Thought leaders and Do leaders

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary, an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.”

– Gen. John J. Pershing

This quote by one of the greatest military leaders of the Second World War explicitly states how leadership, directly and indirectly, affects outcomes in accordance to the type of skills, cooperation, understanding and finally leading teams be it anywhere. Battlefield or your meeting room.

 What people in the corporate world or jobs where actions can’t be absolutely spontaneous and need a proper course of action or steps to reach the final outcome requires some skills. What makes us Human beings better than computers are our emotions and our ability to use them to make the most out of them, nothing limits our imagination.

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There are two types of leaders the thought ‘leaders’. One who likes to brainstorm, communicate on a one to one basis uses analysis and experience to draw upon answers while the ‘Do ‘ who work according to a schedule, relies on efficiency and engagement to work out results, and, troubleshooting for solving major and minor hiccups in order to get the desired results

Both of them differ from each other while ‘Thought’ leaders can be more effective in environments where quality is a big offering and cost is not a large issue considering that profits are surplus than the spending. ‘Do’ leaders are seen as more strict they rely on plans, efficiency cost cutting without dropping the quality and on-time results they are more useful In environments where incoming work or problems are constant and target to be met are high where the big numbers on the positive scale matters.

But, a leader can be a mix of both which makes them a very rare breed of leaders.  A ‘Thought” leader helps the individuals to generate new ideas and challenge ideas, using concepts to get better solutions. A ‘thought’ leader would provide detailed assessments which are unique in nature to stimulate one’s skills and rely on ideas drawn from life experiences be it big or small and sometimes simple solutions lead to efficient and better ideas.

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More or less these leaders are ones who excel in building a great team rapport and helping them push their boundaries.  While ‘Do’ leaders draw upon two criteria the most which are time and efficiency to get the desired results. Articulate plans of actions are followed to achieve maximum efficiency and cost cutting which is very important when it comes to places where big numbers are important and come to play in terms of measuring progress and earnings as they can’t dip beyond a certain point.

They rely on past experiences drawn from previous works and engagements to find or implement new solutions to problems.

 While some may consider it a minus point but ‘Do’ leaders tend to consider ideas through a very different point of view, if you want your ideas to be heard, implemented and recognized then you need to prove so, with your work.  The ‘Do’ leaders rely on flexible hours instead of relying on odd hours which helps them rely on handing off projects and meeting quick and short deadlines if needed.  ‘Do’ leaders are creative problem solvers they draw from experiences and use them creatively to solve problems and find answers which makes them innovative.

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But, at the end of the day, the leaders do have to create cohesion, trust, and rhythm in the team to help them push and break new barriers every day.  What good leaders need to do is get on the ground and showing the team how it’s done and create a reliable and a stable hierarchy, bring calm into chaos before the wheel starts grinding.

 Irrespective of how the leaders are they have to do their jobs of being a leader one way or another a perfect balance needs to be matched emotionally and efficiently in order to become a commanding voice which doesn’t mean that everybody relies on the leader for direction, they have to be independent yet work as a team to meet individual goals so that collective goals leads to better results.

Submitted By Shivangi Gupta | Sudha Kumari | Yoshita Singh (PGDM Batch 2017-19)