Military Leadership Challenges: Navigating Complexities of 21st Century

Character building and the importance of character qualities must be given its rightful place in the system, both in the confidential reports and while evaluating officer’s potential for senior appointments. Character development must form an essential structured curriculum for training at all levels.    The honour code of the Indian Military Academy is to be followed – ‘Service Before Self’’ must be practised. To ensure this there is a need to teach and inculcate high moral standards at the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. The performance of officers then should be monitored to ensure high standards. It is the responsibility of the commanders to strictly ensure that officers who do not come up to the desired level should not be allowed to progress in their career, or else at a later stage they will let this great and respected organisation down.

Selection for Higher Leadership        It is a uniform experience in all countries that while enduring long spells of peace, it is invariably the self-seeking, hard-working and pliable officers who forge ahead.  Also, those who master the techniques of public relations to promote their image, forge ahead.  Consequently, it is one of the most difficult tasks of selectors to ensure that such climbers are not entrusted with the responsibilities of the higher command, because under the stress of battle, they are likely to collapse.  Spotting potential higher military commanders and then grooming them is the most important job of the formation commanders.  Senior military commanders must maintain the tradition of knowing their men better than their mothers do. A senior officer needs to rise above his likes and dislikes, regimental or other considerations and exercise ruthless objectivity when he sits in judgment over the future advancement of officers under him.  The concept of Behavioral Scientists/ psychologist inputs for higher rank selection also needs consideration.

Leadership Doctrine.  This doctrine should provide the basis for leaders in the twenty-first century to meet the challenges for value-based Defence Forces: accomplish the mission and look ahead. It must address leaders at all levels and integrate leadership terms, specific codes of conduct, values, attributes, and skills. The leadership doctrine must provide a philosophy to get a comprehensive view of life. A leadership doctrine that supports a particular type of warfighting approach for future battlefields and which is dependent on individual initiative and the “Auftragstaktik” directive style of command duly integrated with the operational doctrine is the need of the hour. Efforts to encourage prudent risk-taking on the part of subordinates require almost herculean energies if they are to prevail against the tide of hierarchical conservatism must be addressed. Transformational leadership, by the enlightened use of inspiration, communication and understanding of human behaviour by higher leadership should be an intrinsic part of the doctrine.

Visioning. Visioning and macro analysis must be progressively imbibed in the development training of leaders for the higher direction of war. The concept of visioning aims at coordinating actions to ensure a common shared joint vision across the armed forces, inculcation of values necessary to achieve that vision and prioritisation based on those values. It is the prime and collective responsibility of higher military leadership to establish purpose, vision, values, goals, and objectives. Thus, higher leadership should be trained and competent in laying down a vision with a clearly defined methodology and end state. Visioning can be taught at each level through exposure to higher planes and formal training during courses wherein students are taught not how to do a thing, but how to think.  Clausewitz said, “War is the realm of uncertainty, three fourth of the factors on which action is based are wrapped in a fog of lesser or greater uncertainty.”

Keeping Pace with Emerging Technologies. An imperative for higher leadership is a clear comprehension of emerging technologies and their implication for future warfare. A nation’s technological vision is a critical forerunner in matters of national security.  Our higher leadership must be “techno-savvy” and ensure we do not lag in this modernisation race, as has been the case with our recent armour night fighting capability. Winston Churchill very aptly put it, “To every man, there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered that chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work”.

Institutionalising Change.  Introducing change in all organisations is fundamentally problematic since there are strong forces for stability. The institutionalisation of change is however essential for the military in preparing for the future battlefield. Creating an image of the system (paradigm) and reinforcing it is one of the most important roles of higher military leadership. This would compensate for some of the detailed and direct control which is given up with decentralisation. In essence, indirect control can be exercised to the extent that decisions at lower levels emerge from high commitment on the part of lower-level commanders and leaders to shared perspectives and values. Therefore, it is the bounded duty of top leadership to institutionalise the management of change and communicate the same to avoid turbulence in the organisation.

Imbibing Management Techniques.  At higher ranks, an officer manages and leads more and more in an atmosphere of ambiguity. Thus in the future battlefield environment, imbibing management techniques and scientific methods to reduce ambiguity and enhance leadership development is an inescapable requirement. Therefore, the study of behavioural science and systems leadership concept described earlier, duly adapted to our environment and military system merits examination.

Leadership as a By-product of Spirituality.  Character is the foundation of leadership.  It is also amply clear that spirituality aims at the spiritual growth of a person through a moral/ethical route.  There is thus a definite linkage between character building and spirituality.  Thus, leadership is a by-product of the spiritual growth of a person.  If one studies the scriptures and understands the culture and heritage of India, it would be quite revealing that spirituality can enhance leadership. For example, Karma is the fruits, the good or evil effects, of action. The action of itself is a manifestation of energy. So, every action, be it physical, mental, or spiritual is energy in motion. Energy by itself is devoid of emotion and so is not bound by the conditioning of good and evil. Energy is energy, vibrating at a subtle or gross frequency. Appropriately, the effects of each of our actions are either good or evil, only in the sense that we may define good or evil. Good actions may be simply defined as those that serve to bring about harmony in the internal and external states of the body, mind, and soul, and evil actions as those that strengthen the fetters of ‘maya’ and imprison us further in the cocoon of ignorance. They are relevant and focus on direction, so essential in assisting us in achieving peace of mind and fulfilment. Therefore, emphasis must be laid on inculcating Indian value systems, including spiritual values, meditation, and Yoga in our curriculum as a step towards self-development for effective leadership at all levels.

Self-Development and Self-Realisation.  Self-development is the key to improving our leadership potential.  Sai Baba said: “Master yourself and you can master anything”. The higher leaders need to introspect to ascertain where they may be going wrong and correct themselves. The final arbitrator is the inner voice; every individual knows whether he/she is doing the right or the wrong thing. The need is to have strong character to be able to put aside the easy wrong and adopt the right path. To succeed in breaking away from deeply embedded negative habits involves clarity in our minds on ‘what, why and how we want to transform. If we want to be masters of our destiny by transformation, we must invest substantially in the main instrument that will give us this mastery – ourselves. The essential inputs for this transformation are time, patience, and willpower to persist. Its effectiveness depends on the strength and balance of the universal inner structure of the leader.