PRACTICED LEADERSHIP-2 : YOU LEARN MORE FROM ‘WHAT NOT TO BE’ THAN ‘WHAT TO BE’

PRACTICED LEADERSHIP-2 : YOU LEARN MORE FROM ‘WHAT NOT TO BE’ THAN ‘WHAT TO BE’

Why there are no ‘leaders’ in politics, no military ‘leaders’ in military and no industry ‘leaders’ in industry? FM Sam Manekshaw and Ratan Tata have carried the burden for decades in life & (FM Manekshaw) in death too. Why does the list end here?

Leaders have common traits

Politics and Leadership

Army and Leadership

Industry and Leadership

Competence to talk about Leadership

Who is a Leader?

Do you have to be a Manekshaw or Tata to be a leader? Not at all. Each one of us is a leader in our daily workspace. Become one.

Leaders have common traits

Having spent 25 years in Army and 15 in Industry, I have seen leadership inside out. I simply compare the military and industry leadership and find only one thing in common, traits. It is not the military or industry, but the individual that matters. Successful military leaders or successful industrialists have common traits. If the common traits are developed deliberately over a period, you need not worry. You WILL succeed where ever you are.

Youth Leadership is the hope for future. Youth will be our workforce, entrepreneurs, politicians and will occupy the entire work spectrum. They need to learn correct things. Please understand that you learn more from ‘what not to be’ than ‘what to be’.

Politics and Leadership

Politicians are not ‘leaders’ in strict terms. Manipulation is the strongest muscle of a successful leader. Gandhi to Modi, none has ever inspired me. Those who have inspired me are nowhere on horizon. Politicians are as much about power, as is military about ranks and industry about money. So far as the three achieve their respective goals, ‘means’ don’t matter. Can leadership qualities be, manipulation? opportunism? self-centeredness?

‘Political – Leadership’ is an oxymoron. They both cannot exist. ‘Politician’ cannot be a leader and ‘Leadership’ is not the entitlement of politicians. 

Let’s take an example of ‘leadership’ during emergency like situation of COVID lockdown and “Liquor Shops”:

-Liquor Shops opened in Delhi by AAP, opposed by BJP.

-In UP, opened by BJP, opposed by Congress.

-In Punjab, opened by Congress, opposed by AAP.

-In Maharashtra, opened by Shiv Sena, opposed by BJP.

Not one party has a stand. They all have manipulation at core. Leadership is about steady credibility of your actions. Do you see any here? Public service is all about commitment to look after nation and people. Common people of different states are being subjected to logic that benefits the person making it.

Army and Leadership

Not one person analyses reasons for ‘absence of leadership’ in the Army. Up to 1980-85, Infantry officers knew about all battalions of all the regiments, Artillery officers knew all units so did with Armoured officers, all were masters within their respective arms. 1992 was my 10th year in service and I had no clue how big Artillery was. So was the case with Infantry & Armoured corps.

Expansion (1983-87), Op PAWAN (1988-90), raising of 35-40 RR Bns (1993-94) & the Valley under fire in the 90’ was beyond the capability of Army to handle. The 1983-93 decade required the strongest leadership which could see 20-25 years ahead. We not only failed in that but had absolutely mediocre officers on the top. Army reaps 20 years after it sows’ We sowed RANKS, not leadership, everyone knows how to get a rank, none paid attention to leadership.

One should realise that conventional war and conventional threat trained commanding officers and complete chain right till top, finished in Jun 1984. 35 years thereafter were filled with expansion. Op Bluestar, Op Pawan, Kashmir Insurgency, Rashtriya Rifles expansion, Op Kargil – all were packed tightly in 15 years. The number of Commanding Officers tripled. The number of Brigadiers to Lt Generals remained same.

Junior Capts of 1984 did not command units in Kargil. Hence, during 1984-1999 we had a very confused concoction of command at all levels. GOC’s and above had never operated in CI at Company level, and Bde Cdrs and below ‘knew’ seniors to be with no ground experience. Kargil came at the very end of this 15 yrs. (1984-1999) period which had ‘Rudderless Leadership’. From commanding unit to Army, there was no sync. Conventional War to CI ops divided so called ‘leaders’. Junior officers would know how to please Commanding Officers. Senior officers with no ground experience visited units with famous question “How many kills?” Aim of officers was simple. Rib Bands, Awards, ACR- rest could go to hell. COs wanted Awards & Higher Command Courses and Brigadiers wanted NDC.

