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Identify and develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours for your current and future roles
UCL’s Core Behaviours Framework has been created as part of our ongoing commitment to your personal and professional development. Using it should help you identify and develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours most appropriate to your current and future roles and should help you achieve our own goals and whilst helping to progress UCL’s Vision.
If you are in UCL professional services you should refer to the UCL Ways of Working for professional services. This will provide detail on the nine ways of working, supporting indicators and steps to development, as well as guidance using for recruitment, probation and appraisal. This framework has been designed specifically to support professional services colleagues, including technical and manual staff.
What are the UCL Core Behaviours?
UCL’s Core Behaviours are bundles of behaviour, knowledge and skill, the development of which should help you and any staff whom you line manage carry out their role(s) in a way that leads to more effective working practices and relationships. This in turn should provide you with increased job satisfaction and enhance your career options.
The UCL Core Behaviours support UCL's Vision and Values. They do so by identifying the kind of behaviours which can bring the Vision and Values to life and through providing you with a framework to help structure your personal and professional development conversations.
Nine UCL Core Behaviours have been identified:
- Leading by Example
- Effective Communication
- Working Collaboratively
- Delivering Successful Outcomes
- Continuous Personal and Team Development
- Managing Resources, Performance and Risk
- Championing Effective Change
- Analysis and Problem Solving
- Organisational Citizenship
A short description is provided for each UCL Core Behaviour, to provide an indication of how the behaviours could be applied within the UCL environment. A number of statements, called management behaviours, are also provided in each instance, to provide you with some practical ideas as to how you could go about developing your skills in this area. These are grouped for ease of application:
| Self: | How I might apply the behaviour in my own work. |
| Team: | How I might apply the behaviours in my dealings with others within my area. |
| Institution: | How I might apply the behaviours when working across the university. |
A group of ‘ineffective behaviours’ is also identified against all core behaviours. These are examples of behaviour that individuals should avoid as they can have an adverse effect on working practices and relationships.
How were the UCL Core Behaviours Identified?
The UCL Core Behaviours have been identified by UCL’s HR Organisational Development (OD) team, with the aim of focusing on those behaviours most likely to support UCL's Vision and Values. This work has included reference to other, existing, behavioural frameworks such as Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF) and the Continuous Professional Development Framework created by the Association of University Administrators (AUA). A number of colleagues from across the University have also been consulted.
The framework and the accompanying Guidance Notes will remain a work-in-progress. UCL’s HR OD team will be evaluating the use of the Framework and how useful a development aid it is for you and your team. Should changes emerge that would make the document more useful for you, then these will be looked at and implemented where possible.
When should I use the UCL Core Behaviours?
All the time! Using the UCL Core Behaviours should help you in working with people and teams in all aspects of your role and should help you focus your development on those areas that you (and your team members) will find most useful. Examples of when you could use the behaviours include:
- When preparing for a difficult meeting and thinking about your communication style.
- When working with others and thinking about how you can encourage greater collaboration between colleagues.
- When creating your Personal Development Plan and considering those areas of inter-personal skills that you would most like to develop.
- When coaching or mentoring a colleague and thinking about how you can be most effective in the situation.
Guidance Notes
Further guidance on how to apply the framework to your role and those of your team members can be found here:
If you are a line manager you should look at both links, to help you apply the framework to others and also to yourself.
