“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader” – John Quincy Adams
I have always thought that the word LEADERSHIP is a word of great proportions, not only because of the union of its 9 vowels and consonants but also because of the background that entails being a true leader.
Becoming an agile leader during an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment (a term known as VUCA 3) is a whole new challenge for those of us who are immersed in this wonderful world of “project management”. Taking advantage of this space, I would like to share some tips on agile leadership.
Moving from an “ego-system” to a “healthy ecosystem”
Jordi Alemany in his article “The Key to Transforming an Ego-system into a Healthy Ecosystem” published on LinkedIn warns of the risks of working in an ego-system instead of seeking to generate a healthy ecosystem for working with other people to create innovative solutions:
“In an ego-system, unlike in a healthy ecosystem, social interactions are characterized by unfair competition and an absolute lack of trust and collaboration.
Egosystems hinder the development of talent and the competitive capacity of organizations since the people who live in them lose all their focus and consume their energy in internal conflicts” (Alemany, 2023).
Thus, based on the above premise, a recommendation for new and current agile leaders is to assume the responsibility of becoming true leaders at the service of the team and leave their ego behind the project’s entrance door.
On the other hand, Belen Maspoli in her article “5 Keys to Leading with Agility: Driving Transformation and Organizational Success” gives us valuable advice that I think is prudent to address.
Fostering collaboration and autonomy
According to Peter G. Northouse, leadership is moving from the leader as the “boss” who must be obeyed and respected – a practice that prevailed back in the 1920s – to “the leader as an authentic, adaptive person at the service of others ” (Northouse, 2015).
Therefore, it is necessary for leaders to foster psychological safety among teams so that they feel free to express their ideas without guilt, make decisions and assume responsibility. This increases the chances of improving creativity and innovation and, therefore, improving team results.
Promote effective communication
It is said that “life happens in a conversation” and 99.9% of misunderstandings and problems should be solved through good communication. The same applies to agile teams where through clear and open communication we can stay in the game, anticipate possible risks, build trust, and improve collaboration. However, it is not only about communicating but also about learning to actively listen and act accordingly.
If you have doubts about the impact of communication on the success of organizations, according to David Grossman in his study ‘The Cost of Poor Communications’ “four hundred companies with more than 100,000 employees revealed that in 2016 they had average losses of 62.4 million dollars annually due to inadequate communication towards and between employees” (Grossman, 2016).
Embrace change and experimentation.
“The only constant is change.” It could be read as a cliché, but we now live in an increasingly dynamic world that demands quick adaptation. As leaders and teams, we need to change our concept of error and embrace mistakes as the best opportunity to improve and learn. Leaders see error as those small steps to success and lose the fear of it. “The biggest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making a mistake” (Elbert Hubbard).
Leading by example
This is an easy phrase to read but sometimes difficult to follow. To become a truly agile leader, congruence between what you think, say and do is a must. Remember that words convince but actions drag.
Promote continuous learning
If the world is constantly changing, we cannot remain static in our cognitive abilities. The agile leader must acquire new skills and knowledge to respond to change and learn from others. Here I pause a bit to tell you what I am experiencing today regarding this point. With the rise of artificial intelligence, I am becoming fascinated by the practices and tools for project management. This is what is coming, and we must train ourselves in it.
I could go on to discuss how to improve agile leadership, but I’ll save a bit for future posts.
I hope these tips can be useful for your daily performance. Trust your leadership, even when you don’t see it, believe it.
Glossary:
VUCA: Acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. VUCA model defines the current environment in which companies must thrive. New project managers must thus be able to change while maintaining what makes the project and the organization unique.
Bibliography:
- María Alonso. (December 19, 2024). VUCA environments: project management in a changing world. Retrieved from https://asana.com/es/resources/vuca
- Jordi Alemany . (July 9, 2023). The Key to Transforming an “Egosystem” into a Healthy Ecosystem . Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/la-clave-para-transformar-un-egosistema-en-ecosistema-jordi-alemany/?trackingId=nuk6R5XgTR%2BzXAyR43caGQ%3D%3D
- Peter G. Northouse, leadership, Theory and Practice (2015).
- David Grossman. (February 18th, 2016). The Cost of Poor Communication. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/organizational-employee-development/cost-poor-communicat
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