The article is devoted to the justification of the methodology for forming leadership competence of future border guard officers in the educational process of higher educational institutions.

The author understands the leadership of a future border guard officer as his ability to exert targeted influence on subordinates, organize their joint activities, ensure the cohesion of the border unit and achieve the assigned tasks in difficult service conditions.

The leadership competence of a future border guard officer is defined as an integral formation that combines: motivational readiness to perform leadership functions; a system of knowledge about the essence, styles and models of leadership; skills and abilities in organization, management, communication and decision-making; the ability for self-reflection, responsibility, and professional self-development.

The author considers the formation of leadership competence of future border guard officers in the educational process of the Higher Military Educational Institution as a purposeful, scientifically based pedagogical process that requires the development of a special methodology. The theoretical justification of this methodology is based on the following interrelated methodological approaches: competency-based, systemic, personally oriented, activity-based, contextual.

The theoretical foundations of the methodology for forming leadership competence of future border guard officers in the educational process of the Higher Military Educational Institution are a system of principles: professional orientation of training; the principle of integration of theory and practice; the principle of activity and subjectivity of the cadet; the principle of modeling professional situations; the principle of gradual and systematic formation of leadership qualities of a future border guard officer.

The author defines the purpose of the methodology as the purposeful formation of leadership competence of future border guard officers in the educational process of the Higher Educational Institution.

The author defined the methodology for forming leadership competence of future border guard officers in the educational process of the Higher Military Educational Institution as the “School of the Officer-Leader”. Its components of the methodology include target, organizational, content, and performance. Taking into account the fact that in the structure of leadership competence we have identified motivational, cognitive, and activity-reflective components, the methodology provides for the formation of each of them.

Key words: leadership competence, future border guard officers, leadership, educational process, higher military educational institution, methodology for forming leadership competence.

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