A520.6.5.RB_SchreterPaul

The way I view a task-facilitating role and a relationship-building role is along a scale. On one end of this scale is a task-facilitating extreme while on the other end of this scale is a relationship-building extreme. In reflecting how I generally approach my own role in teams, I consider myself to generally fall into a task-facilitating role. That said, that doesn’t mean I don’t focus on relationship-building as well. For this week’s blog I am going to reflect on two areas where I exhibit task-facilitating qualities and one area where I exhibit relationship-building qualities.

The first area where I exhibit task-facilitating qualities is in the aspect of information seeking. Often times I find myself trying to gather all the information I can before committing to a solution. Whenever someone doesn’t have all the information they need, they “shotgun[1]” a part and hope for the best. This is something I try to avoid at all costs, as it wastes a lot of time and money. Most times when jets land and squawk a problem, the jets fixed by the next day for the next round of sorties. However one jet that I was working on had been grounded for several days due to a troublesome radio issue. Since no one really knew what the problem was, I got everyone involved by asking relevant questions in trying to diagnose the real culprit.

The second area where I believe to exhibit task-facilitating qualities is in the area of direction giving. When it comes to the harder broke jets that actually require troubleshooting, people often look up to me to point the direction on where we should go next. To continue the story of the radio issue, supposedly every part relevant to the issue was changed by the previous shift and yet they said the problem remained. This caused my team members to be absolutely baffled and unsure of where to go. This is where I stepped in and said since the other shift changed every part, we need to run up the jet again and verify that the problem still remained. This caused us to reveal that the jet had a similar problem from before, but it was in fact very different in such minor ways. I then pointed us in the direction that certain parts needed to be changed again because of the possibility that they came bad from the warehouse.

One area where I exhibit a more relationship-building role is in the sense of empathizing. My job can be a rather frustrating one and people need to vent their frustrations. I’ve learned from experience that simply having someone listen to you and understand your emotions can be very relieving, even if you still feel heated. Again in regards to the radio issue, the Sargent I was with became very frustrated because it was hard to evaluate what the culprit was for this issue. I empathized with him and shared my similar frustrations, then my task-facilitating qualities kick in and I start to offer possible solutions and guidance that could possibly be causing the issue.

I do believe that I exhibit more of a task-facilitating role in most of my groups that I take part in, however when needed I take a break, use a more relationship-building role to build the team back together, then change gears again and focus on accomplishing the mission. For me improving team cohesion and collaboration has always been the more difficult role to play, so instead I put most of my efforts into completing the task. However I also recognize that sometimes the task isn’t going to get done unless everyone on the team is 100% there, so the need for a relationship-building role is also crucial.

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[1] The term “shotgun” is used to describe picking a random part and hoping it fixes the problem. Much like how someone can use a shotgun, aim blindly, and hope it hits their target.