Management and Agile leadership are usually projected as synonym terms, however they differs hugely from each other. Managers focuses more on making the team work where agile leader needs to embrace the agile principles of being flexible and adaptable along with motivating others to follow them. Main differences:

Management	Agile Leadership
Management focuses on tasks	Leadership is about people
Management focuses on control	Leadership is about empowering and letting people control
Management focuses on efficiency	Leadership is about effectiveness
Management focuses on doing things right	Leadership is about doing the right things
Management focuses on speed	Leadership is about direction
Management focuses on practices	Leadership is about principles

Looking at this, agile leadership varies from management because leadership comes by right and not by appointment. The right to lead has to be earned by the agile leader by gaining respect from the team.

Agile Leadership means:

• Being a model: An agile leader should been seen as a model of desired behavior and should demonstrate the four characteristics of a leader: Honesty, Forward looking/thinking, Competent and Inspiring.
• Creating and communicating a vision: An agile leader should be able to set forth a compelling vision for the team. The communication should be in an inspiring manner that will channelize everyone’s energy.
• Enable others to act: Agile leadership involves trusting the team to do the work and also enabling them so that they are able to perform the work.

On top of that, an agile leader needs to pursue certain leadership practices in order to enable smooth work process and successful project development.

Best Practices of Agile Leadership:

• Willingness to change/challenge the status quo: An agile leader should be willing to take the bull by its horns in order to enforce a change. He or she should be capable of handling risks, learning from mistakes and generating small victories.
• Getting the right people involved: The most important requirement for successful development of projects and daily work is having an efficient (agile) team. An agile leader should find a way to get the right team in place.
• Encouraging the team members: Besides leading, an agile leader should also know how to show appreciation, reward and recognition to the agile team those who work with him or her in the project.

 

 

 

I found this very interesting concept in an article that I like to share. I hope you find it useful too!

The scrum values are:

During difficult discussion, you will need them all, no matter which role you’re playing in this discussion. Begin anywhere, it doesn’t matter which you start with.

When you have to say something painful, invoke Respect: “I respect what you’ve done. (Describe exactly what you respect.) “I’m asking you to respect what others experienced.” (Describe the problem.)

When you have to hear something painful, invoke Focus: “I don’t like what you’re saying, but let me focus to be sure that what I heard is what you meant. (Repeat what was said.)

It’s a good idea to thank each other at this point: gratitude finds good in any situation, and it’s calming.

When you’ve gotten through Focus, and you both agree what was said, then you both invoke Openness together. The hearer acknowledges that there were unintended consequences of what he thought was a good thing, and these consequences hurt team performance. The speaker acknowledges how hard it is to become aware.

This is also a good place to thank your partner in this discussion for their openness and their courage, because this part of the conversation includes the truths that are so hard to say.

If at this point you can get back to the Venn diagram that invokes Commitment. No matter which way it goes, the walk into the future goes better when it’s maintained with a decent regard for the dignity of every human being. That means getting out of denial.