Leadership was lost forever.

Industry and Leadership

Industry leadership has been redefined by money. How it comes has no bearing. There is absolutely nothing to write about leadership in industry. Take a recent example of Mr Anand Mahindra offering retired military officers ‘jobs’ in his company.

Do not be mistaken, there are no ‘free’ jobs. Anand Mahindra announces that he will take ‘Tour on Duty’ released officers. There is no place for retired-released-and-‘would be’ released armed forces personnel wanting to join the industry. Anand Mahindra is smart. He will pick up cheapest trained labour form the market and make it look like a philanthropical contribution.

There is NO place for an armed forces personnel with IIM Degrees in the main verticals of industry. ‘Combat Arms’ of industry are the revenue generating verticals and rest all like HR, Security, Cyber Security, Administration, Audit, Facility Management, Brand Protection and more such jobs are equal to ‘Services”. The entire ‘combat arms’ armed forces personnel land up in ‘services’ segment of industry.

We do not require ‘smart’ leadership, we need ‘honest’ leadership.

Competence to talk about leadership

Leadership is about Credibility and Character. These are prerequisites. Commitment and Capability follow. Contribution comes last. Assuming one is credible because one was a successful army leader is the biggest misconception. ‘Posts’ and ‘positions’ do not produce leadership. You will not feel or regret anything at all due to mistakes committed if you are not a ‘leader’ from within.

Leadership is not about compromises. Leader must be like a flawless diamond. Leaders would follow a self-set value system that the environment knows and sticks to it. Leadership is not the entitlement of Military, in fact, today it has a vacuum of leadership. I am ashamed of my generation having failed to be beacons. 

A leader must have credibility and extending same logic, any person who talks about ‘Leadership’ must be credible. If I say, leaders must have credibility and they should have undergone the grind, I must first put my past and present in front of you.

Is Col Sanjay Pande, i.e. me, credible? Yes. I have credibility and hence, I must open myself to public scrutiny. I invite everyone to ask me anything about my life, military, and industry career. Be blunt. Transparency is my strength. I use Twitter to establish my credibility. I lend myself to open, blunt and honest scrutiny by everyone. Ask me and I will respond. No response will be deleted. You will get to know source of my courage. Whatever I say or write must be ‘cross-checkable’. I must find ways to prove my credibility in this digital bit-byte world. I am not in touch with anyone and must find ways to establish credibility. I respond individually on my LinkedIn.

Who is a leader?

A leader generates confidence in juniors just by being human. He accepts that he is as human as they are. As honest. As truthful. As sincere. As determined to fight again. Being leader is about being sincere and not being a super-human. “Leadership” is at “Flawless diamond” standard and, hence, so rare to find. It’s a quest of lifetime to find one and hard work of lifetime to become one. Imitations, on the other hand, are so easy to find. 

What should a leader do when they make a mistake? Simply accept responsibility and shield those under him. He is responsible. Simply accepts. Why should a leader give up the ‘position’ of leadership? It never belonged to him. He owns his leadership. He keeps that. Positions will come and go. He does not need to regain confidence of juniors. He always has it by being a ‘leader’.

Leadership is learnt on daily basis. It is learnt along the way. To learn ‘leadership’ one needs to have a teacher with life experiences who has undergone the grind, practised leadership, has not lived a dual life & has achievement to be proud of despite sticking to one’s values for decades. Look around. Scan your life. Do you see one? How do you stick to values and still wade through cesspool of industry, politics, military, workplace, in fact, life? First and foremost, select a person from whom you want to learn. Selection of right person is the key. Leadership cannot be taught from PowerPoint presentations.

People can search on Google, go to college, attend seminars, leadership development courses and pay in Lakhs. There still are no leaders. Reason? ‘Practised Leadership’ and ‘Facade of Leadership’ are opposite. Characteristics of leader? Same. What is different then?

Difference between what I share and what you read in books is that mine is PRACTISED LEADERSHIP.

I will write more. I mentor youth. If you are interested use ‘reply’, ‘comment. Or ‘feedback’ button on the website.