Plenty has happened.
Just concluded yet another military exercise
which got me pretty much exhausted.
From the preparation phase to recovery phase,
the whole exercise drags from January all the way to March.
Pretty good an experience, i would say.
Finally what i have learn from my lao-jiao specialist (aka sergeant)
can be put to use and this time, as a operator of Information Systems (IS).
Previously, in Exercise Wallaby last year, i have been doing my work
as a InfoComms 2 operator: laying lines, operating tactical radios, doing rebro, etc.
or simply to say, the signal role of a foot soldier.
4 new Platoon Commander (PC) got posted in in January,
of which 3 were my platoon's
and officially took over when my existing PC ORD-ed in late February.
Pretty much distress and uneasy in the battalion arise, credits to them.
There's hundred and one things i can point out and complain about
but looking at how some of them have behave and acted,
it kind of set off the thinking in my mind.
I realised some of the things the new PCs did were very much similar
as to what i did during my secondary school days
when i was still holding on to leadership posts in class and in my CCA,
but definitely not as scheming and extreme as my new PCs are lah.
#1: Going by the rules and regulations
I was pretty much a by-the-book person.
I took attendance-taking and late-coming more seriously than the training itself.
I took discipline seriously and thus shouting/scolding were common.
I even had the rules spelled out clear, in fact too clear,
akin to what my PC has done recently.
But i did realised, much later, that though these issues play a role,
it wasn't THAT important after all.
My new PC had it worse.
My thinking of making rules & regulations clear was
that it needs to be respected and thus followed.
His thinking of making rules & regulations clear is
so that punishment can be carried out to those who failed to follow.
Very much to do with his thinking, something i thought was pretty extreme.
#2: Paper Work is everything
I like, in fact i love, to do paper work, to the extent that i would sacrifice time
from my school time, study time, practice time, to do administrative work.
I know, plans are just plans, but i just love to plan.
It's just part of me that wants things to be organised and be in order.
However, the harsh reality is nothing is going to go as planned.
A plan is simply just giving yourself a idea what to do.
It's still a habit (of excessive paper work) that i still can't get rid of
and a reality that still haven't got into my head,
but all these had a side-effect:
it did contribute to my not-so-good results for the first A-Levels i did.
Thus lessons to be learnt and rectification to be done. Must. (Note to self)
So the new PC did had similar problems as mine, from what i saw.
His administrative work is taking up much time from his duties
as his focus were on unit-wide regimentation plans as well as
a unit induction programme for the newly posted guys that he wants to implement
rather than the exercise itself; such as
what's happening on the ground, what problems there were, what help was needed, etc.
And plans doesn't work without action.
The more he plans, the more work the people (upwards & downwards)
around him needs to do,
and for sure, as i had experienced it,
spamming people with email is necessary to get work done.
#3: Making Changes
When you holds on to the power and have the ability to make things happen,
it's hard not to make changes, especially to suit your management style.
In the process of making changes (to suit myself),
i have also make things difficult for others
who already comfortable with the old management
and thus offending people on the way down the road of my 'revolution'.
My initial thought of making changes were to implement more systems so as to
put things in order to ease the process of whatever i've mentioned in point #1 and #2.
My new PC had that same thinking as what i had years ago.
He wants to change my unit to a disciplined force
and create a proper structure for work to be done.
Not that he had the wrong intention, but the way how he had that was badly managed.
After all, it's not all about getting work done. It's all meaningless, come to think of it.
It's the people around you & what you do with thm collectively that brings you life.
It's much later in my life that i have a different concept of change:
to improve lives of people around you.
For instance, i gave my effort to do that extra bit to tidy up, clean up and clear up rubbish
in my bunk, store & even the common areas in the building my workplace/bunk is in camp
for the sake of better living-working-resting environment
for people i care about (bunkmates, company-mates, etc).
You might say it's pretty redundant, but in this case, rubbish don't disappear itself,
someone has to do it, why not just help the cleaners a bit off their workload.
To have all that said, i must qualify my argument that
whatever i said above were a comparison between
me (when i was holding on to leadership posts) & my PCs (who are my leaders now)
for the management characteristics that i think we had in common.
Surely there are differences, which i does not want to elaborate too much.
What i have got to say is that,
whatever i did when i was still a leader, i had made a pretty fine balance
between discipline and welfare.
I had never, i say again, never, put whoever was under me to a great disadvantage.
But the PCs did.
Welfare is not a concern to them, discipline and regimentation is.
Reward isn't much of importance, punishment is.
For that, food for thought for you guys, if you manage to read till this line.
Come to think of that,
i bet those who knew me from secondary school must had hate me much.
Hahaha, ermmmmm.
Comment under this post as you wish,
to argue or just to give your opinion, all are welcome.
