Leading is about being the change you want to see to make the world a better place. As a leader, you can catalyze growth and inspire others to realize a shared vision.
Leadership skills are required to help grow teams and organizations using Agile principles and practices. The central notion is shared responsibility in leading and partnering with other leaders towards a goal.
As a successful leader, you must move between many stances supporting these concepts. You may lead from the front as a visionary or let your inner purpose inspire others. At other times you will be asked to subsume yourself for the betterment of others, adopting a servant leadership stance. A successful leader can “dance in the moment”, knowing when and how to move between these various stances.
Leading and Self-Mastery
There is a strong connection between leading and self-mastery. You model behavior, principles, values, and practices in your daily leadership, extending into solid leadership behaviors when nobody is around to observe them—modeling from the inside out.
Visionary
You are a visionary leader where the organization is your product.
A visionary leader is co-creating a vision of the future that acts as a positive attractor or catalyst for incremental change. Change aligned to business agility, innovation, team health, and customer value delivery. You do this by assisting other leaders and organizations in dreaming of inspiring future states and helping them hone, share, and instantiate those dreams organizationally.
A visionary is also an evangelist and champion of agility within organizations (system). Storytelling is an inherently important part of being a visionary, helping to connect the dots for everyone across the organization.
- Purpose – Aligning and connecting people with a sense of purpose. Co-creating a powerful attractor for positive change, focusing everyone on a shared outcome.
- Inspiring – Having the ability to weave powerful stories to illuminate a vision.
- Empirical – Being guided by data and using empiricism to further organizational understanding, experimentation and the emergence of new ways of thinking, leading, and working.
Competency Level Definitions:
1 Beginner
Purpose
- Understand the importance of co-creating purpose through such things as vision, strategy and goals.
- Express the value of clarity around purpose and outcomes.
- Describe the importance of having a clear vision.
Inspiring
- Summarize the importance of being supportive in the face of challenges.
- Understand the role of storytelling in communicating a compelling vision.
- Describe how taking responsibility for your actions may inspire others.
- Discuss the importance of a leader connecting with people on a human level.
Empirical
- Understand the importance of building a culture of feedback and learning.
- Express the differences between a predict and plan approach vs a sense and respond approach.
- Identify the benefits of empirical processes to test an idea/hypothesis.
2 Advanced Beginner
Purpose
- Practice different approaches to identifying purpose or defining a strategy.
- Use an approach to co-create a better vision of the future.
- Understand the role that purpose plays in creating organizational resilience.
Inspiring
- Explain how positivity can be credible, compelling or inauthentic.
- Contrast diverse approaches to formulating and communicating a vision.
- Practice acknowledging and owning your actions.
- Demonstrate curiosity about others.
Empirical
- Adapt your approach based on feedback and learning.
- Describe three mindset shifts required to lead effectively in high volatility and uncertainty.
- Apply evidence-based decision-making.
3 Practitioner
Purpose
- Recognise that purpose goes beyond value generation for customers.
- Create and communicate an intrinsic sense of purpose and the why behind it.
- Guide decision-making based on the organizations purpose.
Inspiring
- Demonstrate the ability to tell stories that bring the organizational purpose and culture alive.
- Foster a culture of innovation and experimentation, fueling ongoing improvement and recognising that failure is an inherent part of the process.
- Implement strategies for creating a shared sense of purpose and direction.
Empirical
- Utilize data-informed decisions to inform organizational improvements.
- Communicate findings to stakeholders and facilitate action based on insights.
- Demonstrate approaches toward innovation and experimentation in complex environments.
4 Guide
Purpose
- Consider how purpose can be integrated into the personal values and beliefs of those in the organization.
- Cultivate awareness of your intrinsic motivators, assess how they align with the organizations purpose and recognise where they might not.
- Reflect on instances when the organizational purpose is misaligned with the efforts of those involved in the work.
Inspiring
- Support and guide leaders and team members on effective communication and visioning techniques.
- Create a culture of creativity and “safe to learn” experimentation in generating innovative ideas and approaches.
- Evaluate your organizational vision to ensure it remains aligned with its goals and values.
Empirical
- Lead organizational change based on data insights and trends.
