Training organisations offer one Agile course after another. In short, a tremendous commercial success, but despite all of that, Agile only partially delivers its promises.

Why is that? One of the reasons is because a lack of leadership!

Are You Willing to Take The Challenge?

When you want to become an Agile leader, it is important that you know how to do self-reflection. When you catch yourself wanting to implement agile, you should think twice to avoid disappointment. You become Agile by being agile and that requires a different mindset! It’s not something you implement, its something that evolves from an agile mindset. This happens both actively and passively. The latter comes naturally, the former requires active work. I want to talk about this for several reasons. Firstly, because leadership is an interesting topic and, secondly, because we haven’t delivered according to expectations. There is ample reason to complain.

Yes, you are hearing it right, complain. Not by the agile community itself, of course, for they are convinced that agile is the solution to all problems. But we are discovering that reality is always a little more difficult than what is written in a twenty years old (fashioned) manifesto.

We should focus more on leadership because leaders help organisations to adapt. This has little to do with Scrum, Safe, Less or any other framework. It is much more about experimenting to find out how organisations can respond to changing circumstances in a faster and more flexible way to deliver value to their customers. That is not possible without leadership at every level in our organisations. Which, by the way, is more than leading, what is sometimes called, the ’agile transition’. The word ’agile’ here is not the goal but a characteristic of the organisation itself!

What Is Meant by That?

In the case of an agile leader, it means being of value to the people you lead.  Agile leadership is, in a certain sense, also servant leadership, and we need that. Because people in leadership roles often think that people are there for them, while the opposite is true. The manager is there for the employee.

How Do You Become an Agile Leader?

A good starting point could be the Agile Leadership guide of IPMA®. It describes the competences of an agile leader. I dive straight into the part of the guide that deals with the human aspects. It deals with ten different elements. The first is ’Self-reflection and Self-management’. You become agile by being agile and that starts within your innermost being, it’s all mindset! I really challenge you to start with that.

How Do You Change Your Mindset?

By autosuggestion, that is, by changing the story of your life. It is only possible if you really want it. Do you want to be a leader who is there for others? A leader who ensures that team members can function optimally. One that removes obstacles. If the answer is YES, if you really want it and if there is a burning desire, then it starts now. How? By working every day, in the morning when you wake up and in the evening just before you go to sleep, on the story that you tell about who you are.

How I Do It?

Every morning I start and every evening I conclude by naming some of the things I want to see happen in my life. For example, I want to be someone who encourages other people in their autonomy, belonging and competence. I say that to myself at least twice a day. There are also a whole series of affirmations. I spend twenty minutes on them twice, and it is worth the effort. You change into the person you want to become. This is auto-suggestion, I tell myself the story of who I am and want to be. Over and over again, day in and day out.

Now back to the IPMA Reference Guide, how does it fit into this? We go back to the topics self-reflection and self-management from this guide because that is where it all starts. Let me give you an example. One of the things the guide says about building self-confidence is that an agile leader looks at his strengths and weaknesses in relation to the team. The mirror you are looking in is not yourself – no, it is the team. If I use all my strengths and weaknesses by looking at how they are of value to the team and when I see the team benefiting from that, it further builds my confidence.

Now its your turn. What are your strengths, how will you strengthen the team? Perhaps you can create a very positive atmosphere. Your affirmation could then be:

Affirmation 1:

I create a positive atmosphere within a group of people.

Repeat this sentence every morning and have this conversation with yourself every night before you go to bed. But let’s take it a step further. Because agile is by its very nature outward-looking. Therefore, include the customer in your affirmations. What does the customer want to achieve and what are you going to deliver. That will be your second affirmation:

Affirmation 2:

I do <this> for the customer, the customer comes first. I want to be of value to my customer.

Maybe it all sounds a bit exaggerated, but that is very intentional. You don’t change old beliefs and habit that easily. But with affirmations you can, and the Agile Leadership Guide is a great tool to achieve this.

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About John Hermarij

Dutchman John Hermarij is an unconventional thinker who knows how to challenge people to think outside the box. One of his mottos is ’if you’re not in-the-box, you never have to think yourself out of it’. He has more than 35 years’ experience, a visionary on leadership in project management, a well-known speaker worldwide and has inspired leaders from Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
Hermarij has been the leader of the IPMA® taskforce that has developed the Agile Leadership Reference Guide.

He is the author of “Better Practices of Project Management” one of the world’s most comprehensive handbooks about IPMA’s competences on project management. He is founder and director of Dhirata, a consultancy firm that is specialized in leadership development and project management competences.

Text: John HermarijPhotos:

main photo: 123RF
portrait: John Hermarij