Leadership vision: Agile Leadership
What do we expect from managers at Ghent University? Why is good leadership important? How can leaders develop?
With these questions, Human Resources started a participatory process in March 2021. We talked to the management team (rector, vice-rector, administrators, deans & directors) and supervisors at Ghent University via 14 sounding board groups.
The result is a framework for supervisors: Agile Leadership (in dutch)
“At Ghent University, we offer our supervisors the space to concretely fill in the various leadership roles together with their colleagues in the way that best suits the team and their own leadership style. With the new Agile Leadership framework, we confirm our confidence in their abilities and invite them to grow together.” Rector Rik Van de Walle
Why Agile Leadership?
Ghent University is an organization with a variety of assignments, activities and responsibilities. A high degree of agility is expected from our supervisors on various levels:
- Combining different and often diverse tasks and assignments;
- Managing diverse (international) staff members, often with different expectations and needs;
- Quickly switch between different projects and teams;
- Dealing flexibly with changing circumstances;
- Responding to recent scientific research, educational innovation and social trends in a rapidly growing university.
To offer an answer to these challenges and to further evolve towards an organizational culture focused on trust linked to responsibility, we at Ghent University resolutely choose Agile Leadership.
Agile Leadership: three basic attitudes
Agile Leadership means flexibly switching between the role of leader, manager, coach, entrepreneur and expert (depending on the circumstances) individually and at a team level. It also means paying attention to each staff member, the team and the organization so that Ghent University can increasingly profile itself as a leading organization.
The agile supervisor bestows trust, connects and gives direction with authenticity and attuned to others.
More info?
- Framework Agile Leadership (Dutch only)
What do we expect from agile supervisors?
An agile supervisor switches flexibly between different leadership roles (leader, manager, coach, entrepreneur and expert).
This does not mean that you, as a supervisor, must take on all the roles yourself. It does mean that the supervising team can take on all the roles. It is important that you form a complementary supervising team so that all roles are represented in their entirety, and each supervisor can operate from their own strengths.
How can supervisors provide Agile Leadership?
An agile supervisor can easily switch between the various roles (= what) individually and/or at a team level. The way (= how) each of these roles are fulfilled is crucial for the functioning of each staff member, the team and the organization, as well as the supervisor (Decuypere & Shaufeli, 2021; Van den Broeck, Ferris, Chang, & Rosen, 2016).
As an agile supervisor, you complete your supervising roles with a view to what you, the staff, the team and the organization need. In this way, the agile supervisor aims to promote the well-being, cooperation and performance of staff members and the team.
As a supervisor, how do you meet the needs of the staff and the team? What do you focus on? The answer can be found in the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017), a strong, scientifically-based motivation theory. The relevance of this theory has already been demonstrated many times within the work context.
In concrete terms, an agile supervisor will always strive to enable his staff members to be themselves (autonomy), to build authentic relationships (connection) and to develop themselves (competence). As a supervisor, you can do this by bestowing trust, connecting and giving direction while remaining authentic.
How can supervisors develop?
"Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a process, not an outcome" (quoting John Donahoe) - Bill George
We are convinced that supervisors can grow in their role from their authenticity. With the proper guidance, every supervisor or future supervisor can increase their abilities. We also give supervisors the time they need to develop at their own pace.