Talk by Smoking Brains on developing leadership in the agile organization for the Agile Barcelona community.

1. Developing leaders in the
agile organization

2. We build teams that excel
Working at all levels of the organization: strategic, teams,
individual skills

3. Leadership in agile?
What we want?
Autonomous teams
Self organized teams
Servant leaders:
Scrum Masters
Product owners?
Predictability in their behaviours

4. Leadership in agile?
What we want?
Autonomous teams
Self organized teams
Servant leaders:
Scrum Masters
Product owners?
Predictability in their behaviours
What we sometimes get?
Chaos
Frustration
Under performance
Burntout (personal and team)
No consistency
No clear way to measure
progression?

5. Leadership at the center

6. Leadership
A bird's eye view

7. What is leadership?

8. What makes a good leader?
Is it something you are born with?
Can there be more than one leader in team or group?

9. A definition
Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes
the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.

10. Model, philosophy, style
Model: is like a 'how-to'
framework, a toolkit or a process.
Philosophy: is like a subtle but
powerful compass or behavioural
code.
Style: a description of a leader's
behaviours, and may also be like a
tool in the leadership models
toolkit.
Styles
Philosophies
Models

11. Core theories of leadership

12. Leadership as Traits
Assumptions:
People are born with inherited
traits.
Some traits are particularly
suited to leadership.
People who make good
leaders have the right (or
sufficient) combination of
traits.

13. Leadership as Behaviours
Assumptions:
Leaders can be made, rather
than are born.
Successful leadership is based in
definable, learnable behavior.

14. Leadership as Contingency
Assumptions:
The leader's ability to lead is
contingent upon various
situational factors, including
the leader's preferred style,
the capabilities and behaviors
of followers and also various
other situational factors.

15. Leadership as Power
Assumptions:
Power is the ability to get others
to change their behavior even
if they do not wish to do so.

16. Developing leadership
At the individual level

17. Developing leadership
At the individual level

18. Leadership development framework

19. You
Insights:
What drives my behaviour?
What makes me tick?
What are my behaviours?
Where to get the info:
Feedback about you

20. Your role
Insights:
How do I add value as a leader?
What is important in my role?
What does the job require?
Where to get the info:
Job demands questionnaire

21. Your leadership styles
Insights:
How do I impact the people I lead?
How can I improve my leadership styles?
What are my barriers to success/change?
Where to get the info:
Feedback about how the team sees you
Practical sessions with actors
Simulations

22. Your impact on performance
Insights:
How do I impact performance in my team?
Where do I have to focus to improve performance the most and have the
right commercial impact?
Where to get the info:
Understand the factors that predict performance
Feedback on the climate that I create in my team
Simulations, climate surveys, case studies

23. Personal: try and answer
Questions:
What makes me tick?
How do I add value as a leader?
How do I impact the people I lead?
How do I impact performance in my
team?

24. What this tool is good for
Tailored approach to developing
personal leadership in the context
of the organization.
Understanding what the context is
and the barriers/challenges that
need to be overcome

25. What is missing
How do we take this to the whole
organization?
How do we measure progress in a
consistent way?
Where do I go from here?

26. Developing leadership
At the organizational level

27. How do we give it more structure?
You are here! Let’s get you here!
Follow the path
Leadership track
Actions and tasks!

28. Group them in proficiencies in an
incremental order
How do we give it more structure?
Find the behaviours
you want to see in the organization Group them in areas
The organization
3 4 5
2 1
1 2 3

29. DLF: Going back to behaviours
Results
Relations
Communication
Strategic
Thinking
Communication
CapabilityArea
Behaviour
Behaviour
Behaviour
Behaviour
Proficiency
What we want to
see in the
organization.
Knowledge of, and / or the ability to
demonstrate a skill or behaviour.
This behaviours
are incremental.
They build on
top of each
other.

30. How they work together

31. How they work together
CapabilityArea
Behaviour
Behaviour
Behaviour
Behaviour
Proficiency

32. How they work together
Match each area in the personal leadership development model to
proficiencies in the DLF model.

33. Designing profiles
You are here! Let’s get you here!
This is where you
need to be to be
CXO
Profiles are very specific
to the organization.

34. Designing profiles

35. Designing profiles
Imagine you have a Product Owner and Scrum Master role in your organization
What level do this roles need in:
Strategic thinking
Shaping strategic thinking
Communicates with influence
Communication

36. Designing the path breadcrumbs
Pick a role that you defined.
Brainstorm specific actions that you can do to get a person in the level below
the one you required for the role, to the next.
Example:
If you are in O5/EL1 what do you need to get him to O6/EL2

37. Closing up
(recap)

38. Quick recap
Leadership is essential if we want a successful agile organization.
It is not a one size fits all… The context is important therefore adapting styles
and plan to the person, is key.
We saw two tools that can help us develop leadership inside the organization.
One lets us understand the current context and obstacles
The other lets us create leadership development path

39. Thanks ;)
Follow us at @teamsthatexcel