Discovering the Servant in Yourself Badri Shrinivasan, Senior Consultant, Valtech India badri.srinivasan@valtech.co.in Greg Hutchings, Agile Coach & Senior consultant, Valtech France greg.hutchings@valtech.fr Agile Day 2012 Valtech

1.
Discovering the “Servant” in Yourself
"
Badri N Srinivasan, Agile Coach
Greg Hutchings, Agile Coach
"
Jun 2012

2. Agenda"
v Key Roles/Responsibilities of the ScrumMaster
v Servant Leadership – Origin and Definition
v Dimensions of Servant Leadership
v Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader
v Servant Leadership - Checklist

3. Servant Leader

4. Scrum Master - Key Roles and Responsibilities"
Ò What a ScrumMaster Does
v Ensure the team meets its sprint goal commitment through --
v Facilitating the various sprint ceremonies
v Removing obstacles to team progress
v Helping the team understand what it means to self-organize around the work
v Try to keep everyone on the team fully engaged and productive
v Protect the team from outside influences
v Track the team’s progress
v Assist the team in getting from sprint planning to sprint retrospective
Ò What a ScrumMaster Does Not Do
v No authority over the members of the Scrum team
v Does not function as the team’s manager
Ò Relationship Between the ScrumMaster and the Team
v He leads with the team’s consent, who acts in the best interests of the team, and has an honest and real desire to
see the team succeed – Performs the role of a Servant Leader
v The team depends on the ScrumMaster to maintain focus on their commitments, shield them from outside
distractions, help them to self-organize and collaborate, and facilitate the resolution of disagreements that might
arise among team members or with stakeholders.
v ScrumMasters may not necessarily work on items in the sprint backlog.
v They serve the team, but also know that they must sometimes push the team beyond its comfort level in order
for the team to grow.
Ò Source – Scrumpedia.com

5. Scrum Master - Role"
Ò The Scrum Master is responsible for
ensuring Scrum is understood and
enacted.
Ò Scrum Masters do this by ensuring that
the Scrum Team adheres to Scrum
theory, practices and rules.
Ò The Scrum Master is a servant-leader
for the Scrum Team.
Source - Scrum Guide, Pg 6, Oct 2011

6. Scrum Master - Role"
Ò Scrum Master Service to the Development Team
Ò The Scrum Master serves the Development Team in several ways,
including:
v Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-
functionality;
v Teaching and leading the Development Team to create high-value
products;
v Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress;
v Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed; and,
v Coaching the Development Team in organizational environments in
which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.
Source - Scrum Guide, Pg 7, Oct 2011

7. Servant Leadership - Origins"
600 B.C. Lao Tzu
The greatest leader forgets himself and attends to the development of others. A leader is
best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will
say: we did it ourselves.
375 B.C. Chanakya’s Arthashastra
The [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his
subjects. The king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what
pleases his subjects [followers]”. “The king [leader] is a paid servant and enjoys the
resources of the state together with the people.”
First Century A.D., Jesus of Nazareth
But the greatest among you shall be your servant (Matthew 23:11); The one who is the
greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. (Luke
22:26). Here I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22:27)
1970’s Robert K. Greenleaf
The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to
serve, to serve first.
Source – Ben Lichtenwalner

8. Servant Leadership - Definition"
Robert K Greenleaf never
specifically defined Servant
Leadership but based on the
writings of Greenleaf and
others, it can still be defined as
–
A management philosophy
which implies a
comprehensive view of the
quality of the People, work
and community spirit
Source:
1. Wikipedia
2. Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate
Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition, 2002 – Robert K
Greenleaf

9. Servant Leadership - Dimensions"
Servant Leader Leader Servant
(servant first) (leader first)

10. Managerial Grid Model – Robert R Blake and Jane Mouton"

11. Servant Leader Model – James C Hunter"

12. Servant Leader – Ten Characteristics"
v Listening
v Empathy
v Healing
v Awareness
v Persuasion
v Conceptualization
v Foresight
v Stewardship
v Commitment to the Growth of
People
v Building Community

13. Servant Leader Characteristics - Listening"
Scenario –
Team Velocity - What is the velocity for your team

14. Servant Leader Characteristics – Listening (Key Points)"
Listening
Scrum Master Focus
Communication Skills and the competence to make decisions
Very Important attribute for the role
Verbal
Retrospectives
Daily Scrum (Daily Standup)
Listen actively to subordinates and support them in identifying decisions
Body Language
Pay attention to what remains unspoken in the management setting
Information Radiators
Are you ignoring what your velocity is telling you
Is the whiteboard showing a water-scrum-fall project
Does the task board tell you what you need to know
(track acceptance of story points during the iteration)

15. Servant Leader Characteristics - Empathy"
Scenario –
Complexity and Hours
1 Story Point = 2 hrs, 5 Story Points = 10 hrs

16. Servant Leader Characteristics – Empathy (Key Points)"
Empathy
Scrum Master Focus
Attempt to understand and empathize
with others
People need to be respected and
focus on their personal development
"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into
humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already
there.“
- John Buchan

17. Servant Leader Characteristics - Healing"
Scenario –
The team took about 3 days to build a simple UI
screen. How do we discuss this issue…..

