Leadership & Management at BUE Dr Andy Wilson Professional Development Loughborough University

Purpose of this discussion To discuss some leadership and management issues… …as preparation for the University Managers’ Programme.

University Managers’ Programme Mixed groups of academic, administrative and research managers Looking at current management issues Such as… Managing People; Leading Your Team; Planning and Monitoring; Risk Analysis; The Difficult Conversation; etc.

Process today Mixture of plenary discussion, group discussion and brief inputs

No Elephants

Leadership & Management Can be unhelpful to agonise over the differences Leadership high-level Management more day-to-day Both are needed They interact Today mainly about leadership… …to inform later discussions of management.

Leadership? Huge literature NB toxic leadership! Key issues from action learning sets for manager in UK HE are… Providing strategic direction Motivating people.

Whether you like it or not… …you will have a strategy ~ but it needs to be the one you want …you will influence the motivation of those around you ~ but it needs to be the influence you want.

Values Strategy is about what you do… …and what you don’t do How do you decide? Partly driven by institutional values But it must be something that matches your personal values… …or it’s not personally or professionally sustainable.

Values 2 When push comes to shove it’s values that help you decide So what are your fundamental values? And to what extent do these match those of your institution? What vision arises from these values? If you want to know what your institution really values, look at who they promote.

Levels It’s easy to get lost in the detail Keep moving up a level from time to time to check that you are still being strategic.

Levels Vision Strategic Operational Detailed Trivial

Developing and sharing a vision Managing the interfaces Motivating people Understanding the environment Controlling resources Developing strategies to deliver the vision VIPERS. Leadership

Creating time for leadership These activities all take time Essential to carve out time for the strategic alongside everything else Administration is getting the paperwork done Management is getting the job done Leadership is VIPERS.

A – M – L Admin- istration Manage- ment Leader- ship All of these are needed Pressures UrgentImportant but not urgent

Delegation Comments Delegation is not a dirty word Most people want you to delegate more Delegation can develop people… … coaching may be required Delegation is often inadequately done Handle different people differently Delegation gets easier with practice Don’t forget upwards or self delegation.

Your Awareness of Your Skills Competent YesNo Yes No Conscious Dangerous to delegate from here

Delegation Tips 1. Explain what, why, when, how and who 2. Don’t assume that they know the background or have all the skills 3. Alert them to possible pitfalls 4. Discuss resources, authority and support 5. Discuss reporting mechanisms 6. Don’t rush it 7. Allow time and space for questions.

Risk Risk influences people’s behaviour Do you want people to show initiative? Initiative carries the risk of failure How is failure treated? The risk of punishment can inhibit initiative What is your approach to risk?

Risk analysis Probability Consequencex Risk

Risk analysis 2 What’s the probability of something going wrong? What’s the consequence if something does go wrong? You can only answer these questions if you understand your environment and your stakeholders.

Risk analysis 3 You manage them differently What can you do to reduce the probability? What can you do to reduce the consequence?

Leadership concepts Four key concepts here for me degree leadership 2. Complementary teams 3. Task plus…? 4. Leadership and institutional values.

360 degree leadership Your team Your bosses External stakeholders Internal partners

Leadership directions It’s not just downwards 180 degrees You will want to influence your leaders You will want your followers to influence you You will want to influence your peers.

Complementary Teams Belbin Team Roles

Action-oriented roles Shaper Implementer Completer Finisher People-oriented roles Co-ordinator Team Worker Resource Investigator Cerebral roles Plant Monitor Evaluator Specialist

Task plus…? Models of leadership recognise the need to get the job done Often called the task They also recognise – in a range of forms – important non-task dimensions The key one is… social.

Leadership styles Competent YesNo Yes No Committed

Leadership styles 2 The relationship is both cause and effect If a member of the team is incompetent and uncommitted the leader may need to provide high direction and high support If the leader continues to behave in the same way, so will the team member Don’t encourage dependency And it’s the same in teaching.

Three-Circle Model Task Team Indi- vidual John Adair

Leadership and institutional values The way leaders behave will be the clearest signal that most people will get of what the institution values… …whether these values are explicit or not If leaders behave courteously… If leaders behave strategically… Etc.

How do you want to behave? Please produce a few adverbs to describe how BUE’s leaders and managers should behave.

Your actions Adverbs are one thing… …actions are something else What actions can you take to put your adverbs into effect? EG… Adverb ~ courteously Action ~ say “thank you” at the end of a meeting.

Contact information Dr Andy Wilson Director of Professional Development Loughborough University Leicestershire LE11 3TU UK Phone:+44 (0) Fax:+44 (0) Web: