Document created: 16 May 01
Published Published Aerospace Power Journal - Summer  2001

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Air Force Doctrine and Leadership

Maj Steve Michael, USAF*

  *Major Michael is chief of the Information Operations Branch, Headquarters Air Force Doctrine Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

Military members understand the critical value of doctrine to the military. They also critically value leadership. Without either doctrine or leadership, the service is a headless vector aiming in wild directions, subject to institutional failure and battlefield defeat. Does a link exist between doctrine and leadership? More specifically, should leadership doctrine exist at all? The answer to both questions is yes. This article provides the reasons.

If doctrine basically represents the best practices of how to organize, train, equip, fight, and win war, then why would we not want some fundamental principles about the best ways to lead people? Libraries are full of books and articles about military leadership. Some are good; others are out in left field. But they are not doctrine. Obviously, trying to codify leadership traits, techniques, and personality types into “approved solutions” can be dangerous. After all, Clausewitz was right on target in identifying the unique nature of war and the myriad circumstances (read fog and friction) commanders may face in the heat of battle. The successful general’s coup d’oeil does not suggest a robotic or “by the numbers” approach to leadership. On the other hand, institutions led by amateurs whose leadership styles were ad hoc products of chaos have failed ignominiously.

Doctrine is not dogma, regardless of the subject. Doctrine on leadership needs to be authoritative but also appropriately flexible and descriptive, rather than prescriptive. Much of that type of appropriate doctrine on leadership is already in place—just not directly identified as such.

For example, consider some of the fundamental principles contained in Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) 1, Air Force Basic Doctrine.¹ The “principles of war” list security and simplicity as important. Who better than the person in command can promote planning and execution that are as secure and simple as practicable? The list goes on: surprise, objective, mass, and so forth. The leader—the decision-making authority—is responsible for keeping these principles in mind while he or she prepares units during peace or employs force against an enemy during war.

In addition, the tenets of aerospace power are inherently intertwined with leadership. Centralized control and decentralized execution speak expressly to leadership issues that are becoming increasingly complex due to technological advancements that bring detailed information about the battlefield into the lap of everyone involved, from the pilot in the cockpit to the four-star general at headquarters. Yet, even though we have doctrine that involves leadership, it is not the same as leadership doctrine.

We can benefit from the right kind of leadership doctrine for two reasons: it identifies leadership as a critically essential element of aerospace power in its own right, and it promotes the correct thinking that certain fundamental truths speak to the best way to lead troops in time of peace and war. Our Air Force leaders need to have a good working knowledge of those fundamental beliefs.

Many of today’s great ideas are not new. In fact, that is part of the reason for doctrine in the first place—to record important ideas so that future soldiers won’t have to reinvent them. Yet, in the area of Air Force leadership doctrine, official products have been few and far between. The Air Force last put out a leadership pamphlet in 1986 (even so, it wasn’t necessarily considered doctrine). There is a danger of commanders failing to link leadership and doctrine.

Because Air Force senior leaders suspect that some members of the service are not doctrine-smart, they have placed new emphasis on doctrine in education and training. Thus, we have a golden opportunity to enhance the development of Air Force leaders at the same time. A thorough, working knowledge of aerospace-power doctrine is essential for all airmen, but it is also critically important for effective leadership. Leadership and doctrine are not separate worlds.

Gen Michael E. Ryan, Air Force chief of staff, effectively summed up the importance of doctrine: “Doctrine provides the Air Force with a common, integrated vision . . . , draws from agreed upon best practices . . . , and offers airmen a proven set of principles for how we organize, train for, and execute military operations.”² Vision, practices, and execution—doctrine is covered with leadership’s fingerprints.

Doctrine is inextricably interwoven with the concept of leadership and in many respects provides the basis for it.³ Aerospace leaders develop their fundamental war-fighting beliefs from a study of doctrine. From their understanding of the integrated nature of aerospace operations and the need to properly combine diverse capabilities to fully exploit aerospace power’s war-fighting potential, leaders have the mental ammunition to argue convincingly for the right use of assets.⁴ In the complex interaction of politics, finances, and war, one must have solid leadership to ensure that the joint world uses aerospace power most effectively—without wasting lives needlessly and without setting false expectations. This was the lesson from Operation Torch in the Second World War, codified in Army Field Manual (FM) 100-20: an airman needs to lead air forces.⁵ An airman knows how and why to achieve essentials such as air superiority, and as a leader, he or she must fight against other parochial interests to show that aerospace assets are the premier maneuver force. One finds much impressive-sounding, carefully crafted terminology in various vision statements and white papers. But only true leadership can turn words into reality. And only a doctrinally smart leader can produce the synergistic effects of combined aerospace and surface-force operations.

