To some extent, leadership is a myth, a disempowering myth.
It is possible for people to organize themselves on the basis of common interests; issues that matter to them; shared situations and conditions that impact their lives. In fact, it is one of the central tasks of power to prevent people from automatically organizing themselves on this basis.
There is no obvious reason why the population needs to be informed by a leader about their own misery, about the oppression they are suffering, about their poverty, exploitation, and the denial of their basic rights. Of course, they are fully aware already. They see it everywhere, and in every face they see. It requires a tremendous effort to subvert reflexive unity and mobilization among the people when their conditions and experience are so dreadfully the same.
They must be made to believe that it is impossible to organize themselves, among themselves, without a leader, without parties, without groups, and without permission.
But, of course, they can.