Leaders have a soul in the game, not just skin

Taking risks personally is one aspect, but enabling your team to play bold is another, writes Pavan Soni

When the fragile, Sanskrit-chanting 38-year-old theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer was asked to lead the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, his first task was to recruit the best and the brightest for an important yet uncertain mission. A full professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer hardly had any leadership, let alone military, experience. And yet he is dubbed as the ‘Father of Atomic Bomb’.

How did he manage to get the likes of Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Neils Bohr, Ernest Lawrence, and Hans Bethe, among other greats, to work under his leadership, let alone work together? He showed something bigger to the 2000-odd engineers and scientists: The Purpose. He was in it fully, not just with a skin in the game, but the very soul. 

Oppenheimer writes about his trepidations with the young recruits: ‘Many were put off by the military nature of the project and the notion of disappearing into the New Mexico desert for an indeterminate period. ... But there was another side to it. Almost everyone realized that this was a great undertaking. Almost everyone knew that if it were completed successfully and rapidly enough, it might determine the outcome of the war.’

It might appear to you as an easy sell, but it was nothing but that till Oppenheimer was in it, fully and irreversibly. That’s what the followers look at: Is my commander taking the bullet? 

Ever heard of General Sam Manekshaw? He was India’s first Field Marshal, a five-star General who never retires. ‘Sam Bahadur’, as he was fondly called, served in the Indian Army for over 50 years – spanning World War II, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. He was the hero of the 1971 war and was made a Field Marshal in 1973. 

What made him a standout leader? For that, let’s revisit the 1971 war, the last time India and Pakistan had a large-scale military rendezvous. For several months, persecuted East Pakistan refugees were making their way to India. India’s Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, decided that military action was in order, or else thousands of East Pakistanis would die in the hands of West Pakistan. The initial orders were for April 1971, but Gen. Manekshaw refused to engage in a war, as it would have meant a slow movement of his fleet towards Bengal, flooding of the Ganges basin, an open invitation to China to attack us and several other logistical limitations, ensuring a swift defeat. Finally, when he launched the assault on 3 December 1971, it was all over in 13 days. In less than a fortnight, the Pakistani army surrendered, and a nation was born – Bangladesh. 

The Indian Army took over 93,000 prisoners of war as an aftermath and held them for over 18 months. The way the Indian Army treated these prisoners of war was remarkable and historical. They slept in barracks, while the Indian soldiers slept in open tents. They were given the best food, medical care and even the Holy Quran. Gen. Manekshaw received a lot of flak from his leadership, including Indira Gandhi, but he retorted that these were soldiers, and they fought well and that it was his duty to take care of them. Little doubt he was a favourite across both sides of the border. 

That’s typical of the armed forces. When a newly commissioned officer joins a unit, he cannot step into the officer’s mess for the first two or three months. He must sleep with his men, cook food, clean the barracks, be a sentry for a couple of nights in a row, know each jawan’s family and their issues, and only when they think he is ready that he is allowed to step into the office’s mess.

In fact, in some Gorkha units, an officer is expected to speak Nepali fluently before being allowed to command them. And that’s why it’s said that your title makes you a manager, but your people make you a leader. Nothing can save you if your jawans do not trust you and know that you could lead them in the face of adversity. An officer’s appraisal is often written by his men, not his commanding officer. 

Let’s revisit the Manhattan Project. Here’s what Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb and the one who wasn’t a big fan of the man, says about Oppenheimer. ‘He knew how to organize, cajole, humour, soothe feelings – how to lead powerfully without seeming to do so. He was an exemplar of dedication, a hero who never lost his humanness.’ Mind it, Oppenheimer didn’t go to a B-School for that. He just led it from his heart and guts. 

Taking risks personally is one aspect, but enabling your team to play bold is another. And that’s where leaders differ markedly from managers. Leaders fuel risk; managers contain risk. Managers have a skin in the game, by leaders have their very sold invested. Hope you are committed to greatness.