David Hawks
@austinagile
5 Key Capabilities
Of Agile Leaders

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIALAGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
David Hawks
@austinagile
david@agilevelocity.com
Executive Agile Coach

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
AGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
THE PATH TO AGILITY®
Our proven transformation framework
Align
Accelerate
Adapt
Predict
Learn
Chaos & Resistance
Integration
&
Practice
New Status Quo
Status Quo

OrgSystemTeam
Purpose Driven
Leadership
Whole Org Agility
Financial Agility
Customer Centered
Market
Responsiveness
Experiment Driven
Development
Objective Data-Driven
Decisions
Compelling Purpose
Rollout Strategy
Teams Aligned to
Value
Team Formed
Team Empowerment
Action Enabled
Ability to Measure
Cross-Team
Coordination
Visibility Created
Team Ownership
Agile Leadership
Ability to Focus
Multi-Team
Predictability
Ability to Forecast
Complexity Reduced
Predictable Delivery
Cadence
Quality Feedback
Loop Shortened
Faster Time to Value
Reduced Cycle Time
Release Continuously
Sustaining
Improvement
Decision Agility
Network of Teams
The Path To Agility® Transformation Framework
Align Learn Predict Accelerate Adapt

5
Why Change?

AGILE VELOCITY PROPRIETARY
What got you here will not get you there

LIVING IN A VUCA WORLD

Volatile - Speed, magnitude, turbulence and dynamics of change

Uncertain - Unclear about the present and hard to predict the future

Complex - Multiple interdependencies amongst a globally interconnected world

Ambiguous - Lack of clarity of the meaning of events

Old Mindset =
Optimize for Output

Taylorism
Command and Control
Standards
UtilizationManagement 1.0

Management 1.0
Management 2.0
Lean
Eliminate Waste
Reduce Volatility

Management 1.0
Management 2.0
Management 3.0
Agile
Empower the
Worker
Servant Leadership

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
1. Form Groups of 3-4
2. What are 3-5 Capabilities of Good Leaders?
3. What are 3-5 Capabilities of Bad Leaders?
Good Leader vs Bad Leader?

17
Inspire with
Compelling
Vision
Leadership Capability #1

AGILE VELOCITY PROPRIETARYCopyright © 2020 Agile Velocity, LLC. All Rights Reserved. AGILE VELOCITY PROPRIETARY
Three Levels of Leadership Development

Expert Leader

Achiever Leader

Catalyst Leader

Pair with someone and discuss
• Expert
• Achiever
• Catalyst
Where do you see yourself playing?

23
Empower Team
Excellence
Leadership Capability #2

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIALAGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
Let Go

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
1. Pair with a neighbor
2. As a leader, what do you need to do to
“Let Go” and allow the team to thrive?
Letting Go

31
Create Focus
Leadership Capability #3

Drowning
in a Sea of
Opportunity

Alphabet Game

Project 1
Project 3
All High
Priority!
How does Alex decide what to work on next?
Carter
How We Normally Assign Work
Alex
James
Camryn
Janet
Will
Project 2

Project 1
Project 3
Carter
Alex
James
Camryn
Janet
Will
Team
Prioritized
Team Backlog
Project 2
How We Should Prioritize Work

Stop Starting,
Start Finishing

38
Decision Agility
Leadership Capability #4

Traditional Hierarchy Network of Teams
How does the decision making differ in the two models?
1. Form a Triad with 3 new people
2. How do the leaders need to operate differently?
3. How do the employees operate differently?
4. What are the benefits of each?

Self-Organizing teams lead to better outcomes

Knowledge
Workers
want
Autonomy

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
Write 3 Post-its for 3 different leadership
decisions made at your company recently:
1. What was a really tough decision?
2. What was a really easy decision?
3. What was one in the middle?
Good Leader vs Bad Leader?

