How did the great leap forward contribute to the cultural revolution

It reduced Mao Zedong's power and led him to develop a cult of personality to regain his influence (Apex)

Communist China with Mao as its leader was not at its best at all, as the country was in terrible economic and social condition. In order to try and move the country forward through developing its economy, Mao and his closest circle made a plan in order to do so, the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward though was a disaster, and instead of developing China it did enormous damage to it. In this sense, the Great Leap Forward and its failure resulted in the Cultural Revolution later on, with the main reason behind the Cultural Revolution being to hide the failure and propagate the situation in the opposite manner. The purpose of course was to strengthen the position of the Communist Party in China, and weirdly enough it managed to do so with the Cultural Revolution, convincing the people in the opposite from what they were experiencing in their daily lives.