EUA Leadership Seminar

Lausanne 11-14 June 2006

Developing Leadership Capacity in HE -

“Being yourself with skill”

Alison JohnsHead of Leadership, Governance and Management

HEFCE

Working Across Cultures

Academic

World

Organisational

World

Regulatory

World• Curiosity, criticism,

challenge

• Analysis and evaluation

• Seeking ways not to

agree

• Independence

• Long time scales

• Knowledge

• Support, enabling

• Action

•Seeking consensus

and agreement

•Inter-dependence

• Annual time scales

• Performance

• Judging

• Policy/Ideology

• Seeking conformity

• Dependence

• 1-6 years timetable

•Money

Leaders must seek feedback

• Change leads to discomfort• Leaders do not have a monopoly on vision• New patterns or possibilities may emerge

from diverse inputs• Be prepared to change tack

and abandon “old ways”

• Leaders listen

Model of Comprehensive Leadership

Know Yourself

Know others

Know your organisation

Know the world

What you said about your “Best Bosses”

• Supportive• Self-assured• Gave constructive feedback• Good communicator• Sensitive• Leadership qualities • Understood what motivated

each individual• Concerned with detail as

well as big picture

• Respectful• Responsive• Encouraged development • Listened• Open-minded• Trustworthy• Principled – integrity • Followed up on promises • Open• Collegiate• Calm in a crisis

What you said about your “Worst Bosses”

• Poor communication skills• Thinks they know it all –

won’t ask for advice• Narrow-minded• Didn’t listen• Inflexible• No sense of leadership• No team-building or

development• Disrespectful• Didn’t support the team

• Failed to recognise team member’s good work

• Not trustworthy• Blamed others• Sexist• Racist• Low integrity• Unrealistic expectations• Didn’t seek or appreciate

alternative views• Avoided conflict

Today, more than ever before…

… Our passion and commitment, our willingness and ability to deal with

complexity, ambiguity and change, our thorough understanding of self and others…

These are the capabilities that define success

L > I = C

‘Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the

instrument as you on along’

Anon

How people change

• True behavioural change happens when the change helps people achieve personal goals

• There must be an opportunity for self-assessment• There must be a plan in place• Behavioural change takes time, practice – and lots of

feedback!• Ongoing support is vital to change efforts• This can be in the form of mentoring, coaching, etc:

the key that it is on-going and allows for mistakes!

Why Action Learning?

• To balance, individual need with organisational requirements

• To tackle real life organisational problems• To encourage

– Collaborative and supportive relationships– Respect for difference

• To provide time out• To expand ideas, techniques and approaches to work

Conditions for Effective Participation in AL

• Level of motivation• Capacity to be open and responsive• Interpersonal connectedness • Emotional management skills• Degree of psychological mindedness • Capacity for introspection• Responsiveness to observations of others• Flexibility

Before Action Learning Programme

Managers individual reactions are typically:

“I cannot afford to take that amount from the

Office!”

“We can probably manage with fewer

meetings than that.”

“I do lots ofProjects – this isn’tAny difference from

Project work.”

After Action Learning Programme

At the end of the programme manager responses are typically:

“We put in moretime than we imagines –

certainly more than the minimum.”

“We want to continue tooperate as a group because

we value how much we have learned in this

way and from each other.”

“You have to Experience this process

to really understandWhat it means.”

“I would not have believedThat such a diverse

Group could have developed Into this effective team.”

“If you always do what you have always done you will always get

what you always got!”

Anon