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
1. Take turns in your group reading one your decision post-its
2. Everyone simultaneously votes (use fingers) for one of the
following delegation levels
3. Discuss
4. Repeat on next decision
Delegation Poker

44
Purpose Driven
Leadership
Leadership Capability #5

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
Which of the following is a subjective vs objective
based decision criteria?
A. The CEO selects features X, Y and Z as the highest priority
B. 20% of customers surveyed say that Feature X is important
C. A Sales Rep says if we get this feature done she can close a $5M deal
D. The Sales VP wants a feature complete by the June 15th TradeShow
E. When A/B tested version B of the feature performed 5% better
F. 300 New customers provided their email on the landing page for our
new offering
G. 30% of shoppers abandon their cart at the place order page
Subjective vs Objective Decision Making

Go Get Me a Rock!

Why = Purpose
How = Process
What = Result

© Copyright Agile Velocity, LLC All Rights Reserved
Objective
Objective: _____________________
• Key Result 1: ________________
• Key Result 2: ________________
• Key Result 3: ________________

5 Elements of OKR
Make Goals
Inspiring
Failure
Happens
Always
Measure
Progress
Make Goals
Public
Make Clear
Goals

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
Drive Customer Promoters
• Implement 5 new features
• Post job to hire 3 new CSRs
Bad and Good OKRs
Improve Employee Engagement
• Run employee satisfaction survey by
March 30
• Schedule 1-1s with all employees
• Create plan to implement OKRs
Drive Customer Promoters
• Average monthly NPS of over 25
• <90 day repeat business increase of 20%
Improve Employee Engagement
• Average monthly eNPS score of over 50
• Conduct weekly Fun Fridays with an
external speaker
• 4 New innovation ideas pitched at the
monthly meeting by employees

AgileVelocity.com | 512.298.2835 | info@AgileVelocity.com
1. Write down on a post-it an initiative your team
has ownership of this quarter.
2. Pair up and turn each of your items into an
OKR
A. Is it measurable?
B. Is it outcome-oriented?
C. Is the purpose clear?
D. Does it have a mix of leading and lagging key results?
E. Did you remove the “How”? i.e. remove the tasks?
Writing good objectives

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
AGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
THE PATH TO AGILITY®
Our proven transformation framework
Align
Accelerate
Adapt
Predict
Learn
Chaos & Resistance
Integration
&
Practice
New Status Quo
Status Quo

OrgSystemTeam
Purpose Driven
Leadership
Whole Org Agility
Financial Agility
Customer Centered
Market
Responsiveness
Experiment Driven
Development
Objective Data-Driven
Decisions
Compelling Purpose
Rollout Strategy
Teams Aligned to
Value
Team Formed
Team Empowerment
Action Enabled
Ability to Measure
Cross-Team
Coordination
Visibility Created
Team Ownership
Agile Leadership
Ability to Focus
Multi-Team
Predictability
Ability to Forecast
Complexity Reduced
Predictable Delivery
Cadence
Quality Feedback
Loop Shortened
Faster Time to Value
Reduced Cycle Time
Release Continuously
Sustaining
Improvement
Decision Agility
Network of Teams
The Path To Agility® Transformation Framework
Align Learn Predict Accelerate Adapt

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
AGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
AGILE VELOCITY
Learn more about our services & Path to Agility® Framework
Email us at
info@agilevelocity.com
If you need to work on your foundational practices...
We offer Private Agile Training to help leaders and their employees build a
common base of practices for a successful Agile transformation.
If you need to re-focus...
Our Agile Assessment services will identify gaps, establish a baseline for the
transformation moving forward, and determine key next steps for achieving your
goals.
If you feel stuck mid-transformation...
Our Agility Tune-up service is customized to target the most pressing challenges
or sticking points that are keeping your teams from achieving desired outcomes.
If you need ongoing support during your transformation...
Our Agile Transformation services are based on our Path to Agility®
Transformation framework, helping organizations build the capabilities needed
to achieve desired business goals with confidence.

PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
AGILE VELOCITY ACCELERATE AGILITY
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