Leadership Lesson from Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

Leadership is one of the most written and discussed topic, I have written many posts on the subject. Some time ago I came across a lecture by Field Marshal Manekshaw on the subject, which de delivered at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. I am sharing the excerpts from his lecture which I transcribed.

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw (April 3, 1914 –June 27, 2008), popularly known as ‘Sam Bahadur’, was one of the greatest military commanders India’s had. Manekshaw was a decisive leader and able listener who always considerate to those under his command. Almost always finishing his own work in an hour, he would often spend the rest of his time floating from one office to another, dropping in on harried juniors and eagerly helping them with their tasks. In fact, his colourful language and irreverent jokes were known to set off tidal waves of mirth through the army headquarters.

Whenever I see a newspaper I see shortages, there is shortage of food, there is a shortage of foreign exchange, there is shortage of housing, shortage of schools, colleges, everywhere, and everyone talks about these shortages. But the one shortage which is responsible for all these shortages, is generally glossed over, which is the shortage of leadership,   There is shortage of leadership in every walk of life and it is not just political leadership, it is leadership in every walk of life, whether it is political, administrative, in educational institutions, in our sports organization, in our industry, amongst labor, amongst law and order contingents there is a shortage of leadership.

What are the attributes of leadership? There are many attributes. The cardinal attributes of leadership is professional knowledge and professional competence; you’ll agree that you cannot be born with professional knowledge. Professional knowledge has to be acquired the hard way, it is the constant study. Professors, engineers, architects, lawyers, solicitors, doctors they all have studied their professions, continuously. They all contribute to magazines, to newspapers to all sorts of things. But we in India as soon as we reach positions of power, we think we are the repository of all knowledge. Professional knowledge has to be acquired the hard way, and without professional knowledge you can never have professional competence and if you haven’t got professional competence, you cannot be a leader.  Professional knowledge is a sine qua non of leadership. You have to have professional competence if you are expected to lead. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the Army or in a teaching profession; whether you are in industry unless you have professional competence and professional knowledge you cannot be a leader. It has to come the hard way, You have to study all your life.

The ability to make up your mind and take a decision, and having taken that decision accepting full responsibility for that decision. Those of us who have suffered at the hand of superiors, who cannot take a decision, know what it is like. An act of omission is much worse than an act of commission.  An act of commission can be put right, even if the decision is wrong, by colleagues, by subordinates, by somebody, but an act of omission cannot be put right. Why does a person not take a decision? Because, he lacks confidence. Why does he lack confidence? Because he lacks professional knowledge and competence. Do you know how much money is lost in the country because someone does not take a decision? Cost escalates, paper lie on someone’s desk for days, for months, for years; and when they finally take a decision, the cost of the project has gone up tenfold, and as a consequence the people suffer. So the second important attribute for leadership is ability to take the decision. Take a decision and stand by it. Don’t pass the buck on your subordinates, it’s your decision.  

The third important attribute of leadership is  - Absolute justice and impartiality. No man likes being punished, and yet, men will accept punishment, if they know that everybody who commits that sort of a crime gets the same sort of punishment. They may not like it, they may not like you, but they will respect you. No man likes being superseded and yet, people will accept supersession, if they know it has been done fairly and they have been superseded by someone who is better than them.   

Moral and physical courage is the next important attribute of leadership. What is moral courage? Moral courage is the ability to distinguish right from wrong and having distinguished that, you must have the courage to stand up and say your piece, irrespective of what your superior thinks, irrespective of your colleagues, irrespective of your subordinates. You must have the courage to say so. A “Yes Man” is a horrible man. He must be shunned, he is a disgrace. He may rise very high, He may reach very powerful position of authority, but he will never become a leader. He will be used by his superiors, he will be disliked by his colleagues, and his subordinates would have no respect for him. Moral courage is essential.

