Leadership in Aviation Weather Services

¶ … Leadership in Aviation Weather Services

Aviation weather services are vitally important to safety, so having good leadership is a very necessary part of them. Unfortunately, good leadership is not always something that's available for these types of services. When it is seen, it is still sometimes ineffective because of policies and procedures. Most often, however, those who are involved in leadership when it comes to aviation weather services are only interested in furthering their own careers, and this keeps them from accomplishing very much where their actual job specifics and job improvements are concerned. Naturally, this becomes a detriment to the individuals who are working under the person in the leadership position. One of the ways to cure this kind of problem is to address the leadership issues and correct them so that the entire organization runs more smoothly and provides the services that it should be offering. Many believe that federal leadership and action are what is needed to correct the problems that are being seen where aviation weather services are discussed.

The primary recommendation is that the FAA should take over and provide the leadership for aviation weather services. This is due to the fact that the FAA can better secure funding for these services and can govern more effectively than a private company could. The FAA should also take over all aspects of leadership in aviation weather services, including training, research, dissemination of weather products, new roles, and user needs, as well as making sure that aircraft are being separated from weather that could be hazardous. Doing all of this is no easy task, but something clearly has to be done, because weather causes serious problems for many aircraft. This does not normally result in crashes, but it does result in delays, diversions, and angry customers, and the possibility of a crash or other air disaster cannot be ruled out. Weather has caused these kinds of devastating problems before.

A main recommendation for how the FAA should handle this issue would be to become more proactive with safety issues. Another recommendation that should be considered is to look at the way that leadership is being conducted and whether a different style of leadership would be the best choice for aviation weather services issues. Like most governmental agencies, the FAA probably has a situational style of leadership, and a switch to a more servant leadership style may be in order. While not specifically recommended by the author of the aviation weather services writing, this is one area of leadership that has been more widely explored recently and continues to be studied. The author recommends that the FAA take over gradually, over a period of 12 months, but has the FAA taking over almost everything by the end of that time period. While it is certainly important to facilitate that takeover, there might be other ways that things can be better delegated and therefore they will become less of a problem for individuals who are working for the FAA and/or working in aviation weather services.

Adopting a more servant leadership style would better allow for this, but most leaders are men, and most men are not trained to lead in this way, which would present some difficulties when faced with a change of this magnitude. It is no secret that leadership is very important in any organization, and there is a belief that men and women have often viewed leadership roles and styles somewhat differently. Where men have traditionally taken a stronger approach to leadership (situational leadership), women have often gone for more of the softer side - more of a mentoring style (servant leadership). This is, of course, not always the case as all individuals have different style of leadership. However, it does seem to be a generalized opinion on the difference between the two genders. There is some belief that this is changing slowly and that the 21st century is bringing new decisions and innovations to both genders so that their leadership styles are being modified.

Servant leadership is often based on Christian principles, although this is not required. It is a leadership concept that is designed to show that a leader can be a steward for the company, lead by example, help others, and not have to use any of the more 'heavy handed' leadership styles. While the servant leadership style is more often employed by women, men are becoming increasing more aware of (and more interested in) this particular style, because it seems to work well. The easiest way to show what servant leadership is would be to discuss the work of Stephen Covey, as he advocates this style in "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and many other books.

Even though Stephen Covey is seen by many to be extremely important when it comes to management and effective individuals Covey himself appears to be somewhat scattered and disorganized. This is not actually true but Covey is simply extremely busy and spends so much time working that many of his associates and other individuals do not understand how he can keep up such a frantic pace. He has built a very strong business and most of it lies on the idea of moral transformation. This is one of the main things that Covey discusses in many different ways throughout the books that he has written, and it is also seen in many other discussion of the servant leadership style. This applies to not only individuals but to businesses, families, and others that are interested in learning more about themselves and how to be more effective in life. This effectiveness is something that is definitely needed when it comes to aviation weather services, because right now there are still problems that are being seen. Whether the FAA can take care of and correct these remains to be seen, but it is not likely that the difficulties will be corrected if the FAA has the same old style of leadership that has been used by all sorts of companies for years. In that case, nothing will really change.

While Covey is not generally considered to be a religious speaker he is a spiritual individual that makes the claim that individuals are spiritual beings that are having a human experience, as opposed to human beings that are having a spiritual experience. Also, technology is changing so strongly that many of the older models for corporate behavior that were previously used are disappearing and therefore many individuals in the workplace today are feeling relatively insecure about their jobs and the way that they do things. This has prompted a stronger search for meaning at the office and in the personal lives of many individuals and because of this so many books and ideas have been created that have looked at total quality management in many different ways. These include everything from empowerment to mission statements to service leadership to stewardship to New Age training for managers.