REMEMBERING A FEW GOOD MEN
I have had the privilege of serving with the best of soldiers and junior / colleagues and senior officers and now in Corporate for almost 24 years . Each place with association of finest men taught me something that remains with me even these years. This article is leadership learned from some of my finest seniors A FEW GOOD MEN . Each of them was different with his brand of charisma and style but genuine and original .
Who are the immediate seniors in Indian Army that matters to an officer …well it is the Commanding Officer equivalent to a PU or SBU head . A CO is a guide, savior in time of need, we all looked up to him for orders, a command, reward or justice. The buck stopped at his table. All actions were on plans made by him. Battle
In this paper, I describe some of the leadership principles I learned and illustrate them with examples from my army and corporate career .
1 Maintain your team individuality : From the first CO I worked as his Adjutant officer, I learned that there are different ways to get the job done, and that this would be okay. He was a meticulous planner while I was the cowboy freshly commissioned from IMA , a “Let’s take a look and see what is happening and respond in the moment” type of person. He and I respected each other, and when called upon to serve our unit, he gave me the freedom to execute my responsibilities very differently than he would have done. Many years later when I became a leader /CO /heading an outfit, I learned to allow my executive junior officers the same freedom. Our team will all have individual style of functioning that may not match with our style but best is don’t interfere till positive results are there. Nobody is perfect . I of course learned the art of advance planning from him and execution of it.
2 Accept your own faults :The second CO I worked with in role of main officer in charge of Engineering activity , he taught me a valuable lesson in humility. I had been the tank specialist in deserts for one year when he joined as the CO. It was his first unit as a Commanding officer coming from a stint of training wing and he had never served in a firing exercise of Armoured tanks. We were in a war exercise with maneuvering drills with a Mock Enemy. The CO, not being fully aware of the consequences of allowing my tank to be the guide in desert navigation , took control, giving a wrong direction what the tank driver had intended to, The consequence was almost disastrous as we got lost in deserts with water getting over the next day and engines also getting warmed up in extreme heat. But the CO was a quick learner and all of us from grounding through a judicious use of navigation aids and survival orders. we got the tank back onto her correct course, kept control and gave the correct orders to eventually exit the maneuvering exercise flap unnoticed. Once in right course, he turned to me and smiled to the driver very quietly said, “I blew that didn’t I.” We both answered “Yes” – also very quietly – and thus began a very tight, respectful relationship among both of us that allowed our unit to perform at a very high level. First, learn from your mistakes! The first day in charge of the smaller unit – my first command – we wasted lot of time in engineering activity of Helicopter change of engine in high altitude amidst snow, There were many reasons we could not plan spare management in advance, but the bottom line is that it was my fault . I publicly acknowledged that it was my fault and gained the respect of those who subsequently served with me on many such engineering activities. What amazed me is that while I was extricating my own outfit / unit in many difficult situation I realized that what it took to be the CO of unit .
3 “We’ matters more than ‘I’ : A very powerful lesson was to use the pronoun ‘we’ most of the time and the pronoun ‘I’ very occasionally – generally when we were not performing well. A corollary of this rule is a principle I still use – give your appropriate subordinates the credit when things go well and take the responsibility yourself when things go wrong. I find it very interesting when I see this concern in civi world – how will my boss know that I did/am doing a good job? Of course, this generates concerns of incentives will it come or not . why do we forget that high performance by ‘your unit’ will reflect very well on ‘you’, that ‘it is not necessary to blow your own horn’ to get ahead and that giving credit where credit is due will build a great team of leaders who will want to achieve even more. When I served as the CO of three different minor units commanding more than 200 men and even later in Corporate world, I never failed to pass the credit of a work to my senior of good work done by my junior by name, I had learned as a leader when things went wrong, I was to be blamed, when everything was ok , it was part of the job and due credit to a team member.
4 Take risk for your subordinates and stand by its repercussions, From my another CO I learned to trust my subordinates and the system that trained them. I learned this because I was the one he trusted when he followed my recommendation without questioning . I remember an incident . I was surrounded by a hostile crowd when I was passing through a pro Insurgent town in J&K . My team was surrounded by a hostile crowd where Army is not popular and they were pelting stones at me and my convey. I knew I could not show my fear to my team or the crowd even though I was getting goose bumps hearing Anti India chants all around me, anyway as a disciplined officer I stood like a rock and faced the crowd, silently asking orders on Radio from my Commanding officer what I should do. The Commanding officer replied to me with brisk and clear tone, you are the commander on ground, act as per situation. I was being approached from all sides, hence I asked my team to pick up couple of loud chanting persons from all sides and shoot them at leg but still keeping their lives intact. My idea was to neutralize the ring leader by injuring them and disperse the crowd The crowd ran amok to save themselves on hearing the gun shot and they dispersed and in that melee two civilians were killed who were crushed by the crowd A political inquiry followed by Human Rights chasing all of us to gain mileage . When my Commanding officer was questioned if he ordered me to shoot , my commanding officer replied that his orders were to act as per situation and if the officer fired the shot he trusted his officer to rightly act as per situation . The inquiry was set aside as justified act. When I became a commanding officer and my Divisional Commander was upset with my unit ‘s performance, which was actually caused by a junior officer’s mistake. I still remember the look of embarrassment on his face when I took the blame for his mistake. That look then turned into one of determination that I would never have to take the blame for him again. He served with me on two other units after that incident and was one of my best junior officers.
