We Need Managers to Become Agile Leaders

To be Agile, we desperately need active engagement by Agile Leaders

We have messed up. For too long, managers have not had a home in an Agile transformation. Excluding managers has created a huge impediment for embracing the Agile Mindset. We coach on removing silos, but we have created a manager silo. Transformations all over the world stall out due to this.

By “We,” I mean Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Team Members, Product Owners, and others on the Agile journey. We have pushed managers out of the team, and now we are in desperate need of them to return.

I often hear statements from managers that reinforce my belief there is a problem, such as:

• “My teams are empowered to self-organize.”
• “I don’t know what my teams are working on.”
• “If I am not managing the teams, what should I do?”
• “I am not allowed in the team retrospective or other ceremonies.”
• “We need standard language in Jira, so I…