Every business has got a hierarchy with a few bosses and their many sub-ordinates. These bosses obviously will always consider themselves as leaders, which can be very demeaning if the definition of "leader" isn't followed the way it should have. A leader / mentor is someone who has gone through the daunting process(es) included in particular domain / work, which is to say -- leader have understood the peculiarity, nuances of the work involved in the field even if some of them were mundane tasks. They just dont have this habit of cribbing. They just do it anyways. Now, talking about any specific domain / task, for eg :- Construction / Construction of 50 floors high-rise apartments. If our leader has gone through the process of Construction and has already seen it all, then one will know following :- 1. Construction will take reasonable time ( proportional to the number of floors ) & even floor will take setting time to gain enough strength to bear load of floors above it. 2. Due diligence is required while calculating & researching various aspects of construction like :- Load bearing capacity of Soil, Structure & Architecture of the building which takes decent amount of time. 3. Identifying right tools / resources for the workers & providing them those. Now, if our so called "leader" haven't been there at all and is being leader for sake of it, then disastrous outcomes will follow. And here is why. 1.) Every project has got a time-line and every project consists of large number of sub-tasks / projects by itself. And these tasks / sub-tasks can depend on 3rd parties, which can affect the time-lines of project in very proportional manner. Now, if our "leader" have never experienced the same kind of work before, then our "leader" will only end up doing presumptions of the time-lines. Having wrong expectations set-up for the project time-lines can lead to stressful situations for every resource involved in the project, now be it the bosses or sub-ordinates or the higher management. Every one will keep on questioning each other leading to lesser productive times. 2.) He will always be in this delusional belief that there is no need of research or researching is more of a theory and is absolutely time wasting exercise. Now, having this belief can have jolting effect on entire project as any mis-calculation done in 2nd process ( mentioned above ) in hastily manner can lead to unpleasant consequences. But deep understanding of this will always come once our leader has gone through the process and doesn't really presumes thing much. 3.) Every leader who has seen it all, will know what kind of tools are required to accomplish the tasks. This ability of identifying the right tools / resources for the project is crucial for the success of project and sanity of the people involved in the project. Suppose the project / task is to "Race in F1". Now let's assume 2 situations :- Assumption - 1 : Our leader has won a few off-road rally races using customized SUV. Now, our leader thinks of racing in F1 with one's customized SUV which was used to run off-road races. Will our "leader" be able to win the F1 race ? Absolutely Not ! Assumption - 2 : Our leader has won a few F1 races already, using F1 Cars. Now, coupled with experience of winning F1 races and F1 Cars ( which is appropriate for F1 races ), probability of winning in the F1 race has increased dramatically. Will our "leader" be able to win the F1 race ? Maybe Bottom line : Since these situations has got different dynamics all together, leader had to identify the right resource for both of the situations. In situation 1, "leader" didn't have any idea about the race nor the resource the task would require hence, probability of failing in the race is exponentially higher if compared with the probability in case 2 where in our "leader" has got the prior experience and also the right resource / tool required in order to achieve the goal. Hence, every aspiring "leader" has to undergo the hard work, should have experienced mundane tasks and eventually shine after all the hard-work. All of this will make someone a great leader to look out for. References :- 1. My past experience 2. https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-hire-remote-team/ 3. http://steveblank.com/2014/09/16/who-do-you-need-on-your-startup-team/ PS : This is draft 1. Please suggest the changes / mistakes.