Follower, Worker and Leader

In our day to day life especially in corporate world we come across a term "Leader". In layman language if I ask who is a leader? Answer is very simple; one who leads something is leader. But, is it all? I mean, does leading something make you a leader? I would say "NO". A true leader is much different from this. For me important qualities of leadership can be interpreted from greatest epic of all times like "Ramayan" and "Mahabharata".

People who know me knows that I am too obsessed with the story of "Mahabharata" thus  I can relate it to every damn thing. Everyone knows that in that legendary bloodbath, Pandavas won only because they had a superb leader like "Krishna". 

During the war, Krishna was charioteer of Arjun, he not only motivated him when he was emotionally moved to see his own family in enemy's army but guided him, planned every strategy in war for Arjun. In short Arjun just followed whatever Krishna asked him to do.

Arjun, represents employees who needs motivation as their driving force. Such kind of employees once motivated can do wonders. He also represents those types of employees in organisation who just blindly follows whatever their leaders ask them to do. These types of employees are "Follower". Perfect obedient, who does everything without questioning. One would argue, isn't it good for the organisation to have follower. I would say not really. Because everyone is not lucky enough to have a leader like "Krishna"

In childhood, we all have heard from parents or seen television series of "Ramayan". We all know what happens. Ravan kidnaps Sita. Ram with the help of Hanuman and army of monkeys rescues Sita. What do we learn from it? From this entire episode we get an important leadership lesson. What is it? Let's have a look.

Task of "Finding Sita" was assigned to Hanuman. He crosses ocean to reach Lanka. Finds whereabouts of Sita. In the process when Ravan tries to burn his tail, he sets entire Lanka on fire.

Hanuman represents employees who are proactive and takes initiative. These types of employees don't need any kind of motivation. They are self driven and respond to command instantly. They are called "Worker". Let's see one more incident from Ramayan.

Brother of Ravan, was a rakshasa who secretly carried away Ram and his brother Lakshman to the nether-world, consulted his friends and decided to sacrifice the life of the two divine brothers at the altar of his chosen deity, goddess Mahamaya. But Hanuman saved their life by killing Ahiravan and his army.

Ram knew that Hanuman will do whatever he commands him to do. Thus he knew the risk of having someone without decision making abilities. In the above given situation, Hanuman was forced to take decision on his own in the absence of Ram. Hanuman not only takes decision on his own but also solved the problem by rescuing Ram and Lakshman. Eventually he learnt problem solving and decision making skill. Thus Ram managed to convert a "Worker" into "Leader".

Mostly in organisations, "Follower" type of employees are considered ideal because they do what is asked to do. They want leader like Krishna who can spoon feed them with plans and strategies but it's not possible to have Krishna in every project. What we need really is Ram. One who knows how to convert a follower into worker, worker into leader. 

This entire scene gives one interpretation that a leader is true leader when he is capable of creating leaders.