Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

The story happened in 2004 and it started after I was elected as the Troop Leader of the Scouts...

Being a bold and young man ready to take up any challenge, I had all my goals in mind on which direction we'll be heading that year. I was very excited and eager to share with my committee all about my plans for improvements. Therefore, a few days after the election, I held a meeting and announced my goals and plans for the year.

Things were going on quite well at start until after I met with an accident and fractured my foot. I came to school after 2 weeks. I walked with crutches for almost 3 months and it was a pain to move around. I couldn't handle most of the things in this situation and appointed my Deputy Leader as Acting Leader and Senior Group Leader to assist him though I still attended the weekly activities and assembled the troop.

I realized, things didn't go according to what had been planned. I couldn't do much as I wasn't informed. The committee split and some of them even went to the extent of not attending meetings and submitting reports. After my foot recover, I took over but I never expect to lose their support and my power incrementally as day passes, resulting in more internal problems later on. The situation had become so bad that eventually I had to do all the work myself.

I did try my very best to work things out with them. We met up countless times to improve things but ended up to no avail. It was quite some hard time for me as I sat for my SPM (Malaysian Certificate of Education - Senior Level) that year.

If you were me, how would you handle the situation?

Why effective communication skills are important for me?

I used to be a talkative little boy and thus I thought that I could communicate well. I recalled my primary school days when I was arranged by the teacher to sit beside the quiet girls in class to stop me from talking too much in class. However, this not only did not work out and turned all the girls talkative just like me and the teacher had to make me sit right next to her instead.

I grew up not becoming more talkative, rather more introvert and reserved. Some close friends told me at times, I had unknowingly built a wall between others and me. People see me as unfriendly and always entrenched deeply in my own thoughts. Whenever I meet new people, it seems difficult for me to start a conversation and looking for topics to keep it going. I do not face any difficulties in conveying my ideas and thoughts across but I am not good at socializing.

I attended my first interview for scholarship before admitted to NUS. The experience was unpleasant. My mind was blank, my palms were sweaty, I felt butterflies in my stomach, and I was stammering all the time. I could not even answer a simple question to introduce myself properly. Although I had some leadership experiences, I am still lack of the confidence to speak.

In light of all my past bad experiences, I had come to a conclusion that to be able to communicate effectively is a fundamental yet crucial skill in life. It helps me to expand my network of friends, become successful in my career besides to understand myself and others better. Therefore it is important for me to train myself to be an effective communicator and I see my decision to enroll in ES2007S is only a small part of my learning journey.