Leadership | Agile Working
Agile leadership - attitude instead of tool.
From Sabine Walter, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching
Agility is the new buzzword in the leadership world. Anyone who is not agile has obviously not yet understood it. Agility, it seems, is - along with digitalisation - the panacea for all the problems that companies have. As we experience it, this often leads to grotesque situations:
In a hierarchically organised company, agile management is introduced as a pilot in the IT department. As a result, agile development teams meet hierarchically organised departments. Scrum philosophy collides with deadline-driven managers who demand binding commitments by which day things will be implemented. The fronts harden, situations escalate and the time spent managing conflicts is lost to the operational business. Agility loses its appeal and slowly falls asleep again.
This is just one of the many examples that show us that introducing an agile corporate culture is not just a matter of writing the concept on PowerPoint slides and offering a seminar on it to lower and middle management; nor is it a matter of piloting the approach in certain areas. As with all cultural changes, agility concerns everyone and must be exemplified by top management.
What does it mean to be "agile"?
Agility Is a Mindsetno tools. Someone who thinks and acts in an agile way is able to perceive what is happening in their environment and integrate it into their actions.
Agile companies are therefore organisations that adapt quickly to change, i.e. flexibly align their actions to the changing environment. To be able to do this, these companies need leaders and employees who - each for themselves and in interaction - perceive, welcome and shape change. With creative ideas, courage and a sense of responsibility.
This in turn presupposes that they are allowed to shape things; in other words, that decisions are made where they are necessary in terms of rapid action. This requires:
- A culture of trust instead of fear
- Decentralised responsibility instead of decision-making hierarchy
- Open communication and information transparency instead of "knowledge-is-power" games
- a constructive error culture
- Interdisciplinary thinking and space for creative exchange
Agility requires an understanding of leadership "at eye level".
This is not new, but an attitude that has been an essential factor for entrepreneurial success for decades. No matter what the leadership philosophies are called, at their core it is always about Leading people so that they burn for the cause. They do this when they see a sense in it, can shape it using their strengths and successes are recognised and celebrated together.
Executives, starting with top management, are the key players in the question of whether companies are able to achieve this cultural change and whether agility is actually practised.
When we accompany companies and organisations in becoming more agile, there is a essential focus on the attitude and inner mindset required for agile leadership. Only when managers relinquish power and status, open up room for manoeuvre and decision-making and meet their employees at eye level, can the toolbox of agile leadership be used successfully.
Agility is currently a buzzword. The attitude behind it is a classic with a guarantee of success.
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