Leaders & Administrators

Hi,

Well, I feel that there are two types of managers:

Leaders and Administrators.

Leaders are essentially dreamers. A leader sets seemingly impossible targets and then inspires his followers to achieve them. A leader uses unconventional means to solve problems. He goes more by the instinct/intuition/gut-feeling than logic.

He/she is not much worried about the details. He just provides the outline, the framework on which others act on. People do not just respect the leader, they love him as a person...Indeed they follow him in first place because of his character rather than his intelligence. A leader is more accessible to the people but he is not dependent on them. He is always in the lime-light and knows how to make use of it to achieve his end. Most of the times a leader has no authority in a legal sense, and yet they exert power.

I consider Mahatma Gandhi is one person who fits this description quite perfectly.

Administrators are the ones who convert dreams into the reality. An administrator is more close to the task at hand rather than the person who is doing it... and yet he is dependent on that person. He is logical, methodical and goes more by the rules. He/she is the one who fills in the crucial details in a rough draft to make it a concrete plan. His authority comes from the position he/she occupies.

Of course, sometimes we find a combination of a visionary Leader and a realistic Administrator rolled into one. The first example that springs to mind is Chhatrapati Shivaji. He saw a dream to build up an empire and also had the administrative capability to put it in order once it was achieved.

Today if you look around, almost everywhere you find 'leaders' - most of them self-proclaimed. I think what India needs today are some efficient administrators, people who will work at the background to get things moving.

Yours,

-Gautam.