This week, Dan Neumann is joined by his colleagues at AgileThought, Ola Tunde and Lucy Lin. In this episode, they explore the true meaning of Agile Leadership. They dive deep into the core of an Agile Leader, someone who can foster a safe environment where a team feels free to speak up, innovate, and take action. Dan, Ola, and Lucy discuss the value of balancing the left and the right sides of the Agile Manifesto, as well as providing strategies for leaders to become more Agile. This episode contains lots of great analogies, real examples, and valuable book recommendations in the field of Agile Leadership.

Key Takeaways

Agile thinking needs to pursue the understanding of what motivates individuals.
- A team must deliver value together in a different way, even though each individual is motivated differently.
- Motivate people prioritizing autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
- A manager drives people to deliver work with the intention of intimidating them to deliver value, on the contrary, an Agile Leader inspires people in order to deliver value.
- Inspiration vs. drive; leaders are the ones who inspire others while managers drive people.
- There are assumptions that consider that leaders know all the answers and that they are who give good orders, but good leaders are those who let the decisions happen where the information is.
Centralized vs decentralized leadership.
- There are certain practices that are better centralized, but when the practices involve creativity and innovation, decentralized leadership is of more value.
- A centralized environment is driven by command and control, no innovation is welcomed in this kind of scenario.
- In a decentralized environment, the team is allowed to make decisions and fosters innovation.
- Agile Leadership happens when the leader can celebrate the work of the team.
- An Agile Leader doesn’t blindly trust a team but encourages teams to create transparency to what is happening.
Left and right sides of the Agile Statement: There is a need for structure but there is also a part that needs to welcome change.
- Agile Leadership marinates both left and right together for people to be able to deliver more.
- Embracing changes is a key aspect of an Agile Leader.
How can leaders foster an environment where teams feel free to speak up?
- A safe environment is where people can be free to speak up and discuss and they won’t be punished or criticized for their opinions.
- A leader must be able to bring people from opposite views together, always manifesting being open to opposing views.
How do you know if you are an Agile Leader?
- You are not the boss, you are the servant.
- A leader must be ready to sacrifice for the team.
- An Agile Leader is humble, coachable, teachable, and has the ability to inspire others to action.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H. Pink

Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, by Robert K. Greenleaf

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders, by L. David Marquet

Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, by Simon Sinek

Mastering Marketing Agility: Transform Your Marketing Teams and Evolve Your Organization, by Andrea Fryrear

HBR Harvard Business Review: “For an Agile Transformation, Choose the Right People:

Identify Your ‘Hidden Stars’ and Other Vital Players”, by Rob Cross, Heidi K. Gardner, and Alia Crocker

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