Sunday, September 27, 2015

Are Senior Officers Respected by their Juniors...?

Recently I heard a few young “faujis” expressing their frank and honest opinions about senior officers.

Their comments were far from flattering.

These candid remarks reminded me of a small article I had posted sometime ago.

Here it is.

Military Officer Like Qualities (OLQ) = MORAL ASCENDANCY
Ramblings of a Retired Navy Veteran
By
VIKRAM KARVE

As a young officer in the Navy  I used to ask myself:

“If I remove my badges of rank  then why should a sailor willingly obey me?”

The answer I gave to myself was: “A sailor will obey me if he respects me.

And to respect me  the sailor should feel that I am “better” than the sailor.

Yes  an officer will be respected by his men only if his men believe that the officer is “better” than them.

Those days  I could not exactly define what the term “better” meant.

Now  I realize that the term “better” means “moral ascendancy”.

Your juniors will willingly obey you if they “respect” you.

And  you must have “moral ascendancy” over your subordinates in order to gain their “respect”.

Thus, “moral ascendancy” in officers  especially senior officers  is an essential prerequisite for discipline in the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Moral Ascendancy is the most important Officer Like Quality (OLQ) for a Defence Officer.

You have to attain moral ascendancy before you demand respect.

Genuine respect does not come from authority.

Genuine respect comes from “moral ascendancy”.

A good officer never has to use the power of his rank to command his men.

His men will willingly obey him because of his “moral ascendancy”.

That is why the most important aspect of selection and training of officers is to ensure that they have “moral ascendancy” over the men they are going to command.

If you talk to young military officers – you will realize that senior officers have lost “moral ascendancy”.

Senior officers need to introspect why they have lost “moral ascendancy” over their juniors – as a consequence of which they seem to have lost the respect they ought to command.

VIKRAM KARVE
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All stories in this blog are a work of fiction. Events, Places, Settings and Incidents narrated in the stories are a figment of my imagination. The characters do not exist and are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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