Agile is designed to keep failures small and manageable. It’s essential to be able to talk about small failures and ways to improve during the retrospective so that the teams can advance their agile practices. If your teams can’t talk about their small failures openly, there is a great risk of bigger troubles soon.

Grieving is usually associated with the loss of a loved one, but it’s equally relevant to loss triggered by changes in the workplace. If you are introducing or overseeing a change, it’s a mistake to belittle people’s reaction to the loss or excessively tout the benefits of the new way. Be sensitive to those affected.

Leaders who are moving into a new position should hold what’s called a listening tour. This lets the person doing the touring hear what’s on the minds of subordinates or team members. It helps a new leader get the lay of the land while also allowing the people they’ll be leading to express their thoughts or concerns.