Paul Tibbets Jr is known as the man that dropped the first atomic bomb. A truly impressive thing to be famous for; but, we are not going to focus on that act. His work as the 509 Composite Group commander and the work leading up to that is going to be the timeline of this essay. He is a visionary and ethical leader for his actions that lead up to 6 August 1945. He is a visionary leader for many things but we will focus on specific acts of team building, use of diversity and idealized influence. Next, we will explain how he is an ethical leader because of his use of critical thinking and supporting principles of sanctions and forgiveness for mistakes. Finally we will look at how it relates to my own experiences and how I have applied…show more content… In late 1943 he was selected to head the B29 Bomber test and development program, which had fallen behind schedule. (Timmons, n.d.) His use of “critical thinking” and “idealized influence” made this program a success. (Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education [BCEE] 2014a, BCEE 2014b) This program had a ton of technical problems to overcome and it also had tragedy. The officer that was in charge of the program before Paul Tibbets died when a technical problem with the aircraft caused the engine to catch fire. After determining why that happened Paul Tibbets used his idealized influence to get his pilots back in the plane. He was the first pilot to fly after the tragedy and he logged the most hours flying the B29 Bomber. (World War II, n.d.) He could have easily ordered someone else to do that, but because he was a visionary leader he could use his display of confidents to motivate his subordinates. On the same program he displayed critical thinking skills to ask the right questions of his personnel to get the program back on track and combat ready. Most technical problems centered around the engines tendency to overheat, he asked the right and had an open mind with health…show more content… One of his first acts as commander stands out as displaying the traits of an ethical leader. Since the mission of the 509 Composite Group was so sensitive and the time line so short, security was a great concern to Paul Tibbets. Not all of his 1800 personnel had been vetted properly and few had handled classified material to such an extreme before. Prior to starting any mission planning or work towards the goal he set up a ploy to highlight security to his personnel. He could have just use a reactive style of “critical thinking” to wait to address security in the unit but instead he employed critical thinking, “system 2 reflective thinking” to develop a reason to get the word out about security. (BCEE, 2014a) His personnel were new to the Group and did not even know the mission of the organization yet. He used this to his advantage. He came up with a plan to have investigators in plain clothes at train stations and bus terminals close to the base to try and get info out of his personnel. He put his plan into action by sending his personnel on leave. His plan worked the investigators were able to get info out of the personnel but because they did not have any info to give yet it was not really a security risk. The investigators reported back to Tibbets with the info that they gained for the personnel and when they came back from their week of leave he brought them
