Vocational training and development of leadership potential of the US and european countries border guards

This article outlines the work on development of leadership potential of the US and separate European countries border guards. It elaborates in detail the significance of the officer leadership potential, importance of the leadership in the border protection system. There are enlightened the main lines of work on development of personal attributes of the border guard officer as a leader, specific features of his leadership skills formation, psychological basis of leadership training. The author discloses the programs of leadership development, being deployed in the Federal Training Center of the US Customs and Border Protection. The "Leadership in a crisis environment" training program is based on the research studies and is supposed to help law enforcement officials to raise the level of leadership skills required in crisis. This program focuses on the basic concepts of communication, cooperation, critical thinking and the features of decision-making. It provides for the creation of an environment that shapes the ability of participants to apply leadership qualities, interpersonal communication and decision-making skills in a crisis situation. In its turn, the "Leadership through Understanding Human Behavior" training program helps participants better understand themselves, interpersonal dynamics, and how their strengths and weaknesses and roles in working groups and teams affect mission outcomes. The program provides for the development of self-consciousness, the ability to recognize behavioral styles to establish relationships, required for the creation of more effective working groups and teams. There presented the topics of the "Security and Border Management Courses for Senior Leaders" for middle and senior border officers at the OSCE Border Management Staff College. It is found that in order to develop the leadership potential of border officials, foreign countries apply an integrated approach to training, paying attention to the formation of analytical thinking, the acquisition of professional management skills and abilities. In the training methodology, theoretical and practical classes, situational tasks, business games, trainings are widely used. Taking into account foreign experience, in order to increase the managerial level of future border guard officers, it is proposed to familiarize them with what it means to be a leader, how to organize work in a team, how to manage subordinates and be responsible for leading the border unit. There also outlined the importance of research on the leadership potential of the border guard officer, leadership in the border protection system, the characteristics of the officer as a leader of the border unit. Key words: vocational training, leadership, leadership potential, border guard officer, management, border protection.