 2008 run-off election the leaders went for the GPA/GNU but the electorate clearly wanted Zanu-pf left alone to die within a few weeks due to the economic implosion they had created.

Again after Zanu-pf unilaterally proclaimed an election date (31 July 2013) before completion of the roadmap the MDC-T leadership accepted this without dialoguing with those closest to the problem who wanted a boycott.

The moral leadership style requires that leadership thinks of itself, not as the embodiment of solutions to organizational problems, but as mere facilitators who should invite those closest to the problems to collaborate with them in generating solutions.

Until leaders break their own mental models that embody leadership as power-over followers instead of power-with followers, all the solutions they can conceive will remain flawed.

 Therefore the perceived crisis of leadership in the MDC-T is not one of personalities but one of leadership style.

 What the party needs is not the removal of the personalities from leadership positions, targeted or wholesale, but the transformation of their orientations to and schooling in the discipline of Moral Leadership.

Alois Matongo writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on rewaimatongo@gmail.com