- Demonstrate your expertise in enhancing an organization’s responsiveness to change through examples.
- Assess your organization’s ability to evaluate itself by accepting and inviting clear feedback.
5 Catalyst
Purpose
- Co-create organizational purpose that positively impacts the world.
- Embed behaviors and values that support your people and organizational purpose.
- Evolve a shared organizational vision through inclusivity and building trust.
Inspiring
- Listen with the intent to understand and use your emotional intelligence to let people know how much you care and why the vision matters.
- Incorporate diverse perspectives to inform, enhance and innovate
- Explore how your organizational vision can catalyse positive change beyond the organization.
Empirical
- Educate others that in a VUCA world, there are many possible answers.
- Foster safety and equal voice to cultivate a culture of learning and experimentation.
Role Modeling
Think of role modeling in the simplest terms: a leader walking their talk each day, modeling agile principles and values and aligning how you show up personally and professionally. Role models listen, learn, own their mistakes and ask for help.
There are two modes of role modeling. Modeling when the going is easy and modeling when the going is tough. Being resilient means you have evolved through experience and the ability to operate from a stable, conscious place, even when the going gets tough.
Role modeling is also an extension of mentoring or showing what excellence looks like in practice, not just theory.
- Be an Agilist: A leader must walk the talk and model agile principles and values daily, showing others what being an Agilist means.
- Model Resilience: Under pressure, a leader’s ethics, values, and principles must show up. Building resilience over time is crucial for role modeling.
- Be in the Moment: Lead in the moment, able to let go of what has been and what might be. Takes full responsibility for circumstances, viewing every interaction as an opportunity to learn.
Competency Level Definitions:
1 Beginner
Being an Agilist
- Reflect on agile principles and values and identify areas of personal growth.
- Identify examples of positive and negative role modeling.
- Study different models of leadership.
Model Resilience
- Describe the importance of taking responsibility for circumstances.
- Identify situations that may require resilience.
- Understand the importance of self-care for mental resilience.
Be in the Moment
- Understand that what you say and do impacts others.
- Understand the value of being curious and learning from everyone’s perspectives.
- Identify triggers that cause you to dwell on past or future events instead of being present in the current situation.
2 Advanced Beginner
Being an Agilist
- Reflect on the impact of positive and negative role modeling.
- Model agile values and principles in your context
- Identify active and passive mentors who model agile principles and values.
Model Resilience
- Recognise how you are responsible for the circumstances of your life and your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.
- Vocalize how an action or event has impacted your ethics, values or principles
- Reflect with others on how to increase your resilience in difficult situations.
Be in the Moment
- Practice speaking with candor.
- Display curiosity, and recognise the value of diverse perspectives.
- Reflect on areas for improvement in how you show up.
3 Practitioner
Being an Agilist
- Challenge beliefs that hold us back, enabling a positive impact that creates the motivation to achieve anything.
- Model asking for help, failing fast and being authentic in modeling a growth mindset.
- Demonstrate continuous improvement & transparency.
Model Resilience
- Demonstrate how to take full responsibility for the circumstances of your life in most contexts.
- Build a plan to promote physical, emotional, and mental resilience to ensure your well-being.
Be in the Moment
- Say what is true for you and welcome others to express themselves.
- Recognize toxic responses in self.
- Practice being present in everyday interactions, even in difficult or stressful situations.
4 Guide
Being an Agilist
- Lead others through transformational change in contexts that require courage and experimentation.
- Model language to others as part of coaching and improving sensitivity to language across the system.
- Demonstrate how to maintain ethical standards in challenging situations.
Model Resilience
- Demonstrate how to take full responsibility for the circumstances of your life in the moment.
- Exhibit the ability and vulnerability to tell personal stories that have contributed to your resilience.
- Evaluate your well-being, what impacts it, others, and the wider system.
- Show the capability to remain composed when facing pressure from external sources and assist them in making progress.
Be in the Moment
- Support others to express themselves with candor.
- Coach others to reflect on their self-mastery.
- Recognise unhelpful feelings, thoughts or instincts and pivot towards a constructive response.
