4.1 Leadership Levels

A Team of Teams

AFH 1 opens Chapter 7 by noting that many enlisted Airmen have officers or civilians as direct supervisors, creating "a compelling need for officers, civilian personnel, and enlisted Airmen to have a deliberate and common approach to force development, career progression, and the assumption of increased supervisory and leadership responsibilities."

The handbook then states what makes us Airmen: our force structure, core values, foundational and occupational competencies.

The Three Force Structures

The officer grade ranges are exact-recall items. AFH 1 adds a mastery rule: General Officers are expected to have mastered Field Grade Officer responsibilities, and Field Grade Officers are expected to have mastered Company Grade Officer responsibilities — each tier builds on the previous one, and the focus of each tier is leadership, professionalism, and mission success in the profession of arms.

The civilian figures are unusually specific and therefore testable: within 11 personnel systems there are 22 career fields, 472 occupational series, and 27 different pay plans. Civilians "provide corporate knowledge and stability across the USAF and deploy to various contingency areas."

For enlisted Airmen, AFH 1 notes that effective career progression and development depend on deliberate conversations between supervisors and subordinates about career field and Air Force requirements, personal qualifications, and goals. Developmental opportunities named include deployments, exercises, joint assignments, special duty assignments, and headquarters staff assignments.

The Continuum of Learning

AFH 1 defines the continuum of learning as "a career-long process of development where challenging experiences are combined with education and training through a common taxonomy to produce Airmen who possess the tactical expertise, operational competence, and strategic vision to lead and execute the full-spectrum of USAF missions."

Two related definitions sit beside it and are commonly confused:

• Force development generally results in leadership, management, and warrior ethos proficiency.
• Occupational competency development generally results in technical skill proficiency.

The force development construct is "a framework that links developmental needs with foundational competencies through the continuum of learning."

The Three Leadership Levels

This is the most-tested content in Section 7A. Learn what each level is a time to do.

The single highest-frequency fact: AFH 1 states that "the majority of enlisted Airmen operate at the tactical expertise and operational competence levels." Options claiming most enlisted Airmen operate at the strategic vision level, or at tactical expertise alone, are both wrong.

AFH 1 also notes that as Airmen progress from tactical expertise to strategic vision, emphasis on the use of foundational competencies shifts to a broader focus, and "the nature and scope of leadership as well as preferred leadership methods differ based on the level of leadership and responsibilities." There is no single correct leadership style across all three levels — a point the SJT rewards as well.

Core, Occupational, and Foundational Competencies

Three competency words appear within one paragraph of each other. Keep them separate.

Core competencies are "about big picture concepts that the USAF does, or is expected to do or know, all the time" — "a key set of abilities or qualities at the heart of the organization's reason for being." For the Air Force, they are "those special abilities and qualities we collectively possess that enable us to function successfully and create airpower effects." Some are unique to the USAF; others are aligned across the branches of service.

Occupational competencies are "required of Airmen within a specific workforce category or specialty" and describe the technical/functional knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform that function's mission.

Airman's foundational competencies "prepare Airmen to operate successfully across the widest array of USAF tasks and requirements" and to adapt in a changing operational environment. They are:

• Broadly applicable across enlisted, officer, and civilian members, spanning all occupations, functions, and organizational levels
• The framework for force development in the USAF
• Observable, measurable patterns of knowledge, skills, and abilities
• Enduring, encompassing attributes the USAF believes are critical to mission success

The four foundational competency categories are the organizing spine of the rest of AFH 1:

1. Developing Self — AFH 1 Chapter 15
2. Developing Others — AFH 1 Chapter 14
3. Developing Ideas — AFH 1 Chapter 16
4. Developing Organizations — AFH 1 Chapter 13

All four of those chapters are tested on the PFE (Chapters 13 and 16 for E-6 candidates), so this is not a throwaway list — it tells you where the rest of your study time goes.

The reference cited for both occupational and foundational competencies is AFH 36-2647, Competency Modeling. Memorize that publication number; the exam pairs it with the competency vocabulary.