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While writing our book, Doing Agile Right, we interviewed dozens of Agile executives to learn about their ways of leading. We found that, because people who work on Agile teams are likely to respond to orders with comments like “That might be the right answer, but we’d like to test it first,” Agile requires humility from leaders. It’s a brand of humility that accelerates learning and bolsters the confidence of every team member.
Humble leaders recognize the futility of predicting the unpredictable and instead build rapid feedback loops to ensure that initiatives stay on track. They understand that good ideas can come from anyone, not just from those with the highest status. So they view their job as helping team members learn and take responsibility, rather that telling them what to do and how to do it. This mindset also affects day-to-day operations. Because traditional meetings often take up a lot of time but produce unclear results, Agile executives restructure them as work sessions that arm participants with a clear understanding of their responsibilities and a greater commitment to their goals.
For more on Agile leadership, please see our article in Harvard Business Review, “The Agile C-Suite.”
First published in juin 2021