8 perspectives on agile leadership
Leadership between attitude, craft and reality
Everyone is talking about agility, but while agile methods such as Scrum and Kanban have long since arrived in the project world, management often remains traditional: top-down, controlling, rigid. A contradiction that creates friction. After all, those who rely on agile working must also lead in an agile way. But anyone who believes that agile leadership can be reduced to methods and tools underestimates what is really behind it: a profound change in attitude, collaboration and responsibility.
Agile leadership is not a workshop topic for in-between. It calls into question everything that has long been taken for granted in traditional organizations. And that is precisely why its introduction is not a sure-fire success. It takes more than an agile coach and a few new terms. It takes conviction, courage and a clear strategy.
In this article, we show what really matters in the transition to agile leadership, beyond the buzzwords. What specifically needs to change? And where are the typical pitfalls?
1. understanding what agile leadership really means
Agility is not synonymous with chaos or a lack of planning. It is about adaptability, personal responsibility and customer focus. Agile leadership means creating a framework in which teams can act independently and react quickly to changes. Those who have not understood this are, at worst, micromanaging in an agile guise. Agile leadership is therefore about a new understanding of leadership. The team is no longer instructed, but empowered to do its work independently and make its own decisions. It is no longer about a manager being able to control the team, but rather about trusting, listening to and supporting the team.
2. question your own attitude
As agile leadership requires a new understanding of roles, it cannot be introduced with a simple process, as is the case with a new CRM system, for example. It is about completely changing the management culture. And this does not work by imposing it top-down. Rather, change begins on a small scale, i.e. with the managers themselves. Those who are not prepared to relinquish power, let go of control or listen will fail. Managers should therefore first question their own attitude and be honest with themselves: do they really trust their team? And if not, what needs to change in order to be able to trust the team?
3. role clarification
Clear role definitions help you to succeed as an agile manager, as they make it clear what expectations are placed on team members, but also on the manager. It should therefore be precisely defined who takes on the role of servant leader, product owner or coach and where these roles overlap. In particular, it is important that employees understand what they can expect from the manager in the future, namely that they will remove obstacles, coach the team and keep an eye on the vision, but will not supervise individual tasks.
4. adjust the speed
Not every team is ready for agile self-responsibility and even if the team is ready, individual team members may not yet be able to handle it. For agile leadership to be successful, team members must be willing and able to take responsibility. If you ignore this, you run the risk of excessive demands and chaos. This means that managers must not only reposition themselves, but also develop their teams, especially in areas such as trust, communication and feedback skills. It therefore makes sense not to introduce agile leadership everywhere immediately, but to start with pilot projects, gather feedback and adapt leadership accordingly. This way, every team finds the right path together and does not fail due to initial difficulties.
Our tip: Top-down targets rarely lead to commitment. However, agile leadership promotes the joint development of goals at eye level – even when introducing agile leadership. This creates identification and strengthens the personal responsibility of the teams without losing sight of the strategic direction.
5. adapt the environment and create structures
Agile leadership requires an environment that allows for flexibility. This means breaking down silos, simplifying information flows, shortening decision-making paths and decentralizing decisions. This is a particularly difficult step for many companies because it affects the actual organization and not just the behaviour of the manager and team. At the same time, it is important to create new meaningful routines, such as daily stand-ups, retrospectives or other review formats. They are necessary to make reflection, communication and continuous improvement a habit.
6. promote transparency
Agility requires clarity about goals, priorities and decisions. This means that managers and team members must communicate openly, even if it is uncomfortable. This also means admitting mistakes, explaining decisions and not using information as an instrument of power. So a manager does not have to know everything, but they must make it possible for everything to be discussed openly by providing psychological security. This makes experiments possible and mistakes can be communicated without fear of sanctions.
7. establish feedback as a fixed component
As agile working is iterative, ongoing feedback is required in order to make the necessary adjustments. Regular, honest feedback in all directions is therefore a key lever for development and should become an integral part of the culture. However, this also means that managers must learn not only to give feedback, but also to accept it. This requires the courage to be open and the ability not to see feedback as an attack. This probably won’t happen overnight, but it can be practiced.
8 Agile leadership is not a goal, but a path
When it comes to agile leadership, there is no such thing as “done”. Leadership evolves with the organization, because agility means continuous learning – about yourself, about the team, about the company. Anyone who believes that the topic is finished after a training course has not really understood it. Agile managers should therefore have internalized this principle and enjoy constantly learning new things and adapting.
Conclusion
Agile leadership is not a tool that can simply be introduced. It is an attitude that must be learned and practiced. It challenges managers to swap control for trust, planning for adaptability and instruction for dialog. This is challenging, but those who manage to do so not only create a modern corporate culture, but above all an environment in which people can become truly effective.
However, the introduction of agile leadership requires not only new ways of thinking, but also new tools that provide orientation. The myPARM CorporateNavigator supports managers in anchoring agile principles in their daily management work: through transparent tracking of goals, continuous feedback and clear visualization of performance. The software helps to distribute responsibility, make progress transparent and develop leadership iteratively – data-based, team-oriented and individually configurable. In this way, agile leadership is not only practiced, but specifically shaped.
What was the biggest stumbling block for you on the way to agile leadership – and what really helped?
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