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AUA Professional behaviours

Michelle Gander, FAUA

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Overview

• What are the Professional Behaviours?• How to use them for career development• Tools for reflection• Activity• Opportunities with the AUA• Activity

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The AUA Professional Behaviours

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= Excellence

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Reputation

• Reputation is about influence:– Difference: what makes you stand out from

the crowd? What three words would people use to ‘sum you up’?

– Better: what can you do / do you know, that others can’t / don’t?

– Authentic: your reputation must be built on truth

• Think about someone you look up to – can you use them as a role model? What behaviours do they show?

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How to use the Professional Behaviours

• Activity - spend 10 mins thinking about which of the Professional Behaviours are key to your current role - discuss this with your neighbour and identify why they are important.

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Tools for reflection

• Hard to be completely self-critical so:– 360 degree feedback– Colleague feedback - OU uses 3+2– Rate yourself against the behaviours and ask your

line manager to do the same

• Use this feedback to develop PDP and keep a record e.g. ePD - Electronic Personal Development Record http://members.aua.ac.uk/Personal_Development_Record.aspx

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Tools for reflection

• Activity - Now you’ve identified key Professional Behaviours think through which ones are your strengths and which could be improved. Discuss with your neighbour how you could do this and write at least one activity on your PDP. (10 mins)

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Thinking about your career

• No real career path in HEIs so freedom to make your own

• Know where you want to be in 1-2 years - what do you enjoy doing, what are you good at, what gaps in knowledge do you have?

• Look at job adverts to see what roles exist, what they require and which ones you’d like to do

• Reflect on your skills and experience – where are the shortfalls?

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How to use them

• Think about a possible next role - what behaviours are needed? Spend 10 mins talking to your neighbour which areas that you need to improve - add these to your PDP

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The value of competencies

• “I do think for any university to be successful at building career pathways in the administration it does need to be clear about these ... competencies. Think of it as the vertical and horizontal – what are the competencies that are discreet for a particular discipline and what are the competencies that are horizontal, that run across disciplines... We like blueprints so when you're discussing careers it can't just be abstract we like to say 'well I'm at this level now and these are the things that I want to do, so now let me look at the blueprint'. This is when the competencies kick in because then you can look at a list of competencies that someone in that role would need and then you can do a gap analysis between your current competencies and the competencies for the next job and then do a gap analysis.”

– Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor, Open University

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Next steps

• Continue to think about the usefulness of behaviours

• Get feedback

• Do a gap analysis

• Develop a PDP

• Utilise your internal CPD offerings

• Shadow someone

• Get a mentor/coach if needed

• Think about other external opportunities...

• Think about experience you can gain with the AUA...

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External opportunities

• Become active in your Professional Body - not just AUA but bodies such as Chartered Management Institute, Institute of Leadership and Management, ARMA, AMOSSHE etc.

• Become a School Governor or a Trustee for a charity - strategic level business planning, finance, estates, human resources etc

• Volunteer for a charity - lots of different roles e.g. fundraising (key in HE at the moment)

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Opportunities with the AUA

• Annual lecture and conference• Development conference• Seminars, workshops and other conferences• Publications – Newslink, Perspectives, Good

Practice Guides• Study Tours and Travel awards• Geographic and special interest networks • Cardiff events• PG Certificate in Professional Practice

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What we’ve learnt

• Work hard in your current role to gain a good reputation

• Get feedback from colleagues - 360 degree feedback, 3+2 etc

• Carry out a gap analysis• Take advantage of the extensive CPD on offer

at Cardiff and through the AUA (and other professional bodies)

• Know what skills you need to develop for your next role and find ways of developing these

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Activity

• Think about the opportunities that the AUA offers (or external ones) and that you are going to get involved in and record these in your PDP