Life Coach - Step 59 of 100: Part II - How to make people obey your command without commanding

The problem with the methodology is that you have to work hard. Actually it is not a problem, but given the option to be lazy and choose the easy way out, it does become one.

So when you are on your prowl and find that the mines are not being laid correctly or the person holding the weapon on the firing range has a dheela pakad, you need to know what is the correct thing to do and that may mean revisiting the basics. I am not asking you to lay mines or be a marksman. But as a Commanding Officer if you show that you know the basics, everyone follows through. It is a problem of an echelon and also personality based system where we follow the idiosyncracies of the top layer.

Does it mean that you have to be in excellent grading in BPET and everything else? I had the opportunity of watching Saroj Khan instruct Madhuri Dixit. One is the coach the other the player. We expect Madhuri to scintillate the screen when she does her thumkas, jhatkas and the change in expressions in the twinkle of the eye. But it was Saroj Khan instructing her what to do and where to improve. Get the analogy. You are the Saroj Khan who will make the unit dance to the tune, you dont and cannot be the Madhuri, but you will coach her.

I have seen Anu Mallik composing music. Some of his compositions are memorable, my favourite being Border movie songs. He corrects the singers and says sing this note in this pitch, modulate this word here, stress this note, feel this para and blah blah. He does not have the golden voice of the singers and his album where he sung sucked. But he was a good coach. Get the anaology.

And if that means revisiting the basics, be it so. There is nothing to be ashamed of in learning what you are supposed to know. I taught my exisiting client CIO, Earned Value Management and he is 62 years and has been handling projects, budgets for past 10 years. He wanted to refresh his knowledge so that he could do his duty better. I hope that when I am 62 I have his desire to learn and to improve.

So where will you start point be for making people follow you. They dont expect you to be perfect. But they will follow in your footsteps if you show them the way.