Posted on Nov 3, 2017
Is there a trait you picked up in the military that you had to leave behind in the civilian world?
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In the Army you could get to the point and say things a certain way and not hurt feelings. Now I have to speak with tact and be careful of feelings. I always consider others point of view when speaking to them...always. but I have had to kind of soften my words or consider my audience when I am speaking. Being in a supervisor position at times you have to be the bad guy to get the job done. I work in a DoD facility so I in a way still get to speak like an old NCO...sort of....lol!!
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LCDR (Join to see)
SSG Stephan Pendarvis this actually surprises me with people still serving. I spent 4 years in JROTC in high school and my instructors were all Vietnam era combat vets. One of them was a basic training DI during Vietnam. The most prominent lesson that I remember them teaching, outside of the normal drill and ceremonies, map reading, etc, was the need to use tact in leadership. It seems that this concept has been lost over the last 30+ years within the military because very few actually understand how to be tactful in dealing with others. Even among the Chaplain Corps, where we are theoretically supposed to be more concerned with people's feelings, I've run into senior leaders who have no concept of how to use tact when speaking to people.
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SFC (Join to see)
It’s not difficult to have tact, I believe what they’re trying to say here is most civilians can’t go through the brutally honest AAR’s that we worked through without getting their feelings hurt, and worse yet taking it personal. I’ve experienced this and organizations defiantly do reach their full potential because of it.LCDR (Join to see)
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SSG John Jensen
oh, really? I got kicked out of active Army for a casual insult of a football team (the COs team) apparently the following monday someone ran into the COs office with "guess what SGT Jensen said about your favorite team!?"
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All the "Traits" I picked up in the Military stood me in good stead in civilian life,just maybe not how to set up an L shaped ambush civilians were a little squeamish on that one.
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