There is small story to demonstrate the practice of moral courage – In 1970, when General Yahya Khan put all the pressure to East Pakistan, as it was then, and refugees started coming to India. There was a cabinet meeting. I was summoned; I had a very strong Prime Minister in Mrs. Gandhi, who ranted and raved saying what are you doing about it, so many refugees are coming in to India, what are you doing about it. I said nothing. She said I want you to go in and take action. I said do you know what it means madam Prime Minister. She looked, I said it means war, and she said, I don’t mind if there is a war. I said are you ready, I am not ready, I am not prepared, it is not the right time to go in. The monsoon will break very shortly and whole of the east Pakistan will be a swamp. I will not be able to operate; their force will not be able to operate. April is the month when we gather the harvest. I said I will require every railway wagon, I will require every train, I will require all the road space to move my troops, and you will not be able to move your harvest, and then if there is a famine, don’t blame me. And I said the passes in the Himalayas start opening now, the snow melts and then if the Chinese give us an ultimatum I will have to fight on two fronts, then the external affairs minister, a Khalsa Sardar Swarn Singh said, do you think China will give ultimatum? I said you are the foreign minister, you tell me. And my own minister Jagjivan Ram who couldn’t call me Sam, he called me Shaam. He said Shaam maan jaao na. I told him Ye koi maan ne ki baat hai?, I am telling you the facts are. And I told them if you want me to do this prime minister, I guarantee you one hundred percent defeat. Now prime minister give me  your orders. And there was dead silence, and she turned around and told cabinet will meet at 4 o’clock. This happened at 10.30 in the morning. So, as the cabinet ministers walked out, I as a junior most man was last to go, she said Chief will you stay behind. So I shut the door and I said, prime minister before you speak, do you wish me to send in my resignation on grounds of health mental or physical? She said sit down, everything you told is correct. I said it’s my job to fight; it’s my job to tell you. If your father in 1952 had me as his commander in chief, the country would not have been disgraced, the army would not have been beaten. But the army chief did not have the moral courage turning around and telling he wasn’t ready. She said, do you know what I want, I said yes I know what you want, and I must be allowed to do it my own way, she said all right,”

I just gave you an illustration of moral courage. Now about physical courage.

Fear is a natural phenomenon like hunger and sex, anyone who says he is not frightened is a liar, except perhaps the Gorkha. Everyone is frightened. It is one thing to be frightened and quite another to show fear, if your knees are knocking and your teeth are chattering and you are about to make your own geography, that’s when the real leader comes out. If once you show fear in front of the men that you may be commanding, once you show fear you should quit. I would give an example from my own experience. This was in Burma in 1942, I was commanding a Sikh company, big tough chaps. I had a man called Sohan Singh, big man, stood about 6 foot 4. He had been promoted many times, from lance nayak to nayak because he was a badmash and he was broken, we had lots of causalities and we had to make promotions. So, we had a promotion conference with the commanding officer, and Sohan Singh’s name came up and I said no use making him, he’d be broken tomorrow, so he was passed over,

The conference finished, names were published, I came back to my Basha, where my company was in the jungle, and I found my senior subedar Balwant Singh terribly worried and he said Sahab, Sohan Singh ko quaid kar diya.

I said kyon? Kya hua?

Usne bola ki aaj aap ko sahib goli marega.

I said Oh,  achchha, Peshi ho.

A stool was put in a table was set there, and Sohan Singh was marched up in front of me. Sohan Singh at that time was a light machine gunner, and light machine gunner carried pistol, and his pistol was taken away from him. So, he marched up in front of me. The usual charge was read out. I said Sohan Singh kya baat hai?

Sahab Galti ho gaya.

I said, tumne bola ki tum humko goli marega.

So I picked up the pistol, loaded it, walked up to him and handed him

– Tera dil hai marne ka maro.

He said no sahib galti ho gaya.

I said case dismissed jao bhago.

I went off to the mess, had my dinner came back. Everyone in the company was very worried Subedar Sahab Balwant Singh, said nahi sahib aaj raat aap ko wo goli marega. So I shouted out, Sohan Singh kidhar hai, he came along,

I said Sohan Singh, aaj raat mera baasha par tum sentry hoga. Aur kal subah paanch baje ek magga chai aur ek magga pani dadhi banana ke liye. Koi Shaq?

And I went in there. I was woken up in the morning by Sohan Singh, with a mug of tea, and a mug of hot water, and he followed  me like a lamb throughout the conflict. If you think I wasn’t frightened, you are mistaken, I was terrified but if I hadn’t done that and put Sohan Singh under arrest or something, everybody would have said, dekha hamara sahib darta hai.

Just an example, how often at times of riot and all that, some young sargent, nothing but a stick in his hand walked in and quelled everything by showing courage.

So, physical courage is essential to leadership.

This brings us to the next attribute, Loyalty. We all expect loyalty from our subordinates, do we give them loyalty? Loyalty is a two way thing, we expect loyalty, we have to give loyalty. Do we give loyalty to our colleagues? In leadership, you expect loyalty, you got to give loyalty.

Leadership is nothing but management of men and resources. Men, have problems, men in numbers can be very nasty and a leader must be able to deal with them, very firmly. But remember men may have problems. So the leader must deal with them with a human touch, he must have a sense of humor.

No amount of leadership would put things right unless the leader has discipline and character. Discipline is a code of conduct for a decent living in society with one another. Non punctuality is an act of ill-discipline which is injurious to the state injurious to its people.