“Rails joined with each other in a railway” Does that could ever happen? If so let’s see how it could happen. It is better to extract something up to understandable level before it is going to be explained. What are socio- economic norms? Socio-economic norms mean how social activities combine with economic situations and bring an output with a process of mix results. Who are military leaders? let’s take it with a simple definition as “ leaders who lead their subordinates in battle fields as well as in other military activities”. These two terms will be explained further with a great combination of these two meet just like rails in a railway. Do not get confused with what have mentioned above. Does ever rails meets in a railway? The answer is “yes”. But how? Those are running on “Tie beams” and the gap filled by them as well as joining “rails” with each other with a deferent manner. Military leaders and socio-economy going on two deferent paths and those two connect with each other with the lifestyle of human from the beginning of human race. Why do we need war? Is it important? No we do not need war. But as mentioned before from the beginning of our race war is there. We cannot change it unless all the human beings way of thinking becomes same. So as long as it could never happen, we must prevent it or take precaution for that wound called war. So we are here for that. That is what we are doing for the greater good of our race. In the way of moving towards, military persons also should live. For that they require a fair economical support from the public. With the development of the human way of living, deferent cultures, deferent economic backgrounds come and deferent way of thinking develops inside human brain. Then it comes to new way of socio-economy. Time by time it effects with the military also. In past the gap between military leaders and subordinates larger than now. But as mentioned before time is deferent now. The gap between military leaders and subordinates becoming smaller because of those followers educational background and economical background is better than the past. Due to that it could be hard to maintain the leadership with subordinates thoughts. Is it that much hard?
2. In the beginning of Training of officers and sailors it becomes almost same because they all come from same society and almost same backgrounds. Sometimes their educational backgrounds move closer than the past. So sailors starts to think like “why do we follow them, they are almost same like us”. Then they start to think that “ok, let’s call them as sir and let’s do what they say if it is easy for us to do”. This theory may little bit valid for land bases during peace era. But it is not valid for a battle field. Unless sailors won’t listen to orders or sailors stop believing on their leader, certainly it would be the end of all their lives. Not following leaders will end up with a payback from military person’s lives. Earlier days sailors didn’t had much time to think on matters like that. But now the time is different. All of them have plenty of time to be on their own to think freely. So as leaders those who still have long way to move through this path have to be very concern on this matter. There are several ways to overcome these challenges. But before that it is better to go deep down on such challenges.
First issue is the mind and thoughts. Some sailors have good educational background. For an example GCE Advance level completed by both sailors and officers even the results is different. Both sailors and officer’s family backgrounds are almost same. When it comes to some naval civilians of sports pools their family backgrounds are higher than officers. So there is a chance that some sailors grab such a view via them. At the same time knowledge of sailors and officers could be the same in sailor’s specialization. Economy is another issue. It may not fair to mention what is going to say next. Without using the exact word it could explain as the economic support given by the government for military persons monthly. So that gap also could be an issue. Sailors might thing we all get the same from government why do we serve them like slaves? That also an issue of their mind, following a leader is not slavery. But unfortunately some sailors think like that and they try not to follow orders of officers sometimes. During the training period sailors and officers moves together in some situation. But that is for well understanding of sailor’s life for officers for a better command. At the same time some sailors might get that wrong and they might think that we all have trained together, so why do we follow them.so how do young officers command them?
3. The answer is simple; leadership does not depend on socio-economy or another matter that I had discussed before. So to overcome all those issues, First officers must think as their self as leader as well as act as leaders. During our school period do we ever think about socio- economy or any other matter when some of us act as prefect Or class monitors? At that moment we only think as that I’m the leader. That’s how we lead. In sports that we plays, is there a socio-economy for team leaders? At those situation, it also a kind of commanding when you control or move your team. Is there a socio-economy for animals when they make one of them as leaders and follow him? Leadership only depends on leadership nothing else. But in battle field you must be the best leader above all of them. So for that young officer must build-up their leadership qualities to face the messed-up minds of sailors. With the development and globalization of the world, leadership became a major theme to discuss. So there by grab good ideas and learn about leadership qualities from what all the officers being trained. As a suggesting it is better to upgrade officers training schedule with more leadership building qualities. At the same time insert “why do sailors need to follow orders, what is the outcome and who is a real leader” for sailors training schedule. By that at the end of the training there will be a better understanding and it will be easy to command if you are a good leader without the interference of socio-economy or any other relevant matter.
4. This discussion stared with “Rails joined with each other in a railway”. But if those rails touched together the train called “leader who commands for victory” would not run, so that’s why it uses “Tie beams”. Those tie beams of lifestyle must make with thought of leadership. Learn from Lieutenant General Denzil Kobbekeduwa as well as from Hitler and that is the only way you can lead your subordinates. Make them trust you and be a good example for them. All the officers and sailors of Sri Lanka Navy born with soul of a blue whale and a heart of a lion. All of you serving for mother Sri Lanka must remember who you are. Young officers, we are the future, do not just try to be leaders of lions, just remember you are the leaders of lions by your heart. That is the only answer for any kind of issue even what it called as a socio-economy.