The best books on practical leadership in the armed forces that I have read are the Follow Me series by Major General Aubrey S Newman, also known as Red Newman. In one of the chapters, Newman deals with the penchant of senior leadership to go into overdrive to do something petty or insignificant.
To illustrate, he brings out an instance when as a Major General he was going around a base by jeep and he spotted a soldier without a proper haircut. He said he was about to stop and correct the soldier when it occurred to him in a flash that by doing so he would undermine the complete system of hierarchy in his division. He also said that people at higher levels should be circumspect about pointing out such petty things lest these should become high priorities with people many echelons below.
These simple lessons were wasted on some of the officers that I had served with in my nearly 37 years of being in the Indian Navy.
One of them went to one of his ships and, when the tea was served to him, noticed that a tray with kettle of hot water, tea bags, hot milk dispenser, sugar cubes etc was brought in. He commented that the tea-bags perpetually contained the worst quality tea dust. He added that tea made in this manner tasted insipid to him since he otherwise really relished tea. He demanded that next time he visited a ship, he should be served tea brewed in traditional Indian manner complete with Elaichi and Masala.
He must have returned to his office and mentioned this in passing to his FOO (Fleet Operations Officer). Before long, detailed instructions on the making of tea on board had been issued complete with appendices and annexures. Fleet Admin Officer was not to be left behind in this melee to score brownie points. He instituted a return from the ships called ‘Dip Tea Return’ and at last count was merrily pulling up ships whose Dip Tea Returns were still awaited. Soon, the other returns from the ships became less important and ships competed with each other in certifying that for the last so many days at a stretch no one on board had gone anywhere near dip-tea.
Another such incident that comes to my mind is this of a senior officer realising one fine day that the good old tradition of navy personnel wearing shorts or knickers (Dress No. 8) was dying down. He got convinced that what separated (navy) men from (army and air-force) boys were knickers. So, he decreed that people at sea at all times and people in harbour on specified days should bare their limbs, from knees downwards, that is. Or, in short, wear shorts.
The long and short of it was that in the Command, men vied with one another to show as much leg as possible, so what if stockinged. The age old navy tradition of ‘wakey wakey rise and shine, show a leg’ was given a modern look.
When the Command had acquired cent per cent sea-legs, so as to say, the Navy Chief decided to pay us a visit. We were all lined up in knickers and stockings to be introduced to the Chief. The Chief came, he saw and he conquered us with this remark, “I wish I too had as lovely legs as yours to be able to wear knickers.”
We suddenly felt short-changed. Some officers, I concluded, are visionaries; others are knicker-sighted.
P.S. Try having masala-tea in knickers………………Ah, Taj!
P.P.S. On second thought knickers are better suited to do those naval things that you want to do, especially as senior officers, when long pants stand in the way of your plans.
P.P.P.S. Pot bellies and shorts never go……..well, hand-in-hand!
