With so many different leadership styles, it's hard to know which one to adopt, that will work well for you and your team.
We've already talked about participative leadership, so we're here to talk about another popular leadership style to help with your decision. This time we're looking at the concept of agile leadership.
Agile leadership has gained popularity for its focus on adaptability, something that is crucial in the ever-changing business world. If done well, it gives companies the potential to thrive and evolve as the market does.
Sound interesting? See our take on it below, including its pros, cons, characteristics and implementation tips, so you can make an informed decision about whether it's right for you.
What is agile leadership?
Agile Leadership
Agile leadership is the ability to quickly respond to changing circumstances, empower team members to make decisions, and create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
This approach leans heavily on communication, transparency, and a willingness to experiment and collaborate.
Agile leaders navigate complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity effectively while building a positive and inclusive work environment.
3 traits of an agile leader
- Adaptable: An agile leader continually embraces change, adapts strategies and shifts their approach according to each situation. Agile leaders understand the need for flexibility and modifications, making them fully adaptable to whatever comes their way.
- Inclusive: Including all team members in the decision-making process is a key trait of an agile leader. Sharing the decision-making promotes transparency and trust within a team.
- Learning-first mindset: Agile leaders prioritise ongoing learning and are conscious that knowledge plays a key part in adaptability. They encourage their teams to learn, which builds a culture that boosts innovation, reduces attrition and improves employee satisfaction.
What are the key differences between traditional and agile leadership
Traditional leadership often focuses on structure, processes, and rules. On the other hand, agile leadership values collaboration, adaptability and a learning-first mentality.
The key differences:
- Decision-making: Traditionally, decisions stem from the top and trickle down. With agile leadership, decision-making at all levels is encouraged which can lead to more innovative solutions.
- Response to change: Change in a traditional leadership setup can be met with resistance. Agile leaders, however, thrive on change, adapt fluidly and view it as an opportunity to learn, evolve and innovate.
- Learning and growth: Traditional leadership often considers learning a secondary objective or a reaction to deficits. Agile leaders, however, embrace a continuous learning culture, using insights from past mistakes to iterate, evolve and improve.
- Power structure: Similarly to decision-making, a traditional leadership style sees power reside at the top. Agile leaders work towards distributing power and enhancing employee trust and engagement.
Adopting an agile leadership approach doesn't mean rejecting all traditional methods. It's about combining the two for an effective leadership style to suit you and your team.
Benefits of agile leadership in business
Promotes collaboration and communication
Under agile leadership, teams aren't just recipients of orders but active contributors. Agile leaders prioritise open communication and make sure everyone's ideas are valued and considered.
They lead with empowerment and use agile initiatives to do that. Continual communication allows leaders and their teams to make informed decisions and offer guidance when needed.
High levels of collaboration also mean that everyone has a shared understanding of the team's goals, has a clear sense of direction and feels like their work is important in achieving those goals.
Big companies like Google and Microsoft encourage communication and collaboration for their teams and look at the success they've had.
They've been able to evolve and adapt to the market to become the tech giants they are today.
Responding to change and uncertainty
As we've seen in the past 40-odd years with the introduction of the internet, the business world is always evolving.
Being able to pivot quickly in response to these changes is a key strength of agile leadership. Instead of stubbornly sticking to a pre-set course, an agile leader assesses the situation, takes on board new information, and adjusts the strategy as needed.
Focusing on proactive responses instead of reactive ones.
Enhanced business-model innovation
Another advantage of agile leadership is its capacity to stimulate innovation.
By focusing on adaptability and learning, agile leaders create an environment where creative ideas can thrive. Agile leaders encourage experimentation and aren't afraid of failure. They recognise that innovative solutions often emerge from a series of trials and errors. Amazon is a great example of this.
Going from an online platform for selling books to the multi-billion dollar company it is today, is because of experimentation and adapting. You can read more about that timeline here.
Agile leadership principles
Empowering and trusting teams
Agile leaders place great emphasis on empowering their workforce—giving them the authority, resources, and trust needed to make decisions.
They trust that their teams are capable, rather than insisting on managing every detail, and guide when needed.
The audio streaming giant, Spotify, is run with an agile mindset. Teams, who are called 'squads', have the responsibility of using their skills to make intricate decisions themselves.
This removes bottlenecks and deadline delays due to decision-making. You can read more about that here.
Continuous learning
Another principle of agile leadership lies in playing the long game and encouraging continuous learning.
An agile leader knows that learning doesn't end once a goal is reached, an error occurs, or a project concludes. Instead, it’s a cycle of endless learning and growth.
Emphasising iterative feedback and adaptation
Having robust feedback loops is key to agile leadership. Leaders value feedback and build a culture where adaptation is encouraged.
They understand that the path to achieving goals isn’t always linear. It requires monitoring progress, re-evaluating objectives, receiving feedback, and adapting when necessary.
Prioritising teams over individuals
Like with Spotify's 'squads', teamwork is the focus of an agile leader. They understand that success is better achieved through teamwork instead of individual accomplishments.
Agile teams are one part of the key to success with an agile leadership style.
