Psychological background of the leadership qualities formation in youth

Abstract

Studying the background of successful leadership is one of the main applied problems of social and organizational psychology. For the formation of leadership qualities, it is important to have a favorable psychological climate around the individual, a sense of inner comfort, support of the immediate environment, adequate self-esteem, and a developed need-motivation sphere. A sensitive period for the leadership formation is early youth, when personal identity, worldview and value system are formed. The basis for the development of leadership qualities in youth is the development of personal qualities, namely: creating an image of the future and components of emotional intelligence. Objective. The research deals with the theoretical analysis of the leadership features, the clarification of the psychological conditions of its formation in the period of youth; experimental study of the manifestation of leadership qualities and their psychological conditions in youth. Methods. To achieve the set objective, we used a set of theoretical methods, such as: analysis and generalization of scientific information; the following empirical methods: observation; conversation; questionnaires “Do you have charisma?” (D. Konger); “Leadership potential” (D. Kotter); “Emotional intelligence” (R. Daft); “Creating the image of the future” (V. Hitt). The Pearson correlation method was used for statistical data processing. The research was conducted on the basis of the “School of Externs of Brovary Teaching and Educational Association of Brovary City Council, Kyiv region”, Brovary town. 30 respondents aged 17-18 took part in it. The results of the empirical study of psychological background of the leadership qualities formation of young men showed that young men have expressed leadership qualities (80%) and weakly expressed charisma (73.33%); a high level of emotional self-awareness (40%), emotional intelligence (26.67%) and self-possession (26.67%). The value of the correlation coefficient value between the indices of the level of charisma and indices of relationship management corresponds to strong correlation; between indices of leadership potential and criteria for realizing the image of the future (p≤0.01). We see the prospects for further research in the development and approval of the psychological training program for the formation of leadership qualities in youth.