The President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership - Award Guidelines

The President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership underlines the importance of effective and supportive leadership and management at all levels across Imperial and underpins a key aim of our Science for Humanity Strategy.  Excellence in leadership and management can be defined in a number of ways but the panel is looking for nominations for leaders, managers and supervisors, at all levels and across all job families, who consistently demonstrate and role-model the Imperials values and behaviours, Respect, Collaboration, Excellence, Integrity and Innovation, ensuring effective support for their staff, driving sustained motivation, providing inspiration and enabling their development.

Eligibility Criteria

  • All staff are eligible to be nominated
  • Nominations can be made by any Imperial staff member providing examples of how the nominee consistently role-models and demonstrates one or more of the Imperial Values for leaders and managers.
  • This award is open to individual nominations only.
  • Self-nomination is not permitted for this award category.

The nomination must be completed by Friday 14 March 2025

There is one individual award available for this category, and the winning nomination will receive a prize of £250.

In addition, the overall winning nomination selected from the winners of the Leadership; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Collaboration and Sustainability categories will receive the President’s Medal for Excellence in Culture and Community and a prize of £1,500.  The Medal winner will be invited to attend the university’s graduation ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall to be presented with the Medal.

Nomination Information

You may nominate an individual for the Leadership Award. Please don’t feel constrained by these examples, but you might like to recognise staff who:

  • Consistently role model the Imperial Behaviours Framework in everything they do
  • Create and share connections between their team’s work and Imperial’s mission and strategic objective
  • Proactively ensure issues are discussed, managed and effectively resolved
  • Ensure the quest for excellence is balanced with realistic expectations and care for their team’s wellbeing
  • Create an inclusive environment where it is safe for everyone to speak up, share their perspective, and ask for help
  • Get to know, and are able to draw on their team’s strengths, experience and perspectives

Entering the nomination (please additionally refer to the user guide document for the online awards system).  Please also note if you are accessing the system off-site, please make sure you are connected Zscaler and that the authenticate is turned on.

Important: The selection panel will ONLY draw on the evidence presented in the nomination form when making their decision, so please ensure a good case is presented for submission.

  • A single nomination form should be completed for individual
  • All nominations must be seconded before the Please refer to the online awards system user guide for more information.
  • Evidence should be provided for each of the award criteria, particularly how this extends beyond the expectations of the nominee’s job description. This should be written for a non-expert audience and specific examples given where
  • There is a 4,000-character limit for each free text
  • Attachments are permitted.

Questions to complete

  1. Please describe your relationship to the nominee (i.e. colleague, peer, line manager) and how you became aware of their contributions to Leadership at the university.
  2. Please describe what the nominee has done to merit the Leadership Award how they demonstrate Imperials values and behaviours. Please reference the Imperial Values for leaders and managers to provide evidence and to inspire your nomination.
  3. Please describe the key benefits they have brought to all parties involved.
  4. Please add a further supporting statement in the nomination comments field.

Please be aware of the 4,000 character limit.