Agile leadership is built on a foundation of trust, respect, and mutual empathy among all team members and the leader. This empathy from all sides fosters strong, transparent communication, which is essential for building trust and ensuring alignment within the team. Leaders and team members work at eye level, creating an environment where everyone feels heard and respected. The leader’s role shifts from being an authoritative figure to acting as a coach and supporter, guiding the team while trusting in their abilities and allowing them to make decisions autonomously. Enabling it the key.
This global communication promotes transparency, as it ensures that all parties are well-informed and aligned on goals, challenges, and progress. When the leader trusts the team and empowers them to take ownership of their tasks, it not only builds confidence and self-assurance but also increases motivation. Motivated team members feel more creative and are likely to contribute innovative ideas. For this autonomy to truly thrive, there must be a positive failure culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning rather than moments of blame. This learning culture ensures that the team continues to grow and improve through experimentation and risk-taking.
Agile leaders must also be brave, curious, and open to diversity. Bravery allows both the leader and the team to push boundaries and step outside their comfort zones. Curiosity drives continuous learning and challenges the status quo. Leaders who embrace diversity within their teams benefit from a range of perspectives, leading to more creative and well-rounded solutions. This diversity not only enhances creativity but also results in better products that are designed to appeal to a wider customer range. By incorporating diverse viewpoints, the team is able to produce offerings that truly resonate with different market segments, ensuring that customers love what is offered to them.
In the end, this approach of mutual empathy, trust, autonomy, and diversity helps create a dynamic and empowered team that produces better, more innovative products that are widely appreciated by customers. This, in turn, drives both personal fulfillment for team members and success for the organization.
This is my mindset and I learned, as a leader, that my mindset was right. Because my colleagues in my teams were intelligent and wel educated experts, so why should I rule them?
In one, very large, ProjectI was responsible as a Project Lead, Product Owner and Scrum Master. My team was the best one, I ever have worked with. The fact that I was real and on eye level. When they had a technical Call with our customer, they did it by themselve.
t the beginning, whe we didn’t know each other well yet, they used to ask me, if I would like to attend. I asked my team how technical the call would be. When they told me that it was about code and stuff, I jus told them, that I would be absolutely useless 🙂
The only thing I asked for, was a Feedback from my girl and guys and, if there would be problem I can help with, they should come to me immediately.
The lady in our team once told me, after I asked for a feedback about me as a professional, that I am totally different as the German managers. She called it refreshing 🙂 I was so proud 😉
In Whatsapp I sent her a link to an article
https://www.consultingcheck.com/en/topics/dutch-mentality/5996/
Here’s a comment from one of my team buddy ♥
Translation:
That fits like a glove. That’s exactly how working with you was 😄 pragmatic, agile, trust in the team’s knowledge, very personal.
Unfortunately German companies till don’t understand the importance of agility, a healthy company culture & employee expericnce.
