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Increasing the Effectiveness of FRLM Behaviors Essay

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The situation at the XYZ Air Base Wing Safety Office is gravely desperate; the safety team has atrophied to an ineffective group of four personnel who are unable to employ “Safety First” as a culture for the Wing. Moreover, the group is unable to collectively attack and resolve any safety crisis such as the one we face now. Four lives within the Wing have been lost due to the absence of a “Safety First” culture. I am the newly appointed Wing Safety Officer whom Colonel (Col) Ellen Parker has tasked with correcting the current trend of poor driving safety that resulted in 15 recent traffic accidents (to include the four lives lost). In this paper, I will analyze the former Wing Safety Officer’s – Captain (Capt) Carl Matthews – leadership …show more content…

Col Parker highlighted Mr. DeBurgh has “been around for decades and has won every safety award the Air Force has to give.” Capt Matthews’ laissez-faire leadership behavior has alienated Mr. DeBurgh to the point where he was no longer motivated for tackling the safety crisis and was happy to just “sit and color.”
Capt Matthew’s failure to lead his team was not due solely on his “laissez faire” leadership behavior. He attempted to use Contingent Reward (CR) – a transactional leadership behavior – to motivate Mr. DeBurgh. Following the successful IG inspection, Capt Matthews “rewarded” Mr. DeBurgh with time off for which Mr. DeBurgh gave a “grunt” reaction. Capt Matthews failed to understand Mr. DeBurgh’s motivation; the sheer fact that Mr. DeBurgh had recently “donated” leave to another friend indicated he was not motivated for time off. Thus, Capt Matthew’s “carrot” did not yield the desired effect. Thus, Capt Matthews’ attempt to exhibit active leadership failed which – in essence – meant that leadership failed; this leads us to our persistent problem today.
Now that we have identified the FRLM behaviors that has kept the team from solving the traffic safety crisis, we must now apply FRLM and teambuilding concepts to stage a leadership intervention and develop my staff into a team poised to address the traffic accident trend. Each person of the Wing Safety Office team has unique background and

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