Emotion, Transformative Learning, and United States Air Force Leader Development

Leader development in the Air Force comprises a complex blend of deliberate education, training, and experience shaped by organizational culture and core values. Emotion, a frequently overlooked aspect of these elements and leader development, is often viewed as detracting from logical decision-making and sound leadership. However, emotion touches on every aspect of our lives, from how we experience life, what we learn, our passions and commitment, why we serve, and much more, but it remains underrepresented in leader development literature, particularly in the military context. Bridging the gap from emotion to leader development is experience, which fuels learning and can ultimately lead to transformative learning and leader development. The purpose of this study was to understand how the narratives of retired United States Air Force commanders shaped their leader development experiences and emotions throughout their careers. The research questions that guided this study were: 1) How do Air Force leaders experience leader development? 2) In what ways do Air Force leaders experience emotion in their leader development experiences? 3) What strategies do Air Force leaders use to process the intersection of leader development and emotion in the Air Force context? This narrative inquiry focused on the leader development narratives of six retired Air Force commanders geographically separated throughout the United States and Europe. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a seven-step coding, categorization, and analysis process, producing the four following themes: a) a transformative leadership lab, b) it takes a village, c) holistically nurturing excellence, and d) leadership and military service come at a price. Each theme was described in detail with extensive excerpts from the participant interview transcripts. This study concluded with potential implications for practice and future research in the adult learning, leader development, and professional military education fields.