Developing Leadership Skills in Norwegian Military Officers: Leadership Proficiencies Contributing to Character Development and Officer Competency

Purpose of study: Officers serving in international operations are currently facing increasingly more complex and difficult operational environments. In order to solve different missions and tasks in these challenging environments, they need to acquire a high degree of leadership proficiencies. Officers in the Norwegian army develop these leadership proficiencies during a three year educational program at the Norwegian Military Academy. A new concept of leadership development referred to as officer development has been implemented at the Norwegian Military Academy. This was done in order to prepare the officers for the challenges they face in complex and difficult operational environments. The main idea of the new officer development concept is that working on developing a strong character will lead to the acquirement of officer competency. Character development is derived from proficiency in personal proficiency, social proficiency, and subject matter proficiency. Based upon these three proficiencies a strong character is assumed to be developed in each officer. This strong character will result in that an officer gains a high degree of officer competency. Officer competency is the ability to continue to solve a mission or a task even when it is difficult. The officer competency is thus considered the most important competency an officer must acquire in order to be able to solve different missions and tasks in complex and difficult operational environments.