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2022

Welcome to UGL!
You will soon be attending the Understanding Group and Leaders (UGL) course, and as
preparation, we would like to give you some brief background information about UGL and the
general framework and guidelines of the course.
The UGL brand is proprietary to the Swedish Defence University since 2000, and prior to that, it
belonged to the Swedish Armed Forces. UGL as a concept has been used for basic leadership
training since 1981 and is based on research. The Swedish Defence University is responsible for
the quality and development of the UGL concept and trains and certifies all UGL facilitators. The
most recent major revision was done in 2008. After that, minor revisions were made, and the most
recent version was issued in 2021.
We know that successful leaders are perceived as credible because they practice a developmental
leadership style based on self-awareness and social skills. UGL takes its stance on the relational
aspect of leadership and co-workership, i.e., how members of a group influence and are influenced
by each other. UGL also covers how a group evolves and matures, what happens in the group as
it evolves, and the leadership opportunities and challenges that are related to the different stages.
The aim of UGL is that you become more effective as a leader, co-worker, and team member
which, in turn, will lead to individual development and organisational results.
Throughout the course, you will practice using a variety of reflection tools for increased self-
awareness and understanding of what facilitates or prevents both individual and group
development and cooperation. The UGL course is based on experiential learning, which means
that the participants experience situations that reflect group dynamics and use them as a tool for
understanding their own roles.
The overall goal of the week is personal development and to equip you with a set of tools you can
use with your own group for improving productivity through better collaboration. Some of the
course goals are:
• Increased understanding of how emotions affect individuals and groups;
• Increased understanding of how personal values affect relations and leadership;
• Experience in the relevance of conflicts and conflict management;
• Ability to communicate directly and clearly;
• ability to give and receive developmental feedback
• Ability to see and manage different stages in a group's development;
• Increased understanding of how norms and roles affect a group's work;
• Develop tools for effective and efficient decision making;
• Increased understanding of various leadership styles and how personal attitudes affect a
group's development;
• Increased understanding of the need for leadership.
Throughout the week, we carry out different tasks both individually and in the group and then
reflect and talk about the experiences and draw conclusions about the different thoughts, feelings
and behaviours that the task gave rise to.

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UGL framework
Diversity contributes to learning. Your group will consist of people of diverse backgrounds such
as age, gender, professional background, etc. The composition of the group is also such that the
participants do not know each other from before so that reflection and openness are not affected
by outside relationships.
The course content and pedagogy allow for the participants to have a sequence of common
experiences and talk about them in a safe environment. For that to work, the following conditions
must be present:
• UGL must be conducted as a consecutive sequence of five days and it is strongly
recommended that participants stay at the course/conference facility;
• The number of participants is limited to 8 - 12;
• The participants should not know each other outside the group;
• The course is facilitated by two facilitators who are certified by the Swedish Defence
University;
• It is not allowed to leave the course and come back during the week;
• No other activities may be planned during the week;
• No one other than the facilitators and the participants is allowed to attend.
• Of course, unforeseen events may happen that will force someone to leave the course early. If
that is the case, and in reference to the above, a participant may be offered an opportunity to
attend the course at some other time.
• Expect the course to be emotionally taxing, so please make sure that you are in physical and
psychological good shape.
• Don’t hesitate to reach out to your facilitators with any questions or concerns you may have!
You can find more details about the course at the Swedish Defence University's website
www.fhs.se and search for UGL.

Good luck with your course!

© Försvarshögskolan / Swedish Defence University

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The Swedish Defence University's Leadership Model

Understanding Group and Leaders (UGL) is a concept in the Swedish Defence University's
Leadership Model (Larsson et al., 2003; Larsson, Lundin & Zander, 2017). It was inspired by the
theories of transformational leadership1, where leadership is construed as an effect of the
dynamics of the working group and the organisation. The actual behaviour of a leader and how
successful it is depends on an interaction between the individual, the environment and the
situation. Individual development and organisational performance are interdependent.

