Social and Leadership Competencies
How we engage with ourselves and others is crucial to our well-being and success. With the social and leadership competencies, ETH Zurich has developed a common understanding.
Competencies that connect
The social and leadership competencies have been developed for all ETH employees. They are combinations of skills, knowledge and attitudes that are in line with ETH Zurich's strategy. They help us act purposefully on the basis of our values and offer guidance in research, teaching, knowledge transfer and technical/administrative work.
The social and leadership competencies can be observed by means of concrete indicators. They can also be learned and developed.
Below you will find the six competencies with a selection of the most important indicators for each.
Note for lecturers
Distinction to the ETH Competence Framework for Teaching
ETH has not only defined a set of competences to be strived for when it comes to how we work together, but also for teaching: The ETH competency framework describes the competencies that ETH Zurich aims to promote among its students. It is intended to ensure that students are future-ready, by strengthening their transferable competencies (i.e., method-specific, personal and social) together with their subject-specific competencies.
Living and developing the six competencies
To promote a positive work culture that fosters everyone’s personal development and lets them contribute their individual talents and strengths, it is vital that all ETH employees have the opportunity to develop their own social and leadership competencies.
Current implementation status
The competencies will be incorporated into existing as well as new offerings and products for employees: In discussions, workshops, e-learnings and also in various HR-related measures and processes. In some processes the competences have already been implemented, in others the implementation will take place in steps, over an extended period of time.
FAQ
People from over 120 different countries work, study and research together at ETH. This diversity is our strength. For everyone to work together in the best possible way, there must be a common understanding of how we want to interact with each other and what good leadership means. The ETH social and leadership competencies provide a common language and expectations for this. They provide guidance for personal development and give a framework that helps us talk about our behaviour and our experiences with each other.
Current research also shows that the targeted development of social and leadership competences has a variety of positive effects on institutions and their employees: it improves mental and physical health, but also motivation, performance, job satisfaction and the sense of belonging.
In many respects, we are all leaders: We can all influence how we think, feel and act. We can lead ourselves toward our own goals. We can influence others through our actions and contribute to or inspire change in our environment.
Investing in your own leadership qualities is therefore not only a benefit for our community, but first and foremost for yourself.
For people in a leadership position, the social and leadership competencies provide a helpful reference to reflect on their own leadership style and personal skills.
They also provide a practical basis for discussing social and leadership behaviour within the team: What expectations do we have of ourselves and others on the team? What quality do we want in our interactions with each other? Are there perhaps aspects where we want to change our team culture?
The meaning of the word "leadership" has changed significantly in the English-speaking world in recent years: While the word was originally reserved for CEOs, managers and team leaders, "leadership" is now more often understood as a set of skills and a certain mindset that any person can possess. The German term "Führung," on the other hand, often has negative connotations. Many associate it with a person who rules over others - or vice versa: people who obey the leading person. This contradicts ETH's understanding of empowered employees. That is why we use the word "leadership".
Leadership is a term that is defined and used in different ways. In general, it is about having an impact and bringing about positive change in oneself and others.
There are many different leadership styles (e.g. democratic, laissez-faire, transactional, transformational) and types (e.g. top-down leadership, lateral leadership or self-leadership). With the social and leadership competencies, ETH has defined a framework for leadership at ETH.
There is currently no single correct answer to this question. Just as there is no single answer to the question of what leadership actually means. Researchers in leadership development and occupational psychology are currently working intensively on this.
What is clear is that leadership has to do with impact. This means that good leadership includes leadership styles that have a positive impact on well-being and performance.
In an Internal News article “Openness, responsibility, inclusion, respect, empowerment, ingenuity”, Gudela Grote, Professor of Work & Organisational Psychology at ETH, explains the connection between values and competencies using a specific example:
“Openness is a value by which ETH signals the desirability of certain types of behaviour such as “showing appreciation” or “learning from other people’s perspectives and opinions”. This type of behaviour requires certain competencies, such as the ability to put oneself in another person’s situation – a skill the university is eager to promote.”
All employees have access to various offers such as courses, e-learnings etc. from the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership. These offers support employees in strengthening their own social and leadership skills.
You can find an overview on the website of the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership.
Existing offers are constantly being developed and new offers are being added.
Background
By ETH, for ETH
As a university with an excellent reputation, ETH Zurich has the privilege of attracting researchers and students from all over the world. In addition to tremendous diversity, this also brings with it expectations on ETH as an institution. Talented people are not only looking for success, but increasingly also for autonomy, purpose and connectedness at work. To ensure that all ETH members feel at home here and can perform their best, we must continuously improve and develop our culture. This requires a common understanding of what kind of interpersonal behaviour we want to promote and what good leadership means.
With this in mind, the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership commissioned a working group to develop social and leadership competencies. The result is the work of representatives from all ETH university groups, who contributed their feedback in 23 workshops. The insights gained were reinforced by current research findings and the latest leadership models.
The parallel discussion on ETH values in Workstream 6 of the organisational development project rETHink and other cornerstones of ETH culture, such as the Respect Code of Conduct, also flowed into the development. In exchange with those responsible for rETHink, the six social and leadership competencies were combined with the new values in an integrated approach in 2022. In this way, the scope extends from the vision and mission of ETH Zurich to the values and the competencies.
Articles on the topic
- "Openness, responsibility, inclusion, respect, empowerment, ingenuity", Internal News article from 16. January 2023
- "By ETH, for ETH", Internal News article from 19. January 2023
- "How to implement the new competencies in your everyday life", Internal News article from 07. March 2023
- "Connected: six competencies and a common language", ETH Zurich, Annual Report 2022