United States Air Force Company Grade Officer PME and Leader Development

Leadership and the attributes of great leaders have long been topics of study within the professional military education system, yet the subject of sustained, integrated and systemic leader development has only recently received substantive treatment within the United States Air Force. Unlike the United States Army, the Air Force lacks a doctrinal foundation on which to base the leader development process. This monograph addresses the role of PME at the company grade level in the development of Air Force officers in light of ongoing Army and Air Force leader development initiatives as well as recent leader development literature. Through the Army Leader Development Campaign Plan and the United States Air Force Developing Aerospace Leaders (DAL) initiative, both services are reexamining the methods by which they design and integrate leader development systems to purposefully develop future leaders who will operate in an increasingly complex global environment. The United States Army Transformation process and the Training and Leader Development Panel report are significant initial guideposts to the future of Army leader development. For the Air Force, the recent addition of the Air and Space Basic Course and the work of the Air Force DAL are positive first steps in the development of future Air Force leaders. This monograph concludes that the Air Force must develop and promulgate leadership and leader development doctrine to guide and inform the leader development process. The Air Force should continue to develop both occupational and universal competencies in an ongoing effort to design a purposeful and systemic approach to leader development. The Air Force should also ensure all company grade officers have access to intensive leader development experiences by making Squadron Officer School in residence available to all company grade officers. Finally, the Air Force should leverage current technology to allow distributed leader development education and training op