Leadership at DTU is a key element in maintaining DTU’s role as a leading technical university. Leadership is a prerequisite for employee wellbeing and performance, and all employees are entitled to good leadership. For this reason, DTU has its own leadership programme that provides relevant training for all DTU’s managers as well as leadership development activities.

The programme is based on DTU’s Leadership Foundation, which describe how management is conducted at DTU.

What is good management at DTU?
The key elements of DTU’s Leadership Foundation are

respect, dialogue, codetermination, interdisciplinary cooperation, curiosity, responsibility and a societal perspective.

The Leadership Foundation states that human resources are DTU’s most valuable assets. All staff should have access to an inclusive and engaged dialogue with their manager.

This personal approach reflects DTU’s belief in the potential of every individual. Management is a crucial factor in ensuring that the individual employees can realize their full potential. Management at DTU must therefore ensure that all University staff are acknowledged and challenged constructively.

In short, management must create a framework that allows the individual employee to maximize their talents, so we can create first-rate results together.

Management at DTU must be able to respond to specific situations and be focused on the individual. It is the manager’s responsibility to align goals, means, and scope with the employee to ensure that the employee can be self-managing in a meaningful and targeted way. All employees, including managers, have ongoing development dialogues with their immediate manager.

DTU’s Leadership Foundation also stresses that we expect managers to be aware of their responsibility as role models for DTU’s culture—not only at official meetings, but in all contexts.

Good management requires active back-and-forth from the employees. The individual employees are invited to contribute their input and perspectives in the daily dialogue, in formal meetings, at seminars, in DTU’s Well-being and Leadership Dialogues, etc.

The Leadership Foundation text reflects an verbal management culture that has been developed through many years of management practice at DTU.

If you have any comments or questions about the DTU Leadership Foundation, please contact your HR partner.