Leadership
Leadership at the UU
At Utrecht University, we value leadership very highly. We believe that effective leadership is a vital factor in creating a safe and inspiring working environment as it boosts employee motivation, helps us achieve our goals, facilitates cross-border collaboration and enables UU to help make the world a better place.
Leadership plays a role in all kinds of issues, both big and small. It's about how various levels within UU communicate with each other. It's about how you give feedback to your colleagues. It's about constructively identifying things that could be done better, taking other people's viewpoints and feelings into account and giving direction.
Three dimensions of leadership at UU
There are many dimensions to leadership, each of which features its own key competences. Every dimension has its own individual perspecitive, although they are all applicable to your everyday duties as a supervisor. What makes you a good leader and what is necessary for you to be(come) one? At UU, we define three dimensions of leadership.
You
- Self-reflection
- Cultivating mutual trust, giving and taking responsibility
- Recognising and nurturing diversity of employees
- Clear communication
You and your team
- Collaboration (interdisciplinary or otherwise)
- Reinforcing the culture of improvement
- Encouraging development
- Results-oriented
You and the organisation
- Setting objectives for your own unit and connecting them to UU objectives
- Realising objectives in the UU Strategic Plan
- Taking responsibility for the bigger picture
How does the UU work on leadership?
As an organisation, we stimulate the discussion about leadership with discussions in various forums and with all kinds of target groups. In this way we both align our goals and translate them into practice, for example about recognition and appreciation or diversity. In addition, strategic personnel planning helps to create a strategy about (future) leadership and to stimulate its development. It is up to each manager to fill in the details of their own leadership dimensions in daily practice. The UU offers multiple leadership courses for its employees with many different learning paths and training courses.
Leadership development programmes
Utrecht University offers several opportunities to enhance your professional qualities in the field of leadership:
During the training programme for supervisors I learned things that I still apply on a daily basis.
More information
For more information, see the brochure on leadership at the UU and the video (English subtitles possible) in which Annetje Ottow, former Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board, invites all UU managers to engage in the leadership conversation.