5 Catalyst
Being an Agilist
- Inspire others to align their actions with their words and model agile principles and values.
- Lead change by modeling a growth mindset and embracing new ways of thinking and doing.
- Be a catalyst for innovation and creativity by modeling experimentation and taking calculated risks.
- Share personal experience and insights in the agile community through public speaking, writing, or other avenues.
Model Resilience
- Live your values and principles at all times, in any situation.
- Support others in restoring balance after failed experiments.
Be in the Moment
- Appraise your ability to speak your truth in challenging circumstances.
- Create a culture of candor and feedback.
- Embody curiosity in all interactions.
Leading for Growth
Leading for Growth builds on role modelling and, at its highest level, is about creating a continuous learning, coaching and innovation culture where people can develop themselves and achieve their full potential. As a leader, you become an advocate for people.
- Continuous Learning Culture: A leader who is focused on growth recognises the importance of continuous learning and that many situations offer learning, both for themselves and for their organizations.
- Innovation Culture: Leaders who are focused on growth can foster a culture where innovation and creativity can thrive, leaning into the discomfort of trying something new and encouraging others when facing a fear of failure. Diversity of people and opinions, debate over no debate, creating the time and space for it to happen
- Coaching Culture: Leaders are role models for the behaviors they wish to see in their organization. Leaders foster a culture where trust, vulnerability and authentic connection can thrive. There is an interdependence between these qualities, and their presence helps build self-awareness. Leading for growth also recognises the long-term need for sustainability, accountability and resilience, supported by diversity, inclusion and continuous learning.
Competency Level Definitions:
1 Beginner
Continuous Learning Culture
- Understand the role learning plays in creating a healthy organisation.
- Recognise the impact you as a leader can have in creating a learning culture.
- Describe the link between learning and continuous improvement.
Innovation Culture
- Understand the role innovation plays in the organisation’s success.
- Describe the link between innovation and thriving in the marketplace.
- Recognise the role you can play in creating an environment for innovation.
Coaching Culture
- Describe how a coaching approach might create agency for others.
- Identify why it is important for everyone to learn coaching skills.
- Explain how listening and questioning can deepen someone’s thinking.
2 Advanced Beginner
Continuous Learning Culture
- Support others in their learning journeys.
- Demonstrate your continuous learning journey.
- Create space for learning as part of people’s work.
Innovation Culture
- Explain an environment that supports innovation.
- Support others in making trade-offs that allow for innovation.
- Recognise the role that failure, collaboration and experimentation play in innovation.
Coaching Culture
- Explain how the manager as a coach is important in an agile organization.
- Apply a coaching approach.
- Support others in growing coaching skills.
3 Practitioner
Continuous Learning Culture
- Create an environment for others that activity supports learning.
- Demonstrate through your learning the art of reflective practice.
- Encourage others to connect & grow, to give feedback to create lifelong learning opportunities.
Innovation Culture
- Create an environment for others that activity supports innovation.
- Support others in seeing failure as integral to innovation.
Coaching Culture
- Demonstrate a shift from a directive to a non-directive approach.
- Create an environment that enables a coaching approach.
4 Guide
Continuous Learning Culture
- Appraise your approach to learning and adapting.
- Teach others to apply reflective learning.
- Apply structures and policies that evolve the culture to focus on learning.
Innovation Culture
- Apply structures and policies that evolve the culture to focus on innovation.
- Teach others techniques
- Challenge other business areas to allow for innovation and remove the barriers to do so.
Coaching Culture
- Apply structures and policies that evolve the culture to focus on coaching.
- Advocate for a coaching approach and help other business areas apply.
5 Catalyst
Continuous Learning Culture
- Nurture a learning culture in the face of resistance.
- Ignite others to unleash their true potential.
- Introduce new ways of learning in the community.
Innovation Culture
- Foster innovation in areas that have faced challenges in the past and unlock new possibilities.
- Inspire others to innovate.
- Share novel ways of innovating in the community.
Coaching Culture
- Establish coaching as the default approach across the organization.
- Motivate and encourage others to become coaches and share their knowledge and expertise with other prospective coaches.
- Share new approaches to creating a coaching culture with others in the community.