#agileleadership #agileleaders #agileleader
In truth, COVID-19 has accelerated our adoption of future-of-work methods. What were once competitive strategies are now needed. Collaboration between employees at all levels has been critical during these times, and everyone is working towards the same goal: the organisation's survival and long-term growth; with a clear purpose, strategy, and priorities, where teams have more autonomy to think and act autonomously while delivering a great customer experience.
According to the World Quality Report 2020/21, when our world turns upside down due to the Coronavirus epidemic, most firms are reacting rather than responding, forcing QA teams to innovate, and become more efficient. Moreover, corresponding to the Business Agility Institute's 2019 Business Agility Report, organisations conducting business agility transformations have seen benefits such as greater revenue, faster turnaround times, and higher-quality services.
The Business Agility Institute's founder and CEO, Evan Leybourn, suggests focusing on the leadership concepts connected with agility rather than the buzzwords. He claims that it is the features, not the name, that are significant. Leaders must be able to delegate results, motivate people, and give them the freedom to do their best work. He also quoted that "[Effective leaders] need to learn quickly that they can't do everything. A good leader is one who elevates the people around them."
Recently, I began collecting my notes, links, and references on agile leadership to better grasp what it may look like in the context of an agile shift. In the end, what I have learned is that the purpose of a change is to survive as an organization, not to become agile. As a result, valuing whatever motivates company leaders to investigate agile concepts, frameworks, or techniques.
“ Agile ” Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
According to research on leadership in the digital era, soft skills such as humility, adaptability, vision, and constant engagement are displacing hard skills such as deep domain understanding, decisiveness, authority, and short-term focus. These four skills are referred to as the HAVE attitude by the IMD Center for Digital Business Transformation.
Humility - Understanding what you don't know is just as important as knowing what you do at times of fast change and uncertainty. Humility eliminates the need for leaders to know everything. It is no longer possible to know everything as data continues to rise exponentially.
Adaptability - Being flexible on a personal level is being open to new ideas and altering one's mind, even if it hurts one's ego. It's also about being able to properly transmit that new perspective to the right people.
Visionary - Even in the face of short-term uncertainty, having a clear sense of long-term direction can compensate for many tiny short-term changes in direction. Setting long-term and competitive goals that guide short-term adjustments is part of being visionary in the workplace.
Engaged - Agile leaders must maintain their own engagement, but they must also find ways to keep their teams interested, especially when the going becomes tough and the route becomes difficult. It entails a great feeling of curiosity and a readiness to listen, interact, and communicate.
As Evan Leybourn explains, "Bring in someone to sit beside you and help you during the difficult times. Training will help you learn the concepts, but to make it stick—especially in difficult times—you need a great coach."
Keep in mind that to prepare for agile leadership in these unpredictable times, you must first become aware of these four qualities and learn how to develop them. It's crucial to keep track of what worked and what didn't. This will allow the business to contemplate adjustments that will benefit the company and suit the demands of the employees. If we seek them out, change can create possibilities that benefit everyone involved. It can help steer judgments that are unsure to what truly needs to be altered through agile leadership.
And finally, the most important thing for leaders to remember in this crisis is that, even if there isn't an evident guide to follow, the core abilities of leadership still apply, and your team will look to you for guidance. As a result:
Stay calm
Look after you
Control your emotions
Set clear objectives
Be agile and resilient
Over communicate
By doing so in an agile manner, the organisation will be able to move more quickly, promote innovation, and adapt to and influence its changing environment. Do you have what it takes to be a flexible leader in a world that is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain? If so, how do you ensure the teams have an agile mindset? And most importantly, how do you lead an agile team to success?
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