Do you dream often? Do you try to make that dream a reality?

The mark of a leader is characterised by the ability to set one’s own goal that would be the realisation of his or her dream. A leader is a dream chaser and goal achiever.

Leaders are of course stratified in relation to their roles that flow from the overall structure of the field that they are engaged in. In the context of an organisation the stratification relates to the hierarchical structure and the position a particular leader fits in.

There are those who are leaders of leaders. They are the ones who set up an organisation pursuant to a bigger dream or the big picture. Then there are those who are under him and are in charge of creating the pixels that would complete the pictures.

The leader who sets the big dream and rolls it out for realisation cannot be the one who would be called upon to deliver the daily chores as well. This, however, is not a necessary condition. Those who set out to achieve their dreams through micro or small entrepreneurial engagements may not have the resources initially to afford someone as daily chore supervisor. But, he won’t be able to add to his dream, if, going forward, he doesn’t get to unyoke himself from the mundane and devote his skill to adding to the dream and goal.

This doesn’t mean that a leader would distance himself from the happenings in the organisation. The argument here is that, if you are the dreamer and have rolled out an organisation to achieve your dream, you are occupying the driver’s seat and not that of a garage mechanic. But as the driver needs to be aware about the reliability and performance of the car to complete a journey, in relation to the organisation, so should you. A garage mechanic doesn’t decide the route a car should take, but a driver does. And in this case you are the owner-driver who sets the destination, selects the route and steer the car towards it.

Down the hierarchy, those who create the pixels are also goal setters albeit at a scaled down level. The creation of the picture and its acceptability is totally dependent on how these pixels are created. As the entrepreneur leader needs to strategise the path to realise the big picture or goal so do the leaders at the lower rung for their share of the picture.

The point here is that, a leader doesn’t chase but creates goals and drives the organisation to achieve them. While doing so he
• Delineates and defines tasks in sync with the goal.
• Monitors achievements
• Sets standards and creates ideals.
• Deems failures as learning and uses them to reach greater heights.

The leaders, in short, are achievers as they don’t follow but creates goals and lead others to achieve them.