Agile Leadership For High-Performing Teams

As organizations scale, traditional top-down management structures can cause process bottlenecks. Sending information to the C-suite and waiting for their decisions takes time — meaning companies might miss opportunities or lose their competitive edge. Many have adopted agile leadership models in response to this challenge. 

This article will explore the definition of agile leadership, its differences from traditional approaches, and how you can use it to build stronger teams. You’ll also learn how an Athena Assistant can help you transition to this dynamic leadership style. 

What’s Agile Leadership?

Agile leadership allows teams at all levels to make decisions that are relevant to their roles. Leaders delegate more to their employees, giving them ownership over their work. Workers assess situations, solve problems, and take action themselves. 

It’s important to note that agile leadership isn’t an individual technique. To be effective, there must be an agile transformation in all parts of the team, division, and organization. Keeping traditional structures in some places means you’ll still face the same bottlenecks as before.

Agile vs. Traditional Organizations: Key Differences

Here’s how agile leadership compares to linear chain-of-command structures:

• Structure: Traditional organizations use rigid hierarchies where members report to specific managers. Agile companies develop cross-functional teams that work together to achieve mutual goals. Inter-team collaboration and special projects are much more common.
• Decision-making: With a traditional leadership style, the organization's top tier makes all the critical decisions. Middle management may have a say about execution, but workers follow orders. With an agile leadership structure, all team members make decisions.
• Culture: Traditional management culture tends to focus on avoiding risks, following policies, and creating consistent outcomes. An agile organization fosters a culture that encourages experimentation and feedback.
• Leadership: Traditional leaders maintain strict oversight over employees and processes. This is necessary in industries with specific regulations that teams must follow. Agile leaders allow their staff to develop processes and solve problems independently, which is ideal for departments in fast-moving industries that don’t always have time to wait for approvals.

How to Build An Agile Workplace

Project managers, team leads, and frontline employees all need to work together to build an agile environment. Here are a few tips on making that process more successful. 

Encourage Ongoing Skill Development

Because decision-making is decentralized, an agile team relies heavily on its members' qualifications. Invest in continuous learning, whether through coaching, peer reviews, or on-the-job challenges. Encourage team members to develop skills that make them more versatile, such as: 

• Design thinking
• Data literacy
• Creative problem-solving
• Logistics

Stress that failure is part of the learning process, so team members feel comfortable learning new skills.

Skill development isn’t only reserved for employees — work with training centers to earn agile leadership certifications. Scrum Alliance and the International Project Management Association (IPMA) offer several programs to choose from.

Prioritize Regular Feedback and Flexible Improvements

Agile teams depend on immediate feedback to make informed, rapid decisions. So, your agile transformation should include systems for collecting and sharing data. Look for project management systems that send real-time updates on project progress and new developments. Software like Jira, Notion, and ZenHub can make this process easier. 

And don’t discount traditional team meetings and brainstorming sessions — discussions like these allow you to pivot quickly when needed.

Support Independent Decision-Making and Ownership

Independent decision-making is the core of agile leadership. Agile organizations let employees who are close to the problem implement solutions. Leaders support this by setting expectations and goals, then letting teams choose how to meet those objectives.

Work With Agile Assistants

Executive assistants (EAs) with an agile mindset are leadership essentials. Top EAs — like Athena Assistants — help agile teams stay on track by managing workflows, improving communications, and delegating duties. They’re ideal partners for agile transformation, alleviating the stress of day-to-day tasks so leaders can focus on the bigger picture.

Essential Techniques For Agile Leadership Development

Becoming an agile leader requires practice and intentional skill-building. These techniques will help you lead with clarity while reinforcing the core principles of agile leadership. 

Strengthen Awareness Of External Trends

Understanding the dynamics of your industry will help you guide your team when making rapid changes. Agile leaders need to be able to track industry shifts, new tech, and market trends, so set aside time weekly to check in with recent developments. 

Encourage Attentive Listening

Active listening must be the norm for all team members because it allows your team to quickly adapt to changing priorities. Whether in one-on-ones, team meetings, or cross-channel collaborations, encourage feedback and questions from team members.

Below are a few active listening techniques to try: 

• Asking good follow-up questions: Listen closely to what the other person has to say, then ask open-ended questions to continue the discussion.
• Listening to understand: Sometimes, people aren’t actually trying to comprehend what their colleagues or employees are saying. Instead, they’re just waiting for their turn to talk. Taking the time to follow along means discussions will be more fruitful and less repetitive.
• Showing clear interest: Use both verbal and nonverbal cues, like eye contact and quick responses, to tell speakers you’re connecting with their message.

Support Transparent Communication

An agile team must share information to avoid oversights and make rapid changes. Before transitioning into an agile structure, set the expectation of honesty and open communication. No one should have to guess about their colleagues’ intent. 

Encourage team members to ask questions and get used to repeating, rephrasing, and clarifying messages. And when there appears to be a misunderstanding, explore why it happened and use the opportunity to improve communication.

Focus On Outcomes Over Processes

Agile teams excel at producing results because they can use their own methodologies to reach goals. Focusing too much on granular day-to-day processes slows down the whole process — leaders spend time micromanaging, and employees have to change systems that already work for them. 

Instead of getting bogged down in the details, trust that departments will get their work done. If existing workflows aren’t effective, be willing to discuss alternatives with the team, but let them take the lead otherwise. 

Get Started With an Athena Assistant

Transitioning to a new organizational structure is a lot of work. Implementing agile practices means delegating tasks, distributing authority, and creating new workplace processes. All of this can quickly become overwhelming without the support of a smart EA.

Athena Assistants are strategic partners who are trained to help top executives in every industry. From designing workflows to organizing schedules, they free up time so you stay focused on what matters most.

Level up your leadership abilities with help from an Athena Assistant.

FAQ

What Are the 5 Levels Of agile Leadership?

Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs researched top leaders to learn how they develop agile skillsets. They found that managers tend to move through the following hierarchical stages: 

• The Expert prioritizes problem-solving skills and has a more authoritative approach. They tend to struggle with managing a team unit and making widespread organizational changes. 
• The Achiever wants to motivate others but often seeks support for their own ideas. They’re able to compensate and take feedback but may be more assertive in important conversations.
• The Catalyst is a visionary and promotes a culture of teamwork, participation, and empowerment. These individuals welcome multiple viewpoints on difficult problems and collaboration from the whole team.
• The Cocreator offers more responsibility to their teams and stakeholders, allowing people to take ownership of their tasks. They’re focused on driving toward a shared purpose rather than spearheading their own ideas or goals.
• The Synergist is largely empathetic, navigating stakeholder and employee needs with ease. They’re able to adapt to different team members’ needs and respond well to tough feedback.

What Are the 3 Pillars of Agile?

Agile itself doesn’t have three specific pillars, but an agile framework called Scrum does. This model prioritizes transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Involving the whole team, regularly monitoring outputs, and changing processes based on these results are all essential elements of an adaptable work style.

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