The article anylyses the theoretical and methodological basis for the study of the problem of team leadership in the student environment: the importance of team formation in the student environment, the essence of the concept of "leadership", the psychological components of effective team leadership. Team leadership is seen as the ability of a leader to gain authority in one’s group, thereby gaining the primary right to make group decisions, as well as to recognize the strengths of others and delegate task management functions to others. Also, command leadership is seen as a process of allocating authoritative personalities in a group and facilitating them to develop leadership qualities of other members of the group, which leads to the emergence of coordinated teamwork. It is noted that tactics of the leader’s influence on the group can determine the effectiveness of team leadership. His typical actions, internal psychological features, ability to update the desired features in a specific situation. The authors consider the internal psychological features of students, which determine the command style of leadership, as follows: flexibility, originality, critical thinking, orientation to solving problems in difficult situations; desire for cooperation, diplomacy, ability to manage and resolve conflicts, organizational skills, communication skills; striving for self-development and self-improvement. The essence of the empirical study of the psychological components of effective team leadership in a student environment is highlighted.