“Title doesn’t make leaders, action does.”
In all previous articles about agility and agile mindset, you must have noticed that the main point in every aspect of work responsibility and role we play, requires courage. Whether you may be in the role of coach, manager, executive, stakeholder, or team member agile needs a basic quality to be courageous, a quality a leader must have. In agile every person is a leader. An agile mindset is all about leadership, to be open to yourselves and others.
As time and business evolved the definition and perspective of the leaders also changed. Not any single leadership style can be used for every situation. In recent times leaders are those who understand their surroundings and get adapted to them for making their team succeed together and lead the right path for others.
The book written by Brene Brown- “Dare to Lead”, a well-known reference for leadership skills mentions that the most important quality to be a good leader is to have courage. It says not only the leaders but everyone in one or another aspect of life is a leader and they must train themselves to be courageous.
We all need to be courageous as it is needed to be a better leader in the role of stakeholders, executives, and Scrum Masters or to take our career to a new height as team members. We have seen many times that the leaders and team many time face the issue by showing vulnerability, damaging them as well as the team’s creativity and motivation to be innovative. In this article, we will learn about issues of dysfunctional behaviours and then the leadership skills to overcome or wipe out these issues.
Issues of Dysfunctional Behaviours
Fear of Conflict or Disturbing Conversations- Most of the time humans avoid tough discussions or talks which may create some conflict. This happened due to a lack of confidence, courage, or no appropriate knowledge or skill in the required situation.
Lack of Sincerity During Change- We focus the most time on problem-solving behaviour avoiding the main point of acknowledging and solving what feelings are created with the change.
Absence of Trust- Lack of trust is caused by our inability to connect or due to empathy for other team members.
Absence of Innovation- Rejection fear or fear of trying new things and failing at them, create a barrier to being innovative.
Rumination- We many times ruminate on our past mistakes or issues so much that it creates fear when trying for the second time.
Blaming Culture- We all do such blaming things. We become judgmental and blame others instead of understanding and giving accountability to others.
Jumping to Problem Solving- Generally, jumping directly to problem-solving happens everywhere because everyone tries to have a quick fix. But we should focus on identifying, solving, and creating a long-run solution.
Ignorant about Diversity and Equity- We avoid conversations for a better understanding the diversity or equity because of the fear of coming wrong or being misunderstood.
Absence of Clear Vision and Values- The absence of clear vision and values create confusion unable us to get any decision hence making us unable to lead team members.
Perfectionism- This keeps us in an unproductive environment making us avoid chances of learning and growing.
All these issues create anxiety, discouragement, selfishness, and loss of confidence in ourselves and hence affecting our leadership for ourselves as well as for others.
The solution to being a better leader is to overcome the fear of all types and be courageous. This may include fear of pointing out senior Scrum Masters or agile coaches' errors or even fear of talking to senior executives. This courage can be developed with the leadership skills mentioned below.
Befriend Vulnerability
Acknowledge the vulnerability and conquer it. Accept that you can be vulnerable and it’s not applied only to you but also to your team members. Make them comfortable in showing their weaknesses. Vulnerability is a sign of strength and courage.
Live with Your Set of Values
It is necessary to have your core values and a clear vision of them. Then the next is to live with that values and set an example to other team members or co-workers with your actions. In agility transformation, this is even the first step. Agile has a set of values and everyone tries to live by them.
Ability to Trust
It is necessary to create trust in others for you. As a Scrum Master, your team members need to have trust that you have their back.
Ability to Bounce Back
To be a leader need to have the ability to get up and perform even after we fall. Brene Brown states, “all brave leaders will fall” so, every leader must have resilience training.
“Courageous leaders are not fearless leaders. What makes you a leader is how you deal with your fears.”
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 the 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.
Lead a Lean-Agile enterprise by leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) and its underlying principles Leading SAFe 5.1
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