Leadership Behavioural Competencies Somerset County Council October 2011
The Somerset Context We are as ambitious as ever for Somerset s future its place, its economy, its people. However, our context has changed and fulfilling these ambitions means doing things differently. This is an opportunity for us to step back, to think about the priorities for our communities and to redesign the Council and the services we deliver to meet those needs for the long term. It s also a chance for us to create a more flexible, empowering and innovative place to work for our employees. Our County Plan, our strategic imperatives and our new operating model help us to define what the future will look like. Going forward, we will be commissioning services from others, building on what we do already, and directly providing far fewer ourselves. This means: We will work with individual citizens, our residents and communities to understand what makes the biggest difference in their lives. To do this we will be much more closely engaged with them, developing improved relationships and using language appropriate to the way they engage with us. We will become more focused on outcomes and design the services that will best support those outcomes joining things up across our partners. We will think carefully about what we spend and the value we get, prioritising resources to deliver these outcomes. We will explore alternatives and options for others to run services where they can deliver well and more cheaply. Where a private sector company or a community organisation is well placed to deliver a service, we will use them, and we will assure the quality of the service. We will shift from working with direct reports to working across a matrix of peers, providers and partners. This means we may give up some of the direct control we are familiar with today, but we will have more influence in getting things right for places and people tomorrow. Given this context as leaders we will be focused on two things. First, on driving through and delivering this change with pace, whilst taking our employees and partners with us. Secondly, on delivering the new ways of working that will be required if we are to deliver our County plan. Our 4Cs Customer Focus, Can Do Attitude, Care and Respect and Collaboration remain our core values. These Leadership Behavioural Competencies build on these values in the context of the changes in Somerset to help define what will be critical for us as leaders to support us to deliver our strategy. Going forward these will sit at the centre of our HR processes for leaders, ensuring we are recruiting, developing and managing performance against the right things to deliver our strategy. The term customers is used throughout the behavioural competencies to describe a diverse range of citizens who may contact us for any reason or are affected by anything we do.
Shape their context Think strategically Influence Making the links Work collaboratively Manage their context Focus on customers and communities Our County Plan and four strategic imperatives lay out the future direction for the Council. Look outside in Collaboration Our 4Cs remain the underpinning values for the way we work and apply to all our employees. Lead and empower Manage for high performance Lead with integrity Our leadership behavioural competencies define the critical behaviours that will help our leaders to deliver our County plan. The County Plan Informed commissioning Customer focus Better customer experience Can do attitude Stronger local engagement Value for money Care and respect Ensure outstanding value Innovate and deliver Inspire and empower others
The Leadership behavioural competencies Lead and empower Inspire and empower others Focus on customers and communities Look outside in Lead with integrity Work collaboratively Innovate and deliver Manage their context Think strategically Manage for high performance Influence Ensure outstanding value Shape their context The behavioural competencies are grouped into 4 clusters that describe what our leaders will need to do: Focus on customers and communities Shape their context Ensure outstanding value Inspire and empower others Beneath each of these clusters are the behavioural competencies we will need to use to deliver the how. e.g. Look outside in, Work collaboratively. Under each of the behavioural competencies are a series of indicators that show what this behavioural competency looks like in practice.
How will these behaviours help us to deliver our strategy? Focus on customers and communities: Somerset leaders are ambitious for their customers and communities, putting them at the heart of what they do and working across boundaries to design and deliver services around their needs. We have increasingly limited resources but remain ambitious for Somerset and are committed to shaping a good future for our communities within those resources. This means focusing our resources where they will have the biggest impact for our communities, with a real focus on outcomes. In order to do this we will need to really understand customers and engage with them to help them make choices about their priorities or empower them to support themselves. As we move to a matrix structure and begin to shift our focus to commissioning for outcomes, rather than delivering services, we will need to work across structural and organisational boundaries. As leaders we will need to build strong, trusting relationships (irrespective of traditional reporting lines) and draw others together around a common goal if we are to maximise our impact on customer outcomes and genuinely design services around customer and community, not organisational needs. Shape their context: Somerset leaders think differently, drive innovation and create clear strategies out of complexity. They influence and shape their environment focusing others where it counts to drive change and deliver customer and community outcomes. We are shifting from delivering services to aligning resources across the patch to deliver, commission or enable others to help themselves. We have committed to being informed commissioners, taking evidence based decisions which draw on our deep understanding of our context, best practice and new ideas to deliver for the long term. We need to be both strongly tapped into our environment and able to make this complexity simple to focus where we can have most impact, create and shape opportunities, and drive innovation. This not only means understanding the hard data, but also the politics and dynamics at play between individuals, organisations and key policy makers. The ability to navigate these politics to make things happen and shape this context, drawing on sophisticated and strategic influencing skills, will be critical in working with and through others.
