9 Qualities of Leadership

The Oxford Centre for Leadership (OXCEL) recognises leadership wherever it exists, be it in commerce, public service or voluntary service.

OXCEL regards leadership as a social process that is distributed throughout an organisation and is dependent upon all parties involved.

OXCEL aims to foster leadership and increase the effectiveness of leadership at all levels in organisations.

OXCEL aims to establish standards of leadership that are relevant to different, non-western cultures.

OXCEL judges personal achievement on a range of nine leadership qualities covering the Cognitive, Affective and Inter-personal Domains.

OXCEL specifically does not limit the leadership qualities to those that are easily measured

OXCEL bases its judgements on the assessment of a personal portfolio together with a personal project following a period of study.

The Assessment Grid shows the evidence that is required to demonstrate achievement at each level of the nine leadership qualities.

Developing the portfolio of evidence is a slow one; this allows for and indeed requires a great deal of reflection by candidates on their own leadership performance. This approach avoids the pitfalls of limited scope and a ‘tick-box mentality’ which are seen with many of the leadership competency frameworks which often use a reduced set of easily measured characteristics.

Assessment Criteria

Licentiate Award
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Licentiate Level.

Graduate Award
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Graduate Level.

Master Award
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Master Level.

Fellow Award
Candidates must demonstrate achievement of 6 of the 9 leadership qualities at the Fellow Level.

9 Qualities of Leadership

Leading and Developing Others
Achieving outcomes through the efforts of other staff and developing the skills, knowledge and attitudes of these staff to enhance performance.

Developing Capability & Capacity
Increasing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of an organisation so that it is better prepared to cope with uncertainty, ambiguity and unexpected change

Influencing
Influencing means changing the opinions, attitudes, actions and behaviour of others within and outside the organisation

Making Sense of Complexity and Ambiguity
Interpreting the many complex and ambiguous signals an organisation receives and giving confidence to everyone in the organisation.

Integrity
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles

Ethics
Beliefs about what is right or wrong.

Ceremony
Rituals surrounding the celebration of achievement of the team or team members and projecting the success to stakeholders and other external groups

Leading Change
A process of adapting the way an organisation works to meet changing external and internal pressures

Handling Cultural Diversity
Using cultural differences to strengthen organisations and their relationships