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