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
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
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