Although doctrine codifies the best war-fighting methods and common beliefs, it does not stand alone as a formula for success. The most valid war-fighting principles are no substitute for sound, informed, professional judgment.⁶ In this milieu, doctrine and leadership bond, for the correct application of doctrine requires shrewd judgment. Through judicious selection of doctrinal principles relevant to a given situation, leaders can take full advantage of their knowledge, training, and experience to make critical, mission-related decisions. As stated previously, war is incredibly complicated, with no two operations exactly alike. The skillful leader blends and tailors the appropriate war-fighting methods to employ aerospace power most effectively and accomplish the desired mission.⁷ Maj Gen Lance L. Smith, commander of the Air Force Doctrine Center, succinctly argues the point: “An airman with a foundation in doctrine can effectively lead other airmen to success, since decisions will be made not only through the grasp of the technical aspects of applying aerospace power against a target, but through a broader comprehension of the fundamental truths of that power.”⁸

The bottom line is that doctrine gives airmen a common reference to clearly articulate to the joint force commander and to subordinates how best to use aerospace power. Doctrine allows leaders to “focus on the margins that make a contingency unique.”⁹ To be an effective joint war fighter, an Air Force leader must be an effective airman. To be an effective airman, an Air Force leader must know service doctrine.¹⁰

Reading and studying doctrine prepares leaders for aerospace-power war fighting; it also offers guidance in the art of leadership. For example, the Air Force’s core values, which are a part of doctrine, reflect sound character traits of leadership. Modern aerospace-power war fighting is such an extraordinarily complex endeavor that each airman in the chain of command must exemplify the core values to assure a mission’s success. Leaders committed to excellence are more than desirable—in the profession of arms, they are essential. The Air Force’s core values remind leaders of what they should expect from themselves, and they tell subordinates what leaders expect from them.¹¹

In addition to core values, the nature and culture of aerospace-power war fighting require airmen to demonstrate unique leadership attributes. By its nature, aerospace power is employed across an entire joint-operating area. Effective aerospace leaders, therefore, must be knowledgeable in the functions and capabilities of other services and be able to establish appropriate command relationships with them. The nature of aerospace operations gives airmen unique opportunities for ingenuity. Leaders must be able to reach back into their theater, or even to the continental United States, to obtain personnel and capabilities to effectively augment forward-deployed operations. The wingman culture of aerospace operations also has significant impact on the art of leadership. It places the requirement for and expectation of individual initiative on all airmen and causes them to consider the intended and unintended consequences of their leadership actions. Thus, Air Force leaders value both personal credibility, regardless of rank, and the contributions of specialized, competent subordinates. Finally, the service’s culture reflects its technologically oriented capabilities. Leadership includes maintaining technical proficiency and the ability to employ technology and innovation to create war-fighting effects. Beyond operational requirements, these skills enable leaders to prove their worth and establish their credibility with present-day recruits.¹²

The service’s technological orientation is one of the forces driving change in today’s Air Force culture. Leaders face significant challenges—how to organize air and space; how to deal with blurring distinctions among strategic, operational, and tactical effects of aerospace power; and how to recognize that expeditionary operations and other deployment requirements are changing Air Force culture by broadening airmen’s exposure to risk. The traditional approach, in which aircrew members constituted the predominant operational force vulnerable to hostile attack, is in transition. Leaders today must prepare all airmen to operate and thrive in a hostile environment.¹³

All of these leadership issues point to a need, and an answer to that need lies on the horizon. AFDD 1-3, Air Force Leadership, is in the conceptual stages of development.¹⁴ This document will provide senior Air Force leaders with a quiver full of leadership wisdom to help airmen face tomorrow’s challenges. It will complement their career-long study of all aerospace-power doctrine, which is essential for the development of airmen into leaders. All airmen need a thorough knowledge of aerospace-power doctrine—especially those who would lead.¹⁵ 

Notes

1. AFDD 1, Air Force Basic Doctrine, 1 September 1997.

2. Special-Interest Commander’s Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), “Air Force Doctrine,” 4 January 1999.

3. Maj Gen Lance L. Smith, “Leadership and Doctrine,” in AU-24, Concepts for Air Force Leadership, ed. Richard I. Lester and A. Glenn Morton (Maxwell AFB, Ala.: Air University Press, forthcoming).

4. Capt Frederick L. “Fritz” Baier, 50 Questions Every Airman Can Answer (Maxwell AFB, Ala.: Air Force Doctrine Center, October 1999), 47–48.

5. FM 100-20, Command and Employment of Air Power, 21 July 1943.

6. AFDD 1, p. 12.

7. Ibid., 22.

8. Smith.

9. Karen Fleming-Michael, “Doctrine—Here to Stay,” Leader 21 (November 2000): 14–15.

10. Briefing, Col Ron Dietz, Headquarters Air Force Doctrine Center/DD, subject: Doctrine for Developing Aerospace Leaders, December 2000.

11. Gen Michael E. Ryan, “Reflections on Core Values,” in AU-24.

12. The ideas expressed here originated from the Headquarters Air Force Doctrine Center and Developing Aerospace Leaders (DAL) Conference on Leadership, 18–19 January 2001.

13. Ibid.

14. The approval date to develop AFDD 1-3 is summer 2001.

15. All Air Force doctrine documents are posted on the Headquarters Air Force Doctrine Center’s Web site at http://www.doctrine.af.mil.

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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