Abstract:

The Norwegian Military Academy´s main objective is to educate cadets to serve as officers in the military profession. An important aspect of the education is to give the cadets adequate leadership development during their three-year educational program. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the concept of leadership development used at the Norwegian Military Academy and its importance for the development of officers. The concept of leadership development is referred to as officer development. Officer development is the comprehensive formation process of developing leaders for the Norwegian Army, and is thus a central theme in all activity taking place at the Norwegian Military Academy. Officer development is thus the development of officer competency. This includes creating a common direction, alignment and commitment for the officer, so that he or she will be able to function well in the three officer roles; platoon leader, education planner and asset manager. Officer development consists primarily of adding context relevant leadership experiences, where the development elements that make any experience more stimulating are challenge, support and assessment. Conclusions: The Norwegian Military Academy has therefore chosen three main strategies for its officer development process. The first strategy is to create a variety of different developmental experiences that provide the opportunity for experiential learning through challenge, support and assessment. The second strategy is to develop the cadet's ability to learn from his or her experiences. Finally, the third strategy is to adapt the leadership development processes to the military context.

Keywords:

Leadership development, self-proficiency, social proficiency, subject matter proficiency, officer competency, challenge, support, assessment.