Air Force: Transactional Leadership In The Military

Leaders can make or break an organization. They make minor decisions each day that impact each and every subordinate underneath them. The Air Force leaders at the Pentagon have major influence on the entire enterprise. They can impact retention and morale with simple policy change that could hinder global military operations. A recent change in leadership has yielded positive results. Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General David Goldfein has made squadron revitalization his top priority. He had implemented some quick wins such as reducing additional duties on Airmen in order for them to perform normal duties within their career field. Many Airmen have been very receptive to this change. The changes were seen as common sense and allowed …show more content…
Transactional leaders refer to leaders who motivate their followers in the direction of the stated goals by clarifying work role and task requirements. Transactional leadership is a common management style that involves a chain of command and defined structure in which subordinates relinquish authority to their supervisors. In transactional leadership systems, subordinates are expected to do what their supervisor tells them to do. People are motivated by reward and punishment, such as increased pay or termination. (Flynn, 2015) An example of this would be when an individual is given a task to complete by the end the week from the section chief. The individual proceeds to wait until the next week to accomplish the task. The individual is given a letter of counseling and corrective action for insubordination. While this may seem severe, a task was delegated and not completed. Transactional leaders can be important in an organization but to truly motivate and inspire people generates the best results. There is a place for transactional leadership as this may work best for some employees. Many middle management leaders in the unit are transactional. They are only results-driven with little to no regard to the well-being of the Airman. This can be crippling to the productivity and the morale within an organization. There are traits and characteristics of effective team leaders that can be identified and nurtured so …show more content…
They rely on team leaders to manage their respective sections and grow their teams in to efficient and effective operations. Effective team leader traits include dependability, cooperativeness, assertiveness, initiative, dominance, high energy, self-confidence, stress tolerance, responsibility, achievement orientation, adaptability, cleverness, persuasiveness, organizational and speaking abilities, risk taking, and originality. (Weiss, 2015) While that does seem like an extensive list, it not necessary to have each trait to become an effective leader. Let’s assess a few of these traits and how they help become and effective leader. In a military organization, dependability it a must for a leader. There maybe times where another persons life is in your hand. Deadlines, troop movement, appraisals all require action in a timely manner. That dependablity earns trust and credibility with your subordinates. Cleverness, adaptability, achievement orientation, responsibility and calculated risk taking can be compacted in to a general conscientious. When it comes to risk taking, you need to be clever, adaptable, focused on the achievement to ensure that you are making the right move at the right time. Often when you make decisions, effective leaders know that the consequences and repercussions will not only fall on them but their team as well. Effective leaders must show