AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 95 of 167 All of us are aware of the importance of advising in the Armed Forces. Motivational impulse turns some of our officers from mentors of their juniors into tormentors. Many of our veteran officers have received training at the staff college in the art of advising. I am not one of those fortunate veterans. Graduates from Wellington can be classified into five categories – The Vocalist, The Vocabularian, The Ventriloquist, The Violinist, and The Venturer. All of a sudden, these graduates are catapulted from advising their subordinates (mostly though military commands) to advising their seniors (always through dutiful submissions). The Vocalist prefers persuasive oral recommendations to written submissions because of his lack of writing skills. Also, that way he expects to bask in direct General limelight. The Vocabularian, on the other hand, is proud of his mastery of language, and weaves his thoughts into an entangled web of catchy phrases. His elaborate file noting is difficult to unravel even with the Oxford dictionary and causes General headaches. The Ventriloquist provides suggestions in the form of tales carried through clever manipulation of the voices of his colleagues who get subjected to General discomfort. The Violinist (who relishes his accompanying role) plays all his melodious (or odious) notes in complete harmony with the General tunes. The few odd Venturers are the ones who take risk by telling the truth, even the bitter truth. By and large, this class of Venturers, advance to the higher echelons of power for the General good order of the Armed Forces. How do you judge the quality of advice? Should you base it on its impact or the quality of the adviser? More often than not, it is bitter advice that yields sweet fruits, though such advice is more likely to be rejected. Strange it may sound that sound advice may yet come from men of dubious character. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, the tender words of the garrulous and pompous Polonius (whose constant meddling in the affairs of the state caused his own downfall) to his son who was about to go abroad for higher education, form one of the best advices in the dramas of Shakespeare. After dealing with humility, trusted friendship, thrifty living, and cautious speech – the timeless advice ends with the fabulous quote – ‘To thine own self be true.’ Having examined different facets of advising, it is time to learn a few techniques of advising. Three of them stand out in my mind – advising by personal example, advising on advisee’s strength and advising for societal good. Advising comes naturally to me. Remember almost four months back, I had voluntarily stressed on staying stress free during Corona lockdown. With ample details, I will illustrate these three techniques.