5 Find the right man for the right Job. There are positives in everybody, find out that and use him for his strength . I had got a complaint that one of my technician who was a Sikh soldier was not taking interest in instrument shop. There was lot of back log of my instruments and binoculars and compass . Since he had to be used somewhere, he was later appointed as a helper in the officers mess where he refused to be a waiter . I finally called him what he was good at. He was a tall lanky Sikh and had an arrogance tone typical of a Sikh. He replied sheepishly that before he joined Army he was helping his father run a famous Eating Dabha at Ambala and circumstances made him learned instrument technology but he was happy cooking. I was dumbfounded but shifted him to my soldier cook house where there is always a shortage of helping hand to main cook. Voila within a month he was challenging the main cook in supervising the cook house and food improved so much that officers from officer mess also started visiting soldiers cook house more frequently than mandatory inspection round. Now I look back had I made an ego issue and punished him, probably I would have lost a good sincere man who was actually wrongly fitted in wrong trade.
6 Share the difficulties and hard ship and comfort of own men comes first .In deserts in Op PARAKARAM, when the Parliament attack had happened Indian Army was deployed all over the LC and IB for months. We were deployed in deserts at approx 45 to 50 degree temperatures . The heat was unbearable and we had to find trees or shrubs to put our tents . The tents of course moved around the tree shade as Earth moved around the Sun . By evening all of us were loaded with sand and were white and unrecognizable. After three months of this torture the news came that attack had been called off but we were to be still deployed in our location now in defense role. That means we could call for some basic comforts from rear ie Air Coolers. Now moving air coolers in mass purchase and shifting from Jodhpur
7 Every person matters even the Junior most persons or a blue collar force worker One lesson I learned while commanding those units was to find the most junior person and let them know how important they were in keeping our units safe and clean, more importantly alert against any intruder. The new recruit serve on a rotating basis as lookouts on the forepart of the unit , as well as a helper in administrative part of the unit . I made it a practice early in each deployment I would ask questions to ensure each solider knew these safety sentry responsibilities and how to contact the control room and raise the alarm in a situation where terrorist strike. I would then ask each one who they considered to be the most important person in the unit . Roughly 50 percent of the time the answer would be “Well, you are sir” and implicitly I could hear them saying “You are the CO.” I loved this answer because it gave me the opportunity to say “No, you are because if one of our mates is ambushed by some terrorist entering inside we are all counting on you to raise the alarm so we can kill that terrorist quickly recover that person as soon as possible.” You could see these very young 18 to 19 year olds develop a very different perspective on how important they were in our unit . Interestingly, I did not have to do this with every person who served in this role. I only had to do it with 2 or 3 out of seven or so.
8 Have fun and do not be afraid to occasionally do fun things that are not in the plan of the day! In my every command we played Cricket every Sunday be it deserts or in High altitude and encourage people to read as much newspapers / jokes books/ . Family get together and picnics and parties have it at end of hard working day..
9 What I learned in Thermax ie Bet on Newcomers to join and stand by them. This is one lesson I learned from my three superiors in Thermax.
From one senior I learned: Look beyond existing comforts of own known acquaintance and bet on outsider to bring in his value addition. I also learned to always be completely honest even while committing any flaps. He was very comfortable with subordinates who admitted their mistakes but he fired subordinates who violated his trust, as two of my colleagues found out, much to their chagrin.
From the second senior I learned to trust my subordinates in a manner, win the enemy if he is a difficult one . Do not get me wrong. He was not a pushover. He was a very experienced head but he had a way of giving you the utmost freedom, appropriate to your level of responsibility and competence.
From current senior he allowed me the latitude and freedom to perform my duties that I still appreciate today. He treated me as a professional, in a manner that made me always want to do my best for our division and him.
10 I still need to keep learning more : While I learned much from my different COs , and various senior in Corporate, I also learned a lot from my own experiences in that role. One of the lesson I have learned was to be patient with those who were not doing their job in a way that was speed and timelines or were egoistic push over . Basically, it meant that I needed to be more adaptable, a realization that helped me in my many roles . I have now found a new matra for myself to be patient and practice this in my ever evolving leadership training : My Spirit ! Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,Courage to change the things I can, Wisdom to know the difference Patience for things that take time, Appreciations for all that I have,Tolerance for those with different struggles, Strength to get up and try again, Living One day at a Time, Enjoying one moment at a time .
Last but not the least develop principles that define how you will lead. Four principles that I used for guidance were: lead by example; set a high standard for performance; foster teamwork; and build a learning organization. To me, leading by example means that you do your job to the best of your ability and others in your organization will be encouraged to do their best. It also means that if your best is not good enough to get the job done – to achieve high performance – be prepared to turn the organization over to someone else and move into a different job more suited to your capabilities. Setting a high standard means setting one that is a stretch, though achievable with the right leadership and teamwork. Fostering teamwork means taking the time to train your organization so that people are trained to perform in multiple roles and know how to interact with each other to achieve a common goal – a high-performing organization that has a higher purpose.
Did I learn these leadership principles? Absolutely!. My father also a retired senior officer on day of my commissioning said: The essence of leadership is based neither on rank nor physical size. Never doubt that you are in a position to change the world and, by virtue of the authority vested in you as a company officer, that you have a responsibility to do so.
There were a few COs from whom I learned what not to do, but I worked mostly with COs and Heads who were a very positive influence on the leadership principles I use even today. They had to be worthy to command me. May your leadership journey be as fortunate!
