SPaMCAST 698 - Team Leads in Agile Teams, A Conversation WIth Susan Parente

This week Susan Parente and I had an extraordinary conversation about team leads in agile and leadership. In some cases, the role of a team leader is treated as if it were superfluous to requirements in other cases it is a tool to delegate work to people in an effort to subvert self-organization and when organizations get it right the role is a vehicle to unlocking the capabilities of teams. Contact Susan at or on LinkedIn at Re-read Saturday  News Week 3 of our re-read of by Jim Benson talks about the thrill of getting things done. People with a lot of WIP look for more work, things they can grab and complete to feel good about themselves. I am as guilty as anyone else. Sometimes when items on my shortlist get stuck instead of breaking the items down into smaller chunks to progress the work I will grab a less valuable task and just do it so I can check something off.  Susan Parente, who you just heard from in one of her great “Not A Scrumdamentalist” podcast columns described the same scenario.  Remember to buy a copy and read along.  Amazon Affiliate LInk:    Previous Entries Week 1: – Week 2: –   Week 3: - https://bit.ly/3usMiLm Upcoming Events: Free Webinar When Prioritization Goes Bad   April 19, 2022 11 AM EDT to 1230 EDT   Special Call to Action If you are a team lead I need your help! I believe the TL role is the least understood and least talked about in agile. It is time to change that. I am working on testing a model of TL behaviors in agile. I need examples of REAL TL job descriptions to map into the model. The glittering generalities that you find on the web don’t match what really happens in the real world. I do not need anything sensitive like salary or product details. I will happily share the first cut of the model with anyone that helps and sponsor a virtual meeting to discuss the model with all participants.   If you have a TL job description you can share please email me at      Next SPaMCAST  Next week we will feature our interview with Matthew Stibbe.  Matt and I discussed how leadership (or the lack thereof) contributes to projects in wide a range of environments (software and marketing).