5.1 Leadership Levels (AFH-1 Section 7A)

Quick Answer: AFH 1 Section 7A teaches a shared officer–enlisted–civilian approach to force development, then defines the continuum of learning as the career-long mix of challenging experiences, education, and training that produces three leadership levels — tactical expertise, operational competence, and strategic vision. Occupational competencies build technical skill; foundational competencies (Developing Self, Others, Ideas, and Organizations) are the USAF-wide framework.

What the PFE expects at ADTC B

The ADTC at the front of AFH 1, Airman (15 February 2025) marks Section 7A as B (Understanding) for Staff Sergeant and Technical Sergeant. Both grades should match a vignette to the correct leadership level, tell occupational competencies from foundational competencies, and explain why most enlisted Airmen operate below strategic vision.

A team of teams, not an enlisted-only ladder

Paragraph 7.1 opens with a fact many testers skip: many enlisted Airmen have officers or civilians as direct supervisors. Officers, civilian personnel, and enlisted Airmen therefore need a deliberate and common approach to force development, career progression, and the assumption of increased supervisory and leadership responsibilities. The handbook's identity line is worth memorizing as a complete set: force structure, core values, and foundational and occupational competencies describe what makes us Airmen.

Officer responsibilities sit in three distinct tiers the PFE can dangle against the enlisted tiers in 7B: Company Grade Officers (O-1 through O-3), Field Grade Officers (O-4 through O-6), and General Officers (O-7 through O-10). Each tier builds on the last and focuses on the tactical, operational, and strategic competencies associated with rank and position. The focus of each officer tier is leadership, professionalism, and mission success in the profession of arms.

Enlisted responsibilities run on two tracks. Functionally, the USAF develops technical experts through career-field progression and succession planning. Institutionally, it develops experienced leaders. AFH 1 names developmental opportunities that show how the USAF functions: deployments, exercises, joint assignments, special duty assignments, and headquarters staff assignments. Effective progression depends on deliberate conversations about career-field and USAF requirements, personal qualifications, and goals.

Civilian responsibilities are the 7A snapshot testers miss when they treat Chapter 7 as enlisted-only. The USAF Civil Service consists of more than 180,000 professional civilians in over 35 countries. Within 11 personnel systems there are 22 career fields, 472 occupational series, and 27 different pay plans. They serve in critical positions from scientists and engineers to instructors, firefighters, and childcare providers, provide corporate knowledge and stability, and deploy to various contingency areas. Like the enlisted and officer corps, they need a deliberate and common approach to force development, career progression, and increased supervisory and leadership responsibilities.

The continuum of learning

Paragraph 7.2 is the definition block. Force development generally results in leadership, management, and warrior ethos proficiency. The force development construct is a framework that links developmental needs with foundational competencies through the continuum of learning. Occupational competency development generally results in technical skill proficiency. Keep those two outcomes paired: force development → leadership/management/warrior ethos; occupational development → technical skill. The continuum of learning, along with the defined competencies, is aligned so Airmen are qualified and ready for current and future operating environments.

AFH 1 then gives the sentence that feeds both knowledge items and application items: the continuum of learning is a career-long process of development where challenging experiences are combined with education and training through a common taxonomy to produce Airmen who possess tactical expertise, operational competence, and strategic vision to lead and execute the full spectrum of USAF missions.

The three levels are recognized with varying emphasis across the foundational competencies. As Airmen progress from tactical expertise to strategic vision, emphasis on the use of foundational competencies shifts to a broader focus. The nature and scope of leadership, and preferred leadership methods, differ based on the level of leadership and responsibilities.

Three leadership levels

Tactical expertise. Development includes a general understanding of team leadership and an appreciation for organization leadership. It is a time to master core duty skills, gain experience applying those skills, and begin acquiring the knowledge and experience essential for effective, ethical leadership. Airmen at this level learn to become the USAF's primary technicians and specialists, assimilate into USAF culture, and adopt the USAF core values. It is also a time for honing followership, motivating subordinates, and influencing peers to accomplish the mission while developing a warrior ethos and exercising communication skills as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Operational competence. Development includes a broader understanding of the USAF perspective and the integration of diverse capabilities in operational execution — the 15 February 2025 wording. It is a time to transition from specialists to leaders, with an understanding of themselves as leaders and followers, while applying organizational and team dynamics. It is a time to lead teams by developing and inspiring others and taking care of people, and to foster collaborative relationships by building teams and coalitions, especially within large organizations, and negotiating with others, often external to the organization. The majority of enlisted Airmen operate at the tactical expertise and operational competence levels. An item that places most enlisted Airmen at strategic vision is wrong.

Strategic vision. Development includes combining highly developed personal and people/team institutional competencies, applying broad organizational competencies, and leading and directing exceptionally complex and multi-tiered organizations. It is a time to understand how Airmen achieve synergistic results and desired effects with operational capabilities; to employ military capabilities; to understand the operational and strategic arts; and to have a thorough understanding of unit, USAF, joint, and coalition capabilities. It includes an enterprise perspective and a thorough understanding of the structure and relationships needed to accomplish strategic objectives. The strategic vision level focuses on the effects an Airman can have across the USAF and on the Department of Defense. Note the handbook's own term in this paragraph — institutional competencies — alongside foundational competencies elsewhere in 7A. Teach both as printed; do not collapse them into a single invented label.

Core, occupational, and foundational competencies

Core competencies are big-picture concepts the USAF does, or is expected to do or know, all the time. Being competent means a person or organization has the abilities or qualities to perform successfully. For the USAF, core competencies are the special abilities and qualities the force collectively possesses that enable it to function successfully and create airpower effects. Some are unique to the USAF and distinguish it from sister services; others are aligned across the branches of service.

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

Airman's Foundational Competencies prepare Airmen to operate across the widest array of USAF tasks and to adapt in a constantly changing operational environment. They are broadly applicable across enlisted, officer, and civilian USAF members, spanning all occupations, functions, and organizational levels, and they form the framework for force development. They are observable, measurable patterns of knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform successfully across a USAF career. They are enduring. AFH 1 groups them into four major categories: Developing Self, Developing Others, Developing Ideas, and Developing Organizations. Each category is addressed in later AFH 1 chapters. Both occupational and foundational detail points to AFH 36-2647, Competency Modeling. Occupational competencies are specialty-specific; foundational competencies are the USAF-wide framework; core competencies are institutional airpower abilities, some unique and some joint. Leadership levels describe where an Airman operates on the continuum, not a fourth competency family.