Reflective Account On Interpersonal Communication

Journal 1 - Perception
Description
Context: This is a conversation is a conversation between myself and a soldier of mine. I have been her NCO for about 5 months now.
Interaction: There was an occurrence at PT (Physical Training) in which one soldier was feeling sick during our PT session and stopped exercising and sat down because he wasn’t feeling well. At this point, our 1SG (the person in charge of the company) stopped what he was doing, walked to the soldier and asked him what was going on. The soldier told him that he wasn’t feeling well, so 1SG told him to go to the doctor. The soldier refused and said that he was trying to recuperate so that he could continue working out with the group. 1SG then got upset and told him that he had
two choices, go to the doctor or start working out, but that he wasn’t going to be sitting down while everyone else was working out. To this, the soldier got up and left to the hospital and meanwhile 1SG waked away with another NCO and told him that he got frustrated with that soldier because he always gives up. Everyone overheard this, but continued to work out and finish exercising as if nothing had happened. Today, one of my soldier spoke to me about soldier X (the soldier that went to the hospital), she said that she was highly upset our 1SG for being so hard on him about him being sick. She also stated that soldier X has problems with his heart and that 1SG shouldn’t have been so hard on him. She said she understood that he has had incidences similar to those happen in the past, but it wasn’t like he did it every day. She also said that she felt like soldier X was a good soldier, a leader and that 1SG could’ve handled it better and not make the rude comment he made after the soldier left. I gave her my input and what I thought in regards to the matter. Which I will mention later. After my talk with the soldier, ironically, 1SG (my first line) asked to speak to me. We talked about office issues and one thing led to the other, and the conversation about soldier X came up. 1SG explained to me that he saw a lot of potential in soldier X. That he had an understanding that the soldier had a heart condition, but that he had spoken to his doctor and that the doctor had told him that the soldier should be able to perform PT without any restrictions. He also said that he did get highly angry at the soldier for giving up that day. He explained that he was hard on him because want him to get better and grow to the potential that he has, and that if the soldier doesn’t like it, that he didn’t care.
His job is to build his potential. So I explained, just as I did to my soldier, what I thought. Which was the following; I see both perspectives. The soldier has “given up” in some PT sessions, but he also breaks the profile he does have daily, so that people know that he is pushing himself and not working his profile. Now, the soldier had confided in me, and had been telling me about his chest pains three, consecutive days prior to the PT session where he had to leave. He had also been staying up for four days until 1 in the morning moving boxes because he was supposed to move barracks one week and at 5 in the morning he had to get up and do PT. He had also told me that things at work were very stressful, that his leadership had been having issues with other leadership and thus creating a hostile work environment for him. So I understood, that maybe, his mental and physical strength were drained that week, and the result was him feeling sick that morning. I also mentioned that I understood how 1SG’d reaction was natural, since he had no idea that the soldier had been having chest
pains three days prior to the incident. I also said that I did acknowledge that the soldier could slow down and keep going and not simply stop when the PT sessions get hard.
Analysis:
STANDPOINT THEORY – THE THEORY STATES THAT PEOPLE SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENT BECAUSE WE SEE IT FROM DIFFERENT POSITIONS
Application: In the situation, the 1SG (in a leadership role), the soldier (in a subordinate role), and myself (in a leadership position, that interacts at a lower level), have different perceptions of soldier X because of what we can see through our work positions and what we cannot.
1SG’s leadership position limits his interaction with soldiers in a day to day basis, thus, when he does get to work with soldier first hand, he only knows what he sees through their actions. My soldiers position as a peer, made her side with soldier X because of what she knows about him and since they are friends, she doesn’t stop to think why 1SG was upset at soldier X or why he pushes soldier X so hard. My leadership position as an NCO, allows soldiers to come up to me and talk about their issues and seek guidance. I also get to work with other NCO’s, and 1SG in a way that Jr. enlisted soldiers cannot, therefore giving me a perspective on why leaders act and do what they do as well as why soldiers feel and think the way they do. Each of our power positions made us feel different ways about the situation with soldier X. 1SG had thought that soldier X wasn’t trying hard enough, while my soldier was thinking that 1SG was being too hard on soldier X. Meanwhile, I understood that soldier X had been having issues with his chest prior to the incident, consequently his body gave out that morning. Yet, I also acknowledged that incidents in the past in which he had just given up at PT had also
happened, hence making it difficult for 1SG to differentiate if that occasion was real or fake.