Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way: Lessons in Agile Leadership
“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” Although General George S. Patton offered these leadership options long before software development, they are very applicable to agile Scrum leadership.
Many successful entrepreneurs and rising executives utilize the “follow me” option as they drive toward a specific product vision in order to create a successful future. The notion of empowering their teams to “lead” intimidates them because they believe it means getting out of their employees’ way or passive participation on their part. The reality is that they should balance all three leadership options to create the most productive software development environment.
Lead: Empowering the team to lead doesn’t mean executives take a passive role; they must also lead, just at a different level and in new ways. They impact their organizations at the highest levels through the definition of vision, strategy, objectives, priorities, key performance indicators (KPIs), and culture.
Most organizations have a well-known vision and strategy; however, executives should constantly communicate the few crucial things that matter most right now so that priorities align. They must also ensure a culture of openness and trust, especially around sprint demos and Scrum team KPIs. Finally, given that culture trumps strategy, they have to drive required organizational change and remove organizational impediments.
Follow: Self-organizing teams require executives who flow information into and out of the teams. Executives explain the “what” and “why” of a problem while enabling the teams to define the “how” and “when.” When they create this alignment and autonomy, the results can be unexpected—but often in a positive way. For example, when told that we need to cross the river, the team might build a bridge when the executives were thinking we needed to build a boat.
Executives must hold the team accountable for planning (estimates, release plans, release trains, etc.) to foster transparency about the “how” and “when.” Even when they are not in control, executives must constantly talk about the future so others believe in the possibility of success.
Get out of my way: Once the teams have been aligned and empowered, executives should constantly ask themselves, “Will my actions do more harm than good?” If the team is doing something creative, let them make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and teach you. Your senior managers should focus on helping people develop and perform as much as possible. They should see themselves as serving rather than dominating others.
If executives are able to find the balance among these three leadership options, between coaching and learning, and between delegating and directing, they can create an environment where their employees can be productive, collaborative, innovative, and, ultimately, successful.
Steve Davi is presenting the session Executives’ Influence on Agile: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly at Agile Development Conference East in Orlando, FL, November 9–14, 2014.
