Being the Agile Leader

I was invited to speak at an event recently on the importance of adapting to change, and my topic was ‘Being the Agile Leader’. Being so passionate about change, agile ways of working and leadership, I enjoyed sharing my perspective. Preparing for the talk caused me to reflect on my experiences as a leader, and what was MOST important. And what continues to be important as our workplaces continuously evolve.

What do you believe?

One of the most pivotal moments in my career as a leader came early when I was on a leadership exercise at the Defence Force Academy. At the time it felt more like a bad attitude as I found myself in a team of people who were so much fitter and stronger than me. I had trained hard for this exercise and I was hoping that there would be at least one person a bit slower than me (the old adage: you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just one person). These guys were guns. We moved fast, and they happily reduced the load I was carrying in order to move even faster. I felt myself pushed to the limit and feeling resentful. Not to mention dreading the time I would need to lead them (the exercise involved stopping at different stations with activities to do — each one of us taking the role of the leader). I didn’t feel like I was good enough to lead them in an activity designed to test us physically and mentally.

Regardless of my attitude, my belief was:

“my team is awesome”

And it was this belief that led to us conquering an activity that was designed for teams to fail. It wasn’t until years later I realised this. The realisation came when I read Jocko Willink’s book: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, where he describes two boat crews. One boat crew was winning everything, and the other was coming last. The staff decided to swap leaders to see what would happen, and the results were surprising. The winning crew continued to do well but didn’t come first anymore. They were beaten by the team that had previously come last. All that had changed was the leader. Willink describes what happened, stating he may not have believed it if he had not seen it for himself. He observed the leader of the losing boat being forced to step up his game when he started leading a high performing crew and the leader of the winning boat leading the losing crew as if they were the high performing crew he was familiar with. Reading this story made me think of my experiences leading high-performance teams. It wasn’t just because they were high performing. I BELIEVED they were high performing.

Leading an Agile Team

The old paradigm of management no longer works, and we need to think differently. The cross-functional nature of an Agile team means there is no place for a single person calling all the shots, but rather a team of people all contributing. A team of people who step up to lead when they need to. Imagine the power of a cross-functional team where everyone believes their team is awesome?

There are so many perspectives on what it takes to succeed with Agile, but I truly believe that doing the work (and continuing to do the work) comes down to what we choose to believe. And our beliefs can change if we’re open and willing.

Take Action

Examine your beliefs. What do you believe about yourself and your team? What could it mean for you to believe something different? How might someone act if they believed this new belief? What might change for you?

This article summarises an article posted at The Agile Project Manager. The slides from my presentation can be found at Slideshare.