Influence leaders, don’t import your own.
When you need to influence masses of people towards your ideology (da’wah) or project or cause, don’t bring your speaker in to preach to them. It doesn’t consistantly work–if the people don’t know your leader, they can’t trust him, and most will refuse to follow him.
Instead, influence the leader of the people you wish to lead. Once he agrees to your cause, he automatically spreads it to those who follow him. Since he’s a trusted and accepted leader of the community already, inshaAllah they’ll follow him.
The opposite also holds–don’t break relations with leaders when you disagree with them. If you diss the imam of a masjid and he never announces your event or allows you permission to post up your flyer, that’s 2000 people who will never get your message from that source.
Also: During the time of the he Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم), when the leader of a tribe reverted to Islam, the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) honoured the leader by keeping him as the leader. He didn’t remove him and replace him with a more pious sahaba.
Wallahu ‘alim. May Allah protect us from breaking ties as we strive in His way.
Muhammad Alshareef. Lecture. AlMaghrib. Conquest: History of the Khulafa. University of Toronto, Toronto. November 2005.