A publication on both agile and leadership in Harvard Business Review is the cherry on top of the cake to me. This time the article focused on the C-suite, the leadership team at the top of an agile enterprise. Agile leadership demands that executives create a carefully balanced system that delivers both stability and agility. What kind of behavior does that require? The answer might not be on top of your mind. It wasn’t on mine either.
It does touch upon a topic I wrote an earlier blog about: the future of change management. According to Rigby, Elk and Berez, agile, in short, requires humility from leaders. The sort of humility that accelerates learning and bolsters the confidence of every team member. So, when it’s command & control wrapped in a paper-thin agile veil it doesn’t really work. Why not?
Humble people recognize the futility of predicting the unpredictable and instead build rapid feedback loops to ensure that incentive stay on track. They understand that good ideas can come from anyone. Not just from those with the highest status, or the external agile coach. They view their jobs as helping team members learn and take responsibility, rather than telling every team member what to do and how to do it. An agile leadership team has to adopt such attitudes or its pronouncements will ring hollow. Personally, I think this applies to all management levels and not just the executives.
Rigby, Elk and Berez identify three examples of this kind of a humble, agile mindset in practice to see how it affects everything an agile leader does.
- Rapid feedback and decision making everywhere;
- From commanding to coaching;
- From old-fashioned management meetings to work sessions with clear objectives.
Agile enables top executives to delegate many of their activities to subordinates so that they can focus on what only they can do. This is not as easy as it sounds. Rigby, Elk and Berez shared some of the learnings of an executive board member and CTO in their article to illustrate it takes time and courage to do this.
The CTO described that he had to change himself as the teams changed their ways of working. He received some feedback of a sort he’d never heard before. His employees told him they wanted to be led differently. Because his current leadership style wasn’t bringing out the best in people. The CTO realised he had to change his attitude and behavior. This required an extensive process of self-reflection and building trust to broaden the group of people giving him feedback.
He started to use positive language. Asking ‘ How can we?’ to focus on possibilities instead of problems. He engaged in two-way communication instead of issuing one-way direction. It took time, but he focused on changing his behavior in the here and now. By taking time to do this, he created sustainable change and encouraged people to act more within their circle of influence.
In my opinion it especially requires courage to change ones behavior. Because most leaders aren’t fighting agile, but simply haven’t understood how it applies to their roles or how to perform those roles in ways that enhance agility. For executives this might be even more challenging. They simply play multiple roles. They perform operating roles, but in an agile enterprise also must simultaneously serve as mentors, coaches and decision makers. The authors advice the executives they keep agile values and principles in mind, but do not organize in formal agile teams with all the associated roles, ceremonies and artifacts.
Was this all successful in the end? Executives noticed the difference. Constructive conflict replaced passive participation. Decision-to-action pace increased. People left work sessions with a clear understanding of their responsibilities and a greater commitment to their goals. A beautiful example of courageous leaders who create more leaders if you ask me. Even better: they view it as a continuous improvement program, not as a project with predictable end points or fixed completion dates. Improvement never stops.
Read the full article: The Agile C-Suite, A new approach to leadership for the team at the top. Rigby, Elk & Berez, HBR May-June 2020.
Essence of Change 