Formation skills of an officer-leader

Abstract

Education of a cadet as a leader is integral to training of officers at many military educational institutions worldwide. A number of them appreciate the necessity of purposeful formation of psychological skills of a leader in future officers. However, psychological training of cadets is limited, since military specialty courses take the lead in the general officers training system. It is possible to create effective conditions for formation and development of psychological skills of a leader in future officers over a fairly short period of time using a role-playing game in the form of psychological hands-on classes. The research objectives were identifying the characteristics of the activities of army officers as leaders and a set of relevant psychological skills; making an overview of the need for leadership (psychological) training of cadets in various countries of the world based on study of official sites of military academies; outlining traditional approaches to education of a military leader and substantiating the expediency of using a role-playing game in the form of psychological hands-on classes; giving a description of a role-playing game; revealing the essence of individual psychological skills of an officer-leader and specifics of their enhancement in the course of a game. This paper reveals the theoretical and experimental aspects of research devoted to introduction of this role-playing game. In particular, it gives its description, identifies the psychological skills of an officer-leader that were studied, and describes the state of these skills enhancement.