Based on SDU’s Leadership Compass and the Management Commission’s recommendations, all SDU managers are encouraged to create a personal management foundation.
The purpose of the management foundation is to inform, create transparency and promote dialogue about management. This is both to accelerate the collaboration and to create a dialogue forum where you can actually talk about the specific management relationship. In this way, we avoid management as an ‘unspoken’ phenomenon, in which interpretations, conjectures, hunches and judgements play a greater role than actual motives and goals. If we have a better overview of each other’s goals and motives, we avoid waste and division. (Management Commission)
Leadership is a lifelong process
Good leadership is the foundation for staff, students, partners and the University to succeed in their purposes and ambitions.
Working with your personal management foundation is a dynamic and lifelong process that requires time. The goal is not to get the wording right the first time. The goal is to continuously see beyond everyday life and reflect on your own management development.
What is a management foundation?
‘Product declaration’ and wishes for collaboration
On the one hand, a management foundation is a kind of ‘product declaration’ and description of the manager in relation to the employees. Based on this description, employees will be able to establish expectations about the manager’s management behaviour. On the other hand, the management foundation is also a ‘wish list’ for good collaboration. In other words, a clear indication of what employees should preferably do. Collaboration between management and staff will thus be able to develop better and faster for the benefit of both parties and SDU as a whole.
The management foundation is personal
It must be written in the first person and contain both ‘I offer’ and ‘I would like’. It is a personal statement that does not need to be approved in the hierarchical system. Of course, the first person perspective should not lead to SDU’s principles of good leadership being ignored or undermined.
Ultimately, behaviour is of greatest importance
Therefore, the management foundation should particularly focus on behaviour and only to a lesser extent on attitudes and thoughts. The fact that behaviour stems from leadership values is another matter entirely.
Developing your personal management foundation
Working with your personal management foundation is a complex and lifelong process that requires time. Therefore, it is also important that the individual manager, in interaction with the rest of management, prioritises the necessary time and finds relevant opportunities to work with his/her personal leadership foundation. The Management Commission recommends the following procedures for developing the personal management foundation. Regardless of whether you choose to follow the recommendations slavishly, it is central that the process becomes an interaction between individual reflections and sparring in smaller management groups.
- Individually: Everyone prepares individually. (See reflection exercises below)
- Workshop: You gather in a confidential group of 3-5 people and go through the exercises together.
- Individually: Everyone works individually on formulating their own foundation.
- Workshop: You meet again and present your foundations to each other and receive feedback and inspiration.
- Individually: Everyone continues working on their foundation.
- Workshop: You meet one last time and practise communicating your management foundation.
Workshops are planned to last approximately three hours, with one month between each workshop. An organisational consultant from HR Service can be affiliated with the process.
4 individual reflection exercises
- Exercise 1: In simple language, write down what you associate with good management.
- Exercise 2: What do you want your employees to say to you when you quit your current job?
- Exercise 3: Briefly describe three examples where you know you did an excellent job as a leader.
- Exercise 4: Look at the 4 leadership perspectives in SDU’s Leadership Compass, and choose 1-2 reflection questions from each perspective that you think are the most important for your own leadership right now.
How to write your Management Foundation
When you have to write your personal management foundation, it is worth remembering that there is no one right management foundation and that we can and must do it each in our own way.
Advice:
- Use your own words and the linguistic tone that suits you best. A management foundation must be genuine, honest and authentic. Therefore, it should not be formulated with other people’s wordings. It might be helpful to think out loud and hear how your thoughts sound.
- Use the first-person perspective. You are the manager and it is your management foundation. Although it may be difficult, it is important that you use ‘I’. (I want… I do… I prioritise… I wish…) In this way, you avoid being impersonal, abstract, anonymous and inactive.
- The management foundation must be based on SDU’s Leadership Compass and focus on what you deliver and what you want. It will also be helpful if you write down what you are not very good at, what you are struggling to improve, and what your employees can help you with.
- The management foundation should also contain clear demands and clear messages about what you will not accept.
Communicate your management foundation
You must communicate your management foundation. This can be done in several ways. It is important that the way in which you communicate reflects your thorough preparation. Agree in the management group how you best can communicate your personal management foundation. For example, you can choose to present it in a short video (see the Management Commission for examples of videos), make a poster, or present it using PowerPoint at a department meeting. Whatever form you agree to use, it is recommended that you spend the last workshop in the management group to practise delivering your presentations to each other. This can be good preparation for being ‘in the spotlight’.
