Great list!  Some institutions are better able than others to accommodate this sort of approach to management, and in my (limited) experience it’s a rare bureaucracy that can "let go" quite as much as your list suggests.  I will hope that DFID is the sort of place this can work.
Ruth

Thanks for the comments.

I agree that my goals are not shared by everyone – or at least not with the same priority.   Nor am I so arrogant as to believe that my approach is better than those of my fellow managers.  I will do the best I can; and I hope that will give a positive example from which I, and others, can learn.

Owen

These are very good and I think you’ll achieve a lot if you keep to them – especially if you keep to the first one.  But I have to say – as someone with a  number of years experience working in DFID (hence the

pseudonym) - that I am not convinced that your goals are shared by others within DFID.  In particular, my feeling is that there are incentives within DFID (as in any organisation, especially a public sector

organisation) to claim credit when things go well, but to avoid blame when things go wrong.  Indeed, doesn’t your opening statement (- that DFID is one of the most effective development organisations

in the world -) demonstrate that DFID likes to claim credit for things?  I think DFID would be much more effective if it spent less time telling everyone how good it is, and more time focusing

on improving its performance.  My sense is that this is what you’re trying to do, but you’re going to have to change the culture of the organisation.

Freddie

I am not wholly persuaded that they need to be. As I said in item 4, I don’t really believe in management by targets.  To a large extent, it will be plain to you, and to me, whether I have succeeded in my ambition to live up to this manifesto, or whether I have not.

That said, you raise a good question,  which is how I am to be held accountable for my management.  To a large extent, I think that accountability must be to you, those whom I manage. I hope that you will, either directly, or anonymously through this site, give me feedback about how I am doing.

This are refreshing and exciting goals. I like your fresh, straightforward and public approach to management. However, I wonder whether:

Are your goals really S.M.A.R.T.? In particular I am not sure that can you Measure many of them. Can you also Achieve them in the civil service:? Therefore how Realistic are they and how much Time do you give yourself to reach your goals?

I think that your goals can indeed be S.M.A.R.T. but that will be difficult: DFID does not yet have the tools of the private sector.

All the best for the future (and new challenges).

PS I agree with the "no running tights" in the office — way too distracting! 

Tut tut, you must have been reading The Guardian again. Your approach bears some strong similarities with the "G Quotient" (8 Sept 2006):

…my studies found that employees of gay managers report 35% greater job engagement, satisfaction and workplace morale than other workers.

Why should that be? The primary reason is an approach to leadership based on seven specific beliefs and behaviours, centred around the value placed on their employees. I have called this the "G Quotient" – a leadership style that I believe is in alignment with the needs and values of empowered employees. Today’s workforce is the most knowledgeable, diverse, and empowered in recorded history. Old leadership paradigms no longer apply, because the business world they originally served no longer exists.

Things I would add to that list are:

• Along with praise, always provide regular constructive criticism to your team members to help them improve (and encourage criticism in return). Nobody’s perfect. I find English managers are way too polite: in 7 years working here not one manager has told me areas I could improve in, and I know I’m not perfect. If you never hear about your faults, how can you improve?
• Celebrate achievements on a regular basis. Cake goes a long way!
• Get to know your team on a personal, social level (if that’s possible).
• Don’t wear running tights in the office.

Your reminder that not everybody agrees in the aims of development assistance is also well taken.  I hope to persuade you; but in the meantime, you are right that we must take seriously the views of those who pay for the work that we do and who are either somewhat or very sceptical of the value of what we do.

We disagree on many things – however, all sincere best wishes in your new post.

All I would ask you to remember is that many of those who provide the resources for you to work with disagree with the very idea of your department’s existence. Have a care for them as well, for they have as great a stake in your success as those who receive your assistance.

Can I suggest you just change the template. The taxpayers have had nine years  of Labour supporting dross like you getting highly paid jobs in Government departments. We’re used to it.

Owen replies:  You have no basis to say that I am "Labour supporting".