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Leader and Manager Competency Framework

Effective leadership, and exceptional leaders, are central to the experience of students and staff and to our University’s future success. To support this, the Organisational Development (OD) team worked with the University Leadership Forum and a range of stakeholders across the University to develop the .

Linked closely to our University values, and aligned with our  aims, the framework outlines the important leadership and management principles expected at Sussex, and the everyday competencies which underpin them.

Leader and Manager Essentials Programme

Leader and Manager Essentials is a series of workshops designed to support the online Managers' Toolkit. These workshops run on a rolling basis every term and are open to all staff with or taking on management/leadership responsibilities. View the Organisational Development events calendar to see upcoming workshop dates and register via LearnUpon.

Being a Leader and Manager at Sussex: Introduction

Being a new manager and leader involves taking on fresh responsibilities and embracing a different mindset. As a manager, you transition from a colleague who contributes to team's work to someone who delivers results through others. This workshop will support new or aspiring managers to recognise the difference between leadership and management, give them an opportunity to reflect on their own leadership/management style and identify areas they might want to develop or build on.

Please note you will be asked to read through some pre-coursework in advance of this workshop.

Learning outcomes:

• Describe what it means to be a leader and manager for you and at Sussex
• Identify expectations for leaders and managers at Sussex
• Recognise difference between leading and managing; your priorities as a leader; how and when to do both
• Explore some leadership and management styles and start shaping your own styleo
• Consider the different working styles in teams and the need to adapt your own to influence, engage with and deliver results through others.

Building Trust and Psychological Safety in Teams

Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It describes a working environment characterised by inclusivity, interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves and feel able to ask for help, admit mistakes, express their views and suggest ideas.

This workshop gives an introduction to psychological safety and explores how to create a safe and supportive working environment that fosters trust, inclusion, collaboration and wellbeing within teams.

Learning outcomes:

• What psychological safety is and why it matters
• The role of trust in managing and leading teams
• Shared experiences and ideas around building trust and psychological safety within teams.

Motivating and Engaging Teams

The ability to motivate and engage is a key factor in effective management and leadership, and critical to an organisation’s success.

Motivated people have a positive outlook, they're excited about what they're doing, and they know that they're investing their time in something that's truly worthwhile. They are also highly adaptable, particularly when it comes to change.

Teams are made up of individuals who have their own unique circumstances, backgrounds and experiences. Consequently, each person may be driven by different motivating factors, and be more or less adept at self-motivation.
This workshop will explore the different types of motivation and ways to create a working environment in which team members are motivated and engaged.

Learning outcomes:

• The different types of motivation
• The value of employee engagement
• Your role as a manager or leader in fostering a motivated mindset
• Strategies and tips for tailoring your approach to motivation.

Supporting Teams through Change

In this session we explore how leaders can support their teams and enable them to thrive through change. Together we look at the current context of change and explore natural human reactions, behaviours and emotions that surface during change, with a focus on what we can do was leaders to support people during times of transition.

Learning outcomes:

• Clarify the current context of change
• Understand how change impacts us and our teams including reactions, behaviours and emotions
• Explore how as leaders we can support our teams and enable them to thrive through change

Coaching as a Manager

Coaching is a powerful approach that can support managers to engage, inspire and support a team. Join this workshop to learn how to utilise the coaching mindset and experience some coaching.

Learning outcomes:

• Describe the value of adopting a coaching mindset as a manager and a leader at Sussex
• Identify how and when to apply a coaching approach with your team and/or colleagues
• Recognise core skills involved in coaching
• Explore the TGROW model.

Effective Delegation

Effective delegation is not simply about handing over a task – it involves trust, communication, and coordination. Learning to delegate effectively is an essential skill for leaders and managers. Delegating empowers your team, builds trust, provides learning opportunities for professional development, and opens the door for new insights.

This workshop explores the benefits of effective delegation and various approaches to assigning tasks to others.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify the benefits and blockers of effective delegation
• Describe the steps to successful delegation
• Consider tasks for suitable delegation

Giving and Receiving Feedback Effectively

Constructive feedback in the workplace is extremely important: workplaces need effective communication to succeed and thrive. As well as increasing staff morale, feedback helps us learn more about ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, our behaviours, and how our actions affect others. It also increases our self-awareness and encourages personal development.

Feedback won’t always be positive. Developmental feedback highlights areas where we need to improve and helps make our workmuch better in the long run. However, it is important to deliver feedback skilfully, otherwise it provides no basis for the positive change required.

By the end of this workshop, participants will feel more confident to deliver feedback that is clear, concise and purposeful.

Learning outcomes:

• Strengthen your motivation to use feedback and to ask for it
• Recognise the importance of feedback for people performance management and leadership
• Find out how to overcome your 'blockers' to giving and receiving feedback
• Begin to develop the skill of giving effective feedback and receiving it.

How to Have Difficult Conversations

From time to time all managers will face conversations which they anticipate will be challenging and which they may feel ill-equipped to manage. Scenarios of this kind include addressing under-performance, tackling instances of unacceptable behaviour, investigating reports of bullying, giving developmental feedback, turning down employee requests, or dealing with sensitive personal issues. This workshop will introduce a range of practical tools and techniques to support you to have meaningful and constructive conversations.

Learning outcomes:

• What can make conversations challenging and factors that can influence our behaviour/experience
• Tools and techniques to build your confidence around difficult conversations.
• A structure for approaching difficult conversations
• Practicing skills and sharing good practice guidelines.

Guidance and resources for managers

• The  has key information about being a line manager at Sussex.
• The  is a comprehensive guide for line managers responsible for overseeing new staff inductions.
• The Dotted Line Management Guidance gives an overview of dotted line management, how it is different from traditional line management, examples of scenarios where you might see this at Sussex, and best practice guidance.
• The Manager's Development Channel on Microsoft Teams is a platform for peer support and sharing relevant development opportunities, open to all managers at the University. Join the .
• As a manager, you are responsible for supporting employees who you could reasonably be expected to know are disabled, whether they have told you about their disability or not. You must consider the possibility that an employee who is struggling at work may be disabled and need adjustments. The Workplace Adjustment Toolkit has some Guidance for Managers, which provides information about the responsibility of managers to implement workplace or reasonable adjustments for their team, a step by step process, and signposting to teams who can support. 

How we learn: the 70:20:10 model

In this fast-changing world, our time and attention are under pressure, both at work and outside of work. This inevitably results in less time to spend away from the office for learning and development opportunities. In today’s modern workforce, there has been a shift from ‘training as an event’ to ‘learning as a collaborative, continuous, connected and community based activity’.

The 70:20:10 learning model is widely accepted as one of the best frameworks for organisational learning and development. This model suggests that:

Hands-on experience, (the 70%) is the most beneficial for staff because it enables them to practice and develop their skills, to develop their capacity to adapt to new situations, and to address challenges and make decisions. It also offers the benefit of immediate feedback, which allows the staff member to learn from their mistakes and increase their confidence.

As the manager or leader of a team, you should be encouraging this blended approach to learning and exploring the 90% of learning opportunities for staff outside of the training room and formal learning. 

Further reading: