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Uniqueness of the IDF
The following is a translation of remarks made by the IDF chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, to senior officers earlier this year:
Published in GeneralI want to tell you the essence of how to relate to people.
First, the human being is precious — precious, precious, precious. Not to take him for granted, whether he is an enlisted soldier or an officer.
Just be human towards others, it’s the simplest thing. To speak to a soldier, to call, to ask how are you.
You also have to be very demanding, but this is not a contradiction, it completes what being human is all about.
Every soldier in your unit should feel at home, that this is home — whether man, woman, religious, secular, Jew, Druze, or other. Everyone should feel at home. No one should feel threatened or pushed aside.
Not only is every person precious, but his time is precious, too.
But not only is a person precious, and not only is his time precious.
Family is precious, too.
Not only is family precious, but everyone’s private world is precious, too.
Taking leave is the norm. Taking leave once a week is the norm. If a husband needs to take leave to help his wife or a wife needs to take leave to help her husband, that’s the norm.
Be good parents. Be good husbands. Be good wives.
I want to be able to rely on you in these matters even more than where regular military orders and regulations are concerned.
That guy gets it. Period.
Most ethical army in the world. And yet reviled and faulted when generally blameless. They take a lot, these guys and gals. Yes, Kochavi gets it.
For me, it was especially precious to follow his words and passion in Hebrew and the English, too. Thanks, Yehoshua.
Wish American employers had a similar attitude. Some do, too few.
I’d like to roll this up and slap my employers with this, sharply, about the face, several times. We’re in a large-scale re-org right now, which seems to be giant air cover for “leadership to blow up existing departments and yes, potentially laying people off, even though they said they weren’t going to do that. “Ha ha!”, they said, when asked if that was part of the planning, if there were people left with no roles in the new organization.
“Ha!” they said, and “We’re not going to do that”, and “our organization supports our employees”, etc.
Organizations don’t tend to treat people like people. It rewards leadership with an approach that’s entirely opposite to that, to its own obvious detriment.
Well, it’s obvious to everyone but them. Obviously.
IDF soldiers give thanks:
The head of the IDF is a politician, in the sense that he or she requires the direct approval of high level politicians to hold that position.
Every military service, regardless of country has a hurry up and wait component. That alone means time is wasted. So call me skeptical.
Maybe if the soldier is an office worker. But every effective military service, and the IDF is very effective, is going to put the mission first.
So call me skeptical on that too.
I’m not challenging him regarding his feelings towards his soldiers and their preciousness, but in the end, his job is to send his soldiers into harm’s way if it’s necessary. And at his level, he doesn’t even know their names.