Growing Tomorrow's Leaders in Today's Environment

<p>Identifying and developing future leaders is the ultimate goal of officer professional development. Over the past decade two new laws and three major policy changes implemented by senior Air Force leaders have altered the traditional career path for developing young rated officers into future Air Force leaders. The two legislative changes are the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 and the Aviation Career Improvement Act of 1989. The three policy changes include the Air Force restructure that occurred in 1991 two major revisions to the officer assignment system and the implementation of a Command Screening Board in 1996. These changes have resulted in a new career path. This paper will examine the shortcomings of the current leadership development model the impact this model is having on the officer force and recommendations for improving officer professional development. The author will argue that the relative importance placed on early promotion has increased while the emphasis placed on operational credibility has declined as a result of the officer professional development path being used today to grow tomorrow's leaders.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>