Character in Military Leaders, Officer Competency and Meeting the Unforeseen

Abstract

Officers educated at the Norwegian Military Academy (NMA) should be able to lead under extreme conditions when they encounter situations that are unforeseen. The NMA's new concept of leadership development will help the officers lead others in difficult military operations. In this concept it is assumed that both character and intellect are significant factors contributing to military leadership. The officer development concept is visualized in the NMA's pyramid of competency. The pyramid of competency illustrates how officer competency can be understood as a function of self- proficiency, subject-matter proficiency, and social proficiency. The integrated composition of the pyramid shows the mutual interaction of the proficiencies and how they affect and underpin the pyramid's top element that constitutes officer competency. The NMA aims to develop the necessary character and intellect in each officer, and regards this as absolutely central features of the officer competency. Officer competency is intended to constitute the acting dimension of an officer facing the unforeseen as well as unknown and unknowable situations. The NMA has as its guideline qualities responsibility, robustness and willpower. However, several questions need to be addressed first,concerning what character means, how it is developed, and which personalities are amenable prone to develop and to demonstrate character. The NMA has therefore initiated a new research project that will look into character in military leaders. The project is intended to provide valuable knowledge about the abovementioned questions regarding character. The results from this project will be a significant contribution to both the selection and training of officers and to decide whether an officer has or can acquire the required qualities to be a military leader.