Agile Leadership in an Agile Organization

This presentation looks at the works and research of Dr. Bill Joiner on Agile Leadership Development which directly correlates with the traditional to current to future Democratic Leadership styles needed in an efficient and effective organization.

Transcript

1. Agile Leadership in an Agile Organization
2. "Lean is ‘Kaizen’ [continuous improvement].” "Scrum is ‘Kaikaku’ [radical change], based on 'Kaizen'[continuous improvement] but makes revolutionary changes in structure." "the Agile part of the organization must have Agile Leadership or it will fail 100% of the time."
3. Kotter’s Dual Operating System Model The basic structure is self-explanatory: hierarchy on one side and network on the other.
4. Scrum Theory Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking. -Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. - Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials (Schwaber & Sutherland. 2020)
5. So What is Agility, Organizational Agility, and Agile Leadership?
6. WHAT? Agility denotes an organization that is lean, innovative, customer oriented, flexible, adaptable and quick to respond to changes. Agility focuses on swift responsiveness to customer demands, in-depth understanding and mastering market turmoil, as well as possessing capabilities such as lean thinking.
7. WHAT? Organizational agility (OA) is basically an organizational-wide capability to proactively and relentlessly anticipate, respond. react and capture unique opportunities in the quest to thrive in this current, unpredictable, volatile and business environment. Organizational agility is the ability of a company to quickly and effectively respond to unanticipated changes in both internal and external environments and to exploit opportunities available in the market by meeting customers’ needs
8. OA is an absolute requirement for organizations willing to be competitive in their field of operations Organizations need to effectively use dynamic and flexible agile abilities it has become inevitable for enterprises to change the organizational structure and become more flexible. An agile organization stands a better chance of attaining more success and benefits as compared to an organization that still adopts and implements traditional management approaches in its operations. The type of leadership required by business executives to confront the ambiguous nature of today's business environment is agile leadership. SO WHAT?
9. SO WHAT? Agile leadership is ability of a leader to make judicious and effective decisions amidst complex, volatile and swiftly changing environment Agile leadership is the ability to learn new styles of leadership and flexibly switch the already mastered leadership styles in an effort to quickly respond to dynamic and changing circumstances
10. Levels and Competencies of Agile Leadership Joiner and Josephs (2007) denote five different levels of agile leadership. These levels are hierarchical in nature and as leaders ascend to the next level, the skills acquired in the current level of agility are carried to the next level.
11. Expert: In this first level of agile leadership, leaders are tactically oriented and have the ability to analytically solve problems. Due to this, the expert level is most suitable for environments in which attainment of success is possible by introducing additional improvements to current strategies. In this level, leaders are valued and their subordinates follow them because of their position in the organizational hierarchy and expertise These leaders excessively engaged in their subordinates' tasks and deal with reports directly on one-one basis. Hence, they end up separately developing individuals instead of a team.
12. Achiever: Leaders in this second level of agile leadership are strategic in their thinking and outcome oriented. These leaders together with their subordinates direct their efforts towards developing plans and strategies that will help in achieving the intended results They accept suggestions and feedback from subordinates, as well as motivate them through challenging and scintillating tasks to contribute to attaining the organizational goals. Thus, these leaders hold the view that power does no only emanate from expertise or position one occupies, but also through motivating other people.
13. Catalyst: In this level, leaders’ orientation is on facilitation and vision. These leaders are capable of building participative culture that empowers and inspires others to actualize the vision of an organization. They engage stakeholders in diverse range of issues in order to improve the effectiveness of decisions taken. They facilitate congenial environment where open discussions and exchange of different views can take place. This is the first level of agile leadership where— sustained success can be realized in volatile business situation.
14. Co-Creator: Leaders in this fourth level of agile leadership believe in common good, interdependence, and collaboration. These leaders are capable of setting up their own organizations where corporate social responsibility is embedded in it as a vital practice. These leaders are committed to providing service to the benefit of mankind at large. They are capable of creating collaborative team and strong stakeholder relationships rooted on high dedication to shared purpose. Co-Creators possess Emotional stability, ability to engage in open dialogue, and produce creative solutions to impromptu problems.
15. Synergist: This is the final level of agile leadership where leaders at this level are holistically oriented. These leaders have the ability to shift between leadership styles and detect which style is more appropriate for a particular circumstance. They focus not only on lending others to accomplishing the objectives of the team, but also transfer leadership experiences to them. Leaders at this level can alter or increase the energy rate of subordinates at workplace lo lead to outcomes that are beneficial to all. Their present-centered awareness enables them to succeed amid challenging and chaotic conditions.
18. THE LEADERSHIP AGILITY COMPASS Leaders who are most successful in turbulent organizational environments exhibit four mutually reinforcing competencies: • Context-setting agility improves your ability to scan your environment, frame the initiatives you need to take, and clarify the outcomes you need to achieve. • Stakeholder agility increases your ability to engage with key stakeholders in ways that build support for your initiative. • Creative agility enables you to transform the problems you encounter into the results you need. • Self-leadership agility is the ability to use your initiatives as opportunities to develop into the kind of leader you want to be.
19. References Attar, M., & Abdul-Kareem, A. (2020). The role of agile leadership in organisational agility. In Agile business leadership methods for industry 4.0 (pp. 171-191). Emerald Publishing Limited Joiner, W . B., & Josephs, S. A. (2006). Leadership agility: Five levels of mastery for anticipating and initiating change (Vol. 164). John Wiley & Sons.