18. Servant Leader Characteristics – Healing (Key Points)"
Healing
Scrum Master Focus
Ability to heal one’s self and others
One of the most difficult attributes of the Role
Typically seen as a Line Managers Job
If the issue is handled, then escalation may not be
required to the superior authority
Help people solve their problems and conflicts in
relationships
Encourage and support the personal development of
individuals
Outcome
Business Culture that is fun, dynamic and free from
the fear of failure

19. Servant Leader Characteristics - Awareness"
Scenario –
The team is focused on doing only its work and it is not focused
on what the other project(s) are doing (with which it is
integrating some components)….

20. Servant Leader Characteristics – Awareness (Key Points)"
Awareness
Scrum Master Focus
View situations from an
integrated and holistic
position
Based on -
Improve General Awareness
Improve Self Awareness
Leads to –
Improved understanding of ethics and
Values
Outcome -
Aim to increase the awareness at all
levels of the project so that the
awareness among the team members is
increased

21. Servant Leader Characteristics - Persuasion"
Scenario –
Team – Why should we meet daily for the “Daily Scrum”

22. Servant Leader Characteristics – Persuasion (Key Points)"
Persuasion
Scrum Master Focus
Focus on convincing rather than
coercion
Based on -
v Trust
v Honesty
v Knowledge
Not based on –
v Emotions
v Hierarchy in the Organization
v Power (Coercing compliance)
"People ask the difference between a leader and
a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.“
- Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

23. Servant Leader Characteristics - Conceptualization"
Scenario –
We are crunched for time. Skip unit tests. It will take more time
and we can write the tests later.

24. Servant Leader Characteristics – Conceptualization (Key Points)"
Conceptualization
Scrum Master Focus
Thinking beyond day-to-day realities and
focus on the long term goals
v The agile journey the Scrum Master
would like the team to follow and how
he views the agile journey (Personal
Vision)
v Focus on the current process and
eliminate unnecessary steps and derive
specific goals and implementation
strategies
(e.g. using continuous integration to reduce
integration issues and unit tests to improve the
quality of the code being written for building a
quality product)

25. Servant Leader Characteristics - Foresight"
Scenario –
This story is big but we can do it. We sized it and we know how
big it is.

26. Servant Leader Characteristics – Foresight (Key Points)"
Foresight
Scrum Master Focus
Ability to foresee the likely
outcome of a situation
Based on –
v Knowledge
v Insight
v Experience
v Ability to identify patterns
Leads to -
v Learning about the past to
understand the current
reality
v Identifying consequences
about the future
v Tr a n s l a t i n g p a t t e r n s t o
achieve outcomes

27. Servant Leader Characteristics - Stewardship"
Scenario –
I will protect the team from impediments if the team listens to me
and does what I say….

28. Servant Leader Characteristics – Stewardship (Key Points)"
Stewardship
Scrum Master Focus
v Serving the Needs of the Team members
v Answers the Why of Servant Leadership
v The responsible overseeing and
protection of something considered
worth caring for and preserving
v Focus on Developing People
v Focus on Trust
v Obligation to help and serve others
v Openness and Persuasion are more
important than control
“The first step to leadership is servant hood.“
- Robert Maxwell

29. Servant Leader Characteristics – Building Community"
Scenario –
Create special interest groups in the organization, industry that
lead to communities focusing on specific areas and which leads
to overall growth…

30. Servant Leader Characteristics – Building Community (Key Points)"
Building Community
Scrum Master Focus
v B u i l d i n g a s t r o n g
community in the
organization
v D e v e l o p a t r u e
community among the
business (industry)
Leads to -
v Sustainable Growth
v Lays the foundation for
the future growth

31. Servant Leadership - Checklist"
v Do team members believe that you want to hear their ideas and will value them?
v Does your team believe that you have a strong awareness of what is going on and
why?
v Does everyone follow your direction because they want to, as opposed to because
they “have to”?
v Do others on your team communicate their ideas and vision for the organization
when you are around?
v Do people believe that you are committed to helping them develop and grow?
v Do people come to you when the chips are down, or when something traumatic has
happened in their lives?
v Does everyone have confidence in your ability to anticipate the future and its
consequences?
v Does the team believe you are leading the organization to make a real difference in
the world?
v Do people believe that you are willing to sacrifice your own self-interest for the good
of the team?
v Does everyone feel a strong sense of community in the company you lead?
Source - http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2010/07/many-great-entrepreneurs-use-servant.html

32. Questions ??
badri.srinivasan@valtech.co.in
greg.hutchings@valtech.fr
http://www.valtech.co.in
http://www.valtech.fr