Air Force Civilian Senior Leadership Development Challenges

This paper will first explore the age old question, are leaders born or are leaders made. Next, it will compare the private sector midlevel (i.e. operational), upper level (i.e. strategic) and executive level leadership development with the Air Force civilian leadership development process and use the comparison to validate the Air Force development process. This paper will also explore the major challenges associated with the leadership development process. The challenges are advanced academic degree opportunities to include DLAMP, providing opportunities for cross-functional and joint experience, and establishing a correlation between who is being developed and who is being promoted. Finally, this paper will provide corporate level recommended solutions to overcome the identified challenges.