Leadership in armed forces

[Music]

the subject of

am i audible i would very simply say

not very much now but when i look back

at the six decades before retirement

i do believe that i was audible

it would be interesting to know as to

what did it take for me to be audible

and could i have been more honorable

whatever i have to speak to you today is

from

a military perspective

and within the military perspective it

is important for

the viewers to know that the military

leadership is the custodian

of the military’s ethos and

effectiveness

why audibility and i would also

mention more importantly for us

visibility is more important because

in the armed forces leadership

is a command function

the force effectiveness the force

cohesion and the trust

of the nation depends on the quality of

leadership

which the armed forces have and how

audible they are

not only within their rank and file but

also

outside

when i look at audibility

two things come to my mind firstly

for military leaders audibility

is vital to achieve

mission objectives and secondly at a

little later stage

when one is a little more senior and in

the hierarchy

it becomes more important to modernize

or transform force effectiveness

six decades of my life prior to

retirement

i can easily look at it in three

parts the first part

of the first 20 years is related to

conduct

developing your own conduct and behavior

in order to make a mark for yourself

and this period in the armed forces

we call it as now if you have noun

you have respect

the second part is competence

the next 20 years in the armed forces

was there to hone your skills to achieve

higher knowledge

so that you could undertake operations

of

every kind everywhere

the focus during this period is your

subordinates and possibly your peers

this second phase is designed to bring

trust and that’s how i understood it

this phase is also called namak

in the army and it relates to loyalty

loyalty to your subordinates

to your system to your battalion to your

superiors and it all comes

come to think of it from your competence

the third part is your commitment

commitment to your unit commitment to

your

organization commitment to your

nation and here the focus

is on the organization

when you have respect and trust and you

remain committed to your organization

and carry out the tasks accordingly

faith

automatically develops

i’m convinced that in the armed forces

these three phases have a lot of meaning

and most of the units carry these three

words

called nam namak nishan painted almost

everywhere in every facet of unit life

let me look at the first part

i was very fortunate practically a blue

blood

father in the services i got

every resource and every opportunity

that was necessary for me to do well

good schools i joined the austrian and

military

from there went to the national defense

academy

and then the indian military academy

passing out with a sort of honor

and thereafter getting the battalion of

my choice

i think during this period of training

i did develop peer respect

and fortunately this lasts even today

during this first part of my life there

were few things

which i understood and why

it is so important from the subject

which we are talking about today

is that i became audible because of

these

learning which took place at that time

the first learning was be counted

and if you have to be counted you have

to have the moral courage to

stand up the second is to stay ahead

you have to know knowledge is the key

the third factor is

you have to do and you have to do

better than the others you have to set

higher standards

for yourself and for the environment

around you and last but not the least

the most important thing that i learned

was

that everything is a matter of

self-pride

and self-right include self-motivation

self-discipline self-fitness

and above all self-development

more of this aspect of self-development

we will speak

a little later coming on to the second

part the second

part of the next 20 years i served my

battalion

14 guards param chakra

with possibly all dedication at my

command

while serving in the battalion

it was obvious that i had to win the

loyalty of my subordinates

and let me tell you since it’s a matter

of life and death

there is only one way that loyalty will

come from subordinates

and that is your

competence and capacity

in order to achieve that i had to do

well

i had to do well in all the learning

courses

training courses and skill oriented

courses

that i run in the army unfortunately

i did work hard and did well

i think in these 20 years

i developed a lot of trust with the

soldiers

in the battalion and that trust with

them

lasts even today

a hallmark of this period is that

audibility is not enough

i think this audibility

needs a lot of visibility in the armed

forces

and i made this a point to be

visible wherever possible in the most

difficult of situations including

serving in the syachen glacier in the

winters

i would make it a point to be there at

every post

so that i could be with the soldiers

it also involved seeking challenges

volunteering for additional work

additional tasks new tasks

in order to gain experience

when it came to the soldier it was

obviously very clear no soldier wants

his officer

or his leader to tell him that i don’t

know

and that is something which i had to

work upon myself

and a very important factor that i

learned during this period was

what we in the army call observe

orient decide and act

you have to act and not react

somewhere towards the middle stage of

this period

i also came across the idea that i need

to prepare

two up so that i can be in the recording

so whatever work i was doing i was

already

learning things which were too up on my

own

i avoided the company of belly acres and

diversionists or anybody who was willing

to waste

time and at this time

i met a great mentor i was a young

officer

and this mentor was none other than our

chief

late general sundarch in a one-to-one

discourse with him one day

and i was arguing with him

that i’m not audible enough

he gave me a lesson of my life and he

says

if you are good protect yourself

hone your skills develop your knowledge

first rise to the level where you can

implement a change

and then change it i think these are

very profound

words some of us may not agree to it

but i think a closer look will

definitely help

many in the way they work

the last 20 years in uniform

went in a hurry

coming outside the battalion you were

moving on various

staff and technical assignments and also

higher command

commanding a brigade in chisholm a

division

in tawang the military police

thereafter the delhi area

and then moving on as the commandant

of the indian military academy

a lot of things are packed during this

period

this last 20 years is dedicated to the

nishant

that is your commitment to the

organization

and the nation and the future

generations to follow

by this time you have great respect

and trust from everyone

and now is the time to build faith

you also have a lot of independence and

there are great

opportunities that i

felt were available to do things that i

wanted to do i was mature enough

i had seen a large number of conflicts

and learned from them i had convictions

and now i had to prioritize them

correctly so as to do what the

environment needed at the time

so therefore when you have to be audible

you have to also look at the timing when

to be audible to do

what i also felt

and it was a great learning experience

to know that if you want

something done then you have to have the

appropriate

target audience there is no point

in telling something to a very junior

element when you know very well that

they will not do it or they cannot do it

and likewise there is no point in

dropping

futuristic ideologies on people who are

about to

retire so i think a person who is

willing to make a change has to decide

the timing and the target audience

during this time when i was working

something profound very interesting

is purity of intent

if your judgment has gone wrong

it is not so much of a problem but you

cannot be wrong

and intent

another major factor that came during

this period is

opportunities opportunities knock your

door

it is up to you to seize it and in case

you do not get an opportunity

you have to create it finally to sum up

uh let me put it across this way that if

i have to look back

and say to you that was i audible enough

i will say not in comparison to so many

others

that i have known sam manikshan

turned the tide of the 1962

chinese aggression and later on in 1971

gave india a decisive military victory

which probably changed the course of

indian history

but more importantly he changed the

defensive

mindset that prevailed in our

environment

likewise late general sundarji

gave india a modern force structure

he’s the only one to have accomplished

complete transformation in the indian

army

when it comes to generation shaykh mehta

i think he changed the indian way of

thinking from a reactive to a proactive

methodology

and also led the indigenization program

of our defense services in comparison to

them

i do not think i have achieved much or

been that audible

when it comes to certain types of

leaders

and their audibility i will say there

are leaders who are

very audible there are leaders who for

fear

do not speak up there are leaders who

wait to be discovered and there are

leaders who somehow

don’t evolve and live with their own

idiosyncrasies

to be honest i think i belong to the

third

category thank you very much it’s been a

pleasure

speaking to you all