Promoting Positive Interpersonal Communication Skills
General Description
Uniforms are meant to be worn with pride (law enforcement, corrections, military), yet they also sometimes turn the wearer’s into targets. One of the ways in which professionals in uniforms become targets is the belief that the general public holds that an officer will speak to individuals in a manner that is considered demeaning or disparaging. Consider the officer who has just issued a citation to someone who was doing 60 MPH in an active school zone. The officer may have dispersed a stern warning to go along with the citation and 10 minutes later the officer’s supervisor receives a phone call from the recipient of the citation stating that the officer was unprofessional. Consider the corrections officer who stops contraband from being brought into a facility through a diaper and the complaints of the child’s guardian about the “nerve of that officer for looking in the child’s diaper.” Every now and then we can use a refresher in interpersonal relations. Consider this four-hour course to be the litmus test for measuring your interpersonal skills.