How to make agile leadership successful
Shift from a reactive to a creative mindset
For agile leadership to be successful, you must move from a reactive to a creative mindset.
Reactive mindsets view obstacles as roadblocks and focus on putting out fires. Creative mindsets view challenges as opportunities for growth and innovation.
Build this creative mindset by creating an agile culture of openness and curiosity, where critical thinking and risk-taking are encouraged.
Developing agile leaders within your organisation
Becoming an agile leader is not something you can do overnight by changing a few things. It's something that needs to become second nature to the way you lead your team.
Traditional leadership methods are learnt through isolated training sessions, which can fall short.
Agile leadership is developed through continuous learning and through making mistakes. It should be embedded into the everyday workflow instead of in separate training sessions.
Get feedback from your team about what's working well and what isn't and use that to shape and mould your individual leading style.
How to implement agile leadership
It's one thing knowing what it is, now you need to know how to implement it.
Promote open communication and active listening
Open communication is the foundation of agile leadership.
As an agile leader, transparency and honest conversations should be encouraged. Incorporate weekly team meetings or daily stand-up sessions into your team's calendar to discuss ongoing projects.
Active listening is another key element. This goes beyond just listening to your team, active listening involves responding empathetically and offering support when needed.
Give feedback, ask follow-up questions, and make sure you're hearing every team member's perspective.
Employee autonomy and team cooperation
One of the reasons agile leadership is popular is because it prioritises autonomy and team collaboration. Agile leaders create an environment where independent thinking and creativity thrive.
Focusing on an employee's strengths rather than weaknesses boosts engagement, performance and in turn, organisational success.
Empower your team to take responsibility for their projects so they feel more job satisfaction and increase their productivity, without the bottlenecks.
With an agile approach, shared goals and collective problem-solving are the drivers for the success of projects. You should facilitate teamwork through collaborative activities, regular team-building exercises and company retreats. A well-connected team works more effectively together.
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Key techniques for instilling agile leadership in the organisation
Creating an agile environment requires commitment and a clear strategy.
Here are the important steps you can take:
- Create a learning culture: Establish an environment that encourages continuous learning and knowledge-sharing. Regular workshops, seminars, or training sessions can keep your team updated and build a growth-oriented mindset.
- Use agile frameworks: Use agile methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban or LEAN, which focus on incremental improvements, can streamline workflows and increase productivity. Find the one that works best for you and your team.
- Lead by example: As with any leadership style, show the behaviours you want to see. Demonstrate adaptability, flexibility, and transparency in your leadership style.
It's more than just adopting a new set of rules, it's about changing your mindset to embrace change, fuel innovation and build unity.
Challenges of agile leadership
Agile leadership comes with its unique challenges. Despite the potential for growth and success, it is easy for organisations to stumble over hurdles that could slow progress.
Misunderstanding the requirements of agility
Often, agile organizations misunderstand the prerequisites of agility. Agile isn't just a methodology; it's a mindset.
Factors such as flexibility, collaboration, and continuous learning are indispensable parts of this leadership style. Unfortunately, these aspects sometimes slip through the cracks.
For instance, organisations often adhere to some parts of the leadership style but not all of them. Other times agile leadership practices will be adopted, but only by the leader, meaning the team isn't following the requirements needed to make it successful.
All people and teams need to make an effort to create an agile workplace.
Neglecting adaptation during environment changes
Being an agile leader means being able to adapt and change as the business environment does. Yet, ironically, agile leaders may fall behind if they fail to adjust to these changes.
A company's business environment isn't something that can be controlled. Things like customer behaviour, market trends, and new technologies are constantly in flux.
Agile leaders who ignore these shifts set their teams up for potential failure, negating any competitive advantage agile leadership offers.
Restricting team autonomy
Agile leadership is not for you if you're a micro-manager. By micromanaging or failing to fully trust the team, innovation is stifled and the success of agile leadership is limited.
If you've ever had a micro-manager, you know how challenging it can be. You feel as though your ability is constantly questioned which leads to lower morale and stunted productivity.
Trust is at the heart of agile leadership, so if you can't trust your team, this style is not for you.
Trust isn't just about delivering success either. You should be able to trust your team to make the failures they need to make in order to grow in their role and assist with further learning for the company.
Then you'll see a full agile transformation in individuals and teams.
Conclusion
As with every leadership style, consider exactly how it would fit within your organisation. Think about the changes you would need to make for it to be effective: how would your team support this, what about senior leaders? Is your company set up to be run like this already or would it require a full overhaul to be a success? How long would that take and what would be the cost?
Once you can answer these questions, you'll know if agile leadership would work for you and your company.
This leadership style is a game-changer for adaptability, innovation and team morale. If you can successfully navigate this style and your company through change, it is the right style for you.
Remember that agile leadership isn't without its challenges. Misunderstanding agility expectations, failing to adapt to changes, and limiting team autonomy can all pose hurdles.
But with a clear understanding of these potential pitfalls, you're well-equipped to adopt agile leadership and steer your organisation towards success. After all, agility isn't just an option - it's a necessity.
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