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As mentioned earlier, the intellectual world today gives importance to EQ more than the IQ.
Further, the concept of SQ (Skill Quotient) has been added to this. You must have observed some
people are more neat and orderly. They do not mess up whereas others are clumsy, wasteful and rather
disorganised. Organisation does not only refer to skillful deployment and manipulation of resources but
also the ability to scan through the environment and observe, improvise or guess the availability of
necessary resources. Mental faculties like observation and imagination play maximum in honing the
organising skill. Of course training, exposure and richness of one’s childhood environment are very
important factors in shaping the organising skills.

Saving Grace !
Husband came late in the evening and declared that some highwaymen had robbed him on the way “They
took away my wallet, ring, wristwatch, documents and my bike also at knife point”, he told in a tired voice. “But
you had your pistol with you ……”, the wife was amazed. “That is saved sweetheart. Thank God, they did not
see that”, assured the husband.

Lesson 5
What the Selection Boards Look in You

Armed Forces are to perform the role of a saviour and hence any compromise on the quality of its
human composition would be suicidal. And it is for this purpose that the Armed Forces have adapted a
very unique and scientific method of selecting their officer cadre. We find all of you upto the mark of
a good gentlemen, but we cannot recommend everyone as we are bound under certain job
specifications. We also know that a cool minded person can give better responses/reactions to all
of our situations, but we only recommend those who come up out of extreme odds. This procedure of
selection has stood the test of time. It has proved effective, economical and easy to operate. But the
most important feature of this system is its uniqueness. Beyond every doubt this system has its
Psychological base , and further fool-proof and scientific. A person who does not get through

the fault is lying with him Not with the system . My following citation will exemplify the testimony
to the above scientific fact—
Our army has fought ‘5’ wars and has carried out a number of operations. These wars have been fought in
1947-48, 62, 65, 71, 1999 and a number of operations like operation Blue Star, Bajrang, Rhino, Khukhuri and
the Sadbhavana etc. But the largest operation we are carrying is insurgency operation since 1988. I am proud to
say that neither our system, Jawans nor our officers have yet failed, flopped or have been subjected to omission.
As any employer, Armed Forces also had tried different means and methods for selection of
officers cadre in the past. They earlier relied on traditional thought of ‘blue blood’ more than anything
else till about the early years of twentieth century. Then the rising temper of scientific probe swept the
world across. Scientific researches proved that it was not the heredity alone that decided the worth and
achievement of a person. His environment plays an important role equally. The interplay of heredity
and environment results into uniqueness of behavioural pattern of any person, which is referred to as
‘personality’.
The Armed forces were the first among the few organisations to realise the fact that success of any
person depends on his behavioural qualities and hence thorough scanning of qualities must be made of
the job aspirants. Armed Forces refer to these qualities as Officer Like Qualities (OLQs). As of now,
the list of OLQs includes fifteen qualities. These qualities are grouped into four categories (Factors).
Lists of these qualities are placed below:—