The model includes three main areas: Leadership Styles, Leader, and Context.

Leadership styles are based on a frequency of

behaviours over time and can be divided into
three types of leadership behaviours:
destructive, conventional and developmental.
This should not be interpreted as people
’having’ a certain leadership style, but rather as
leaders exhibiting behaviours in certain
situations that employees perceive as a certain
style. For example, a leader who usually
exhibits developmental behaviours may also
exhibit conventional or destructive behaviours
under stress.
Developmental and Conventional leadership
can be distinguished by how employees are
motivated. A conventional leader is more likely
to refer to rules, obligations and rewards than
shared values, goals and interests. This often
results in employees performing their tasks but
don’t usually feel motivated to go the extra mile.
The developmental leader, on the other hand,
inspires employees to share his/her long-term
goals. The driving force of the work comes from
within the employees, i.e. intrinsic motivation.
Developmental leadership is characterised by role modelling and authenticity on the part of the
leader. A developmental leadership style addresses concerns regarding ethics and takes value-
based actions. In addition, developmental leadership is characterised by Inspiration and
Motivation as a way to promote participation and creativity, and by Personal care providing
support while confronting when needed to benefit the individual and the organisation.
Leaders includes competencies and skills, a leader's individual factors. A leader’s individual
factors form the basis for a person’s leadership, as those encompass how the leader sees him- or
herself, other people and the world around them and their attitude to the task.

1
Developmental leadership in Leadership Styles is a leadership style model inspired by transformational leadership (Avolio & Bass,
1991, Bass, 1998), adapted to a Scandinavian context.

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These influence the outcome of the competencies and skills - the better the individual
characteristics, the greater the potential to develop the competencies and skills - and therefore
form the basis for a favourable selection process in recruitment.
Context is made up of factors that influence how successful the leadership is. The organisation,
its groups and the outside world all influence each other. The group is the basis of the
organisation's work; all organisations group their members into sections, projects or teams. An
important part of leading and participating in teams is creating trusting relationships as a
foundation for communication and decision-making.

The goal of UGL

If employees do not have a sense that the behaviours of a developmental leader are genuine, the
leadership will not be successful. The aim of the UGL is to increase individuals’ self-awareness:
social skills, and stress management skills through interactions with others. This creates an
awareness of how we influence and are influenced by others and the consequences for group
contexts. UGL provides a setting where individuals have an opportunity to develop their own
groups for them to be more productive through better cooperation. Conflict management is one
example where decisions need to be made as a group - who makes the decisions?
The main focus of the UGL is on Individual characteristics, The Group, Leadership Styles and
Social Skills and to some extent Stress Management Skills.

References
Avolio, B., & Bass, B. M. (1991). The full range of leadership development: Basic and advanced
manuals. Binghamnton, NY: Bass, Avolio & Associates.
Bass, B. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: industrial, military, and educational impact.
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Larsson, G., Carlstedt, L., Andersson, J., Andersson, L., Danielsson, E., Johansson, A., Johansson,
E., Michel, P-O., & Robertsson, I. (2003). A comprehensive system for leader evaluation and
development. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 24, 16-25.
Larsson, G., Lundin, J. & Zander, A. (2018). The leadership model: the art of matching individual
and organizational characteristics. (First edition). Lund: Studentlitteratur.

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Information prior to the UGL course

Participant name:

Title/position:

Address:

Zip code: City:

Phone: Age:

Email:

My reasons for taking the UGL course are:

During UGL, I would like to:

- I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I have read and reviewed the attached
information about UGL from the Swedish Defence University; and I declare that
I am well aware of the importance of being in good balance to attend the UGL
course.
- I, the undersigned, hereby confirm that I am aware that the entire course will be
conducted in English, and that my English proficiency will not restrict my ability
to participate fully in all aspects of the course; for example talking about feelings
and handling potential conflicts.

Date

Signature

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