Leadership Agility for Enterprises

“Be a creator of circumstances rather than just a creature of circumstances. BE proactive rather than reactive.”

The importance of being proactive has been well defined and utilized by the agile organization. One of the best examples in agile of being proactive rather than reactive can be seen by leadership in agility. Agile leadership knows the value of being proactive hence taking the proactive approach to decision-making rather than being reactive to the situations. Leadership agility brings one of the best outcomes for enterprises. Leadership agility means a combination of important skills which include learning and knowing the best possible way to grow in the continuous and agile world, knowing the best ways to inspire team members and receive the utmost results from them, and converting thoughts and ideas into actions and leading the team and organization towards success.

We know gone are the days when teams will observe the external environment, internal capabilities, and customers' demand and then develop the strategy with further alignment and implementation with people only once a year. As the world is changing continuously and demands are rapidly changing an organization must be agile and fulfill the demand at a specific time. Such agile enterprises require agile leadership.

Leadership agility requires being a catalyst than an expert. In general team members look to leaders to solve issues and ideas but in leadership agility leaders are expected to be prepared in advance or even able to avoid the upcoming problems of the future along with giving answers for current ones. They must be able to create favorable conditions for the enterprises to grow and succeed. There are very few leaders who can reach up to the level of leadership agility as it’s hard to work as a catalyst and create a vision around a sustainable future for enterprises.

There are Four Main Dimensions of Leadership Agility

1. Self-Leadership

In most cases, the path to reach leadership agility is stopped by none other by others but by leaders themselves. To have leadership agility requires the most common thing which is a sense of self-awareness. Most of the time leaders are not aware of their strengths and weaknesses else they are only motivated because of their ideals in leadership which is just a sense of philosophy. To have leadership agility where they can grow the enterprises requires self-awareness as a must thing.

2. Context Setting Agility

The expert as a leader will only see the organization's issues only from the inside way but the catalyst or agile leader will see it from the broader environment. For example, a multinational company CEO being a catalyst will see the issues from a broader environmental context and customer demand as affecting the environment so he will change the system from top to bottom and bring policies for a sustainable environment making the organization environment-friendly and good for society.

3. Stakeholder Agility

Leadership agility has the skill to identify the stakeholder understand their views from different perspectives and even manage them all. But the same is not the case; experts consider power as an authority. Leadership agility has clarity about stakeholders' vision and ability with a different perspective which can bring people together benefiting the enterprises as well as society.

4. Creative Agility

Leadership agility is aware to see various shades of problems and giving a proper judgment on it and also reflecting on their judgment if required. Leadership agility is all that an enterprise needs. They are not stuck to their only role of catalyst but are ready to stitch between requirements. They can leave the role of catalyst and work with expert knowledge wherever required.

There are various examples to prove how leadership agility is different from leadership. Some of the examples in today’s date include Unilever’s CEO Mr. Polman, Pepsico’s CEO Indra Nooyi, etc. The latest example we can provide of leadership agility is Elon Musk who has a future site for the enterprises and takes it to another level of success with every decision they make.

It is not necessary that only the higher top individual can have the ability of leadership agility for the enterprises to grow or take to another level or but every person in the enterprise can contribute with their leadership agility that will make a difference for the enterprise at what position they may be. Because leadership agility is about understanding the situation and picking the appropriate style which will see the enterprise's future success and not only the current one. Leadership agility is the key to taking enterprises to the top and settling them there.

“Proactive leaders control their choices, reactive leaders are controlled by choices.”

About Advance Agility

We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting, and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium, and large organizations across the globe. Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients and move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting a human-centric approach to business agility. Embracing change is in our DNA. Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with an End-to-end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitors.

Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe Implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagilty.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are a good trainer or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.

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