In the last couple of years, an increasing number of companies face the need to change towards a more Agile way of working to keep their competitive position in the market. For this transformation to be successful, there is a need for skilled Agile leaders whose main task would be to lead the organization in the right direction and to act as the main motivator.
On October the 14th we had the pleasure to virtually welcome the webinar participants in ITCE’s new home in Sofia Tech Park and to become more familiar with the experience and point of view of our panelists who discussed the topic of Agile Leadership and shared useful and interesting pieces of advices.
In this article, we have elaborated on three of the main topics discussed during the event, which you could consider when building Agile leaders. Highlights alert!
Working in Teams
In agile organizations working in teams is of great importance and the potential of companies to innovate frequently is directly determined by their ability to make teams that include people with diverse job profiles – product managers, marketing experts, software engineers, cybersecurity experts, etc. This makes the role of the leader in those teams very important as it is up to him to successfully distribute the tasks and to ensure there is a culture of trust within the organization.
“Nowadays, innovation is driven not by talent but by teams in which the leader is the one who needs to introduce differences as a virtue, instead of an obstacle.”
Nina Prodanova-Iozeva, co-founder and senior consultant in ITCE
The role of the leader is to unite the people in the organization by communicating with the team clear and shared goals, transferring knowledge from one area to another, and encouraging everyone in the team to share their opinion and to make decisions based on their role in the company.
Safe Working Environment
- Self-Awareness
To build trust between himself and the team, the Agile leader must be the first to show his trust in the people. Self-aware leaders embrace vulnerability and are not afraid to recognize their mistakes which strengthens the bond between themselves and the team.
- Facilitate Participation
Every member of the team must be encouraged to share their point of view on a matter before a decision has been taken. Short brainstorming sessions could be quite useful in such situations as they give extra time for everyone to prepare before sharing their opinion.
- Psychological Safety
Control is the enemy of trust. The established rules in an organization should give people the freedom to make decisions and to learn from their mistakes. To contribute to a better working environment safe norms need to be followed and there have to be clear and established consequences for those who break them.
Change in the Organizational Structure
The change in the organizational structure plays an important role in the process of introducing new ways of working to the people in the company. This transformation would facilitate the removal of the barriers that hinder the continuous innovation of products. Another change could be identified on the level of traditional management, as people at this position would have to find their new role in the organization. The flexibility that Agile offers allow the teams to be self-managed and dynamic which gives them the opportunity to go from one team to another and to change their role in accordance with the clients’ needs.
Recommended Books
- One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams
- Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
- Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
- No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
- Leading Change: An Action Plan from the World’s Foremost Expert on Business Leadership