How will these behaviours help us to deliver our strategy? Ensure outstanding value: Somerset leaders challenge the status quo, setting ambitious goals and making them happen. They drive the delivery of outcomes with pace, confidence and agility whether working with providers, employees or partners. We have a challenging agenda to deliver, fast. This means we need to be tenacious, agile, adaptable and confident - able to take some tough decisions and manage, rather than avoid risks, to re-define how we do things and translate our strategy into results. Going ahead we will need to continually deliver high value services in an ongoing context of increasing demands and reducing resources. As informed commissioners we will meet this challenge by ensuring we use the best value provider of services with a continual focus on efficiency. As leaders we will no longer focus on simply managing budgets, but will consider the best deployment of resources. We will need to be astute analysers of cost, quality and value, pro-active and innovative in challenging existing standards and shaping opportunities for improving the value of what we commission. Going forward whether we are directly delivering services or acting as quality assurers rather than deliverers, our ability to constructively challenge and manage performance against the right indicators will also be critical. Inspire and empower others: Somerset leaders inspire trust and commitment and enable their employees, peers and partners to be the best they can be. To change the way we do things we will need to take our employees and partners with us on the journey, help them think differently about how we do things and empower them to be the best they can be. With our focus on working with and through others, it will become increasingly important to lead and align peers, partners and providers, rather than direct employees. As leaders we will need to be credible and impactful; able to both set the tone for the organisation and align and engage others behind a compelling sense of direction. Being open and authentic and inspiring trust and confidence will be important here. It will underpin our ability to engage and to lead in a context where increasingly, we may not manage people directly.
Somerset leaders focus on customers and communities Look outside in: We ensure that we keep customers and communities at the forefront of what we do, constantly challenging others to think from their perspective and shaping services around them. Thinks from a customer perspective and use customer data and feedback to define and continually improve services Engages with customers and communities on an ongoing basis supporting them to make informed choices and shape future services Continually champions and advocates the customer perspective with employees, peers, partners and providers helping others put themselves in the customers shoes. Work collaboratively: We pro-actively work across service and organisational boundaries, building the strong relationships and partnerships that allow us to work effectively together to deliver high value and customer oriented services. n Pro-actively builds networks and relationships internally and externally taking the time to get to know others and their perspective n Manages relationships and partnerships for the long term sharing information, building trust, constructively tackling conflict and finding win/win solutions n Builds connections, a shared understanding of needs and goals and collective commitment to them across partners, to help us create joined up solutions which deliver high value and positive outcomes for our customers and communities.
Somerset leaders shape their context Manage their context: We ensure we have a deep understanding of our context - the key players, politics, trends and latest thinking. We use this understanding to support ourselves to shape that context. Keeps up to speed with social and economic trends, the market and context issues that affect them, their partners and providers Keeps up to speed with policy changes, new ideas and thinking and helps those they lead to do the same Uses their networks and relationships to stay tapped into informal politics and dynamics across the authority, and the partner and provider context Uses this understanding to identify issues or trends, spot opportunities arising both in the short and long term and inform their strategy and influencing Is at the forefront of thinking in their field and ensures Somerset s views, insights and best practice inform the thinking of key players and the policy debate. Think strategically: We think broadly and create innovative strategies and solutions for Somerset, making complex and ambiguous issues and situations clear. Thinks about issues broadly, able to see things from different perspectives and considers the broader context as well as the issue at hand Translates complex or ambiguous issues into clear vision and direction, helping themselves and others focus on what counts Establishes strategy against outcomes rather than services, looking beyond the Council to how we will shape our context to deliver Draws new and creative insights from complex data to re-define what we do and how we do it. Influence: We influence strategically, aligning others and shaping the context to best deliver customer and community outcomes. Is aware of their personal impact and manages themselves to maintain positive behaviours even under stressful situations Thinks about their message and their audience and uses their understanding of others to choose the most impactful approach Takes a strategic approach to influencing, taking action to build support, position Somerset and shape their context for the long term.
Somerset leaders ensure outstanding value Innovate and deliver: We challenge the status quo to deliver the highest value for our customers and communities. We drive through to deliver with pace, adaptability and resilience. Uses business data to manage their service, making the most efficient use of resources on the basis of a clear analysis of risks, cost, quality, value and benchmark comparisons Creates a culture of risk management, rather than risk aversion, enabling others to confidently take calculated risks without blame if things go wrong Sets challenging goals and stays focused over the long term Remains optimistic focusing on solutions and opportunities rather than challenges and inspires confidence that even very challenging goals can be delivered. Manage for high performance: We set high standards focusing performance measures where they count and managing issues constructively. Sets clear, holistic performance expectations which look across customer, employee, operational and financial measures and trusts others to deliver Keeps focused on the outcomes stepping back from the performance data to ask what is it telling me? Actively tackles issues promptly and constructively, following through to ensure change has occurred and is sustained and that we learn collectively from issues Tackles conflict quickly, directly and constructively to ensure issues are resolved Constructively challenges and supports others at all levels to act in line with agreed priorities, objectives, values and behaviours and deliver continual improvement.
Somerset leaders inspire and empower others Lead and empower: We create clear and engaging direction and purpose, and empower others to do their best and grow. Values others input and seeks out views and challenge Helps those they lead to understand the vision and direction and their role within it, in a way that is meaningful to them Sets the tone for how others work together, establishing positive, respectful and empowering ways of working Builds a shared and compelling sense of purpose and future vision across those they lead Coaches and develops teams and individuals to support them to deliver and grow Identifies service/organisational development needs and ensures they are met Creates a culture of continual learning, enabling those they lead to step back from the day to day to reflect on new ideas/issues/successes, to challenge and share ideas for doing things differently. Lead with integrity: We are trusted and credible leaders who lead by example and model openness and integrity, even under challenging circumstances. Communicates clearly Admits mistakes and that they do not have all the answers Will give difficult messages (constructively) or stand by tough decisions even when it is difficult to do so Acts as a role model, trusted to do what they say they will do even in challenging circumstances Challenges or speaks out when it is the right thing to do.