Agile Requires a Different Kind of Leader

The office has not changed since the jazz age.

The American office has not changed much since the jazz age.  At first, they were modeled after the workshops of cloth weavers.  Soon clerical work was mimicking the factories which grew out of the industrial revolution.  Before today, an army of office workers manually copies documents, did spreadsheets by hand, and processed payments.  Seated at long tables, these workers toiled under the supervision of bosses who micromanaged and made sure work was compliant. An office worker from the 1920s may not recognize the technology of today, but they will remember the command and control structure along with the micromanagement.  We have been managing our businesses the same way for over one hundred years.  It is about time we change.  

I joined the agile reformation because I believed there was a better way to do work.  Countless overtime, unrealistic deadlines, bureaucratic structures that guarantee nothing gets done, and poor leadership is rife in the modern workplace.   I suspect that this kind of toxicity explains why the use of anti-depressant drugs has increased so much in the last twenty years.  I promised myself when I was in a leadership role; it would be different.  

I am now a business leader, and each day I struggle to keep that promise. One of the critical skills is approaching people with curiosity instead of judgment.  Another necessary trait is emotional control because when things go wrong, others are counting on you to hold it together.  Finally, coaching others means letting them make mistakes and learn on their own.  The last trait is the hardest because the client and customer are unforgiving.  

It occurred to me many people advance to leadership roles playing office politics instead of delivering solutions to customers.  Hiding information, having personal agendas, and authoritarian styles of leadership are natural in toxic work environments, and poisonous people thrive within them.  Spread it around countless organizations, and it is clear to see why the business has not changed much over the last 100 years.  It is why the agile reformation is so powerful; it exposes this toxic behavior and makes business more successful.  Toxic people hate that and in large bureaucratic organizations spend plenty of time strangling these initiatives.   

The elevation of different kinds of business leaders will signify the growing maturity of agile in the business world because, without these new leaders, agile will fail.  If agile will grow in the next twenty years, we need a different kind of business leaders.  Someone who embraces coaching, servant leadership, and grace under pressure is necessary for scrum to survive further into the twenty-first century.  We better get started.  

Until next time.