Leadership | Leadership in agile companies

Leading self-organised teams

From Sabine Walter,, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching

It may sound paradoxical, but self-organised teams need leadership. In this article we explain what is important in this leadership.

There are different understandings of leadership. Leading self-organised teams focuses on four key points: the "what", the "why", trust and the ability to form real teams. Answering the "how", i.e. developing and following the solution and implementation path, is the responsibility of the teams. Let's look at the four elements in detail:

Elements of leading self-organised teams

The "what" - or the question of focus

The "what" answers the question of focus. In other words, it clarifies what the goal or result of the work should be. What product or service do we want to sell successfully? Which one(s) not? The "what" gives clarity of purpose and is crucial for using resources in a goal-oriented way, prioritising accordingly and making decisions in the sense of achieving the goal. The clearer the "what", the greater the chance that self-organised work will also lead to the desired results.

In my day-to-day consulting work, I experience time and again that managers are unsure of what exactly this requirement means for them. Should they think up and prescribe the "what" on their own? Or should the self-organised teams be allowed to work on it? Are they not good leaders if they have not worked out the "what" on their own?

That is why I would like to emphasise at this point: It is the task of the managers to ensure that there is clarity of purpose and that everyone in the company has the same idea of the "what". Of course, the path to this goal clarity may and should be a joint one. If the goal setting is developed jointly, there is a chance that these goals will find a broader acceptance in the organisation than if the goals are set by the managers.

Let us now look at the "why".

Elements of leading self-organised teams

The "why" - or the answer to the purpose

I have already looked at the topic of "Purpose" in some of my blog articles. The "why", i.e. the "purpose", is about the question of the higher purpose. "What do we want to leave behind for this society?" "What difference do we want to make in this society as a company?" "Why do we want to sell these particular products and services?"

The answer "to earn money" is usually not sufficient for this, unless the employees participate to a significant extent in the economic success of the company and can then use this money to move things, initiate and implement ideas that are close to their hearts.

Just like the "what", the "why" can change over the years to reflect societal development and the evolution of markets and technologies. The aim of the "why" should be to inspire people for the "what" and to enable the further development of the "what". The "why" is the driver. It ensures motivation and commitment. The "why" entails a common set of values and ensures that like-minded people work together.

Elements of leading self-organised teams

Trust as an essential leadership element

Leading with trust is the key when working with self-organised teams. What does that mean in concrete terms?

Trust in the "what"

For self-organised work to take shape, it is important that everyone involved in the development of the products and services believes in them. Only then will they be able to overcome difficulties or obstacles. Only when there is trust in the "what" will there be willingness to get to the bottom of problems, endure conflicts and engage in controversial discussions to develop solutions to problems that have arisen.

This trust must be exemplified by the leaders. Conversely, this means that if managers have doubts about the products or services to be developed or are not fully behind the company's business model, it becomes much more difficult to lead self-organised teams.

Trust in the teams

The next level of trust from leaders is trust in the teams and their capabilities. Only with this trust will leaders let go and give permanent space to self-organised work. Therefore, it is central to look closely at who fits together and harmonises in the cooperation. The players in the game are once again gaining in importance.

In my work I experience that letting go is one of the biggest hurdles for managers. On the one hand, this is because their role change in the introduction of Agile working is often insufficiently considered; they are often not part of the transformation process, as they are often the initiator or sponsor of the transformation. This is a mistake. Only those who let go make room for others. Of course, letting go does not happen overnight; very few employees can deal with the freedom they have gained overnight and consciously fulfil the responsibility that comes with it.

This process of changing roles and responsibilities should be accompanied by an experienced organisational developer so that emerging conflicts are perceived, verbalised and directly resolved. Conflicts in this case become something positive, as they contribute to strengthening the basis of trust.

Trust in the "how" of the teams

Along with letting go comes not only trusting the teams, but also trust in the path and the approach that the teams take. This does not mean that they always have to agree with that path.

The task, on the other hand, is to question procedures, to understand thought processes that lie behind defined or planned procedures, to make advantages and disadvantages transparent by asking questions and, in case of doubt, to give room for experimentation and trial and error. The enemy of self-organised work is the desire for perfection from the first second. Say goodbye to perfection!

In addition, leaders should provide regular feedback and invite sharing on lessons learned to help teams develop. Below are some sample questions that help to verbalise the "lessons learned":

Collect positives:

• What did we do differently this time?
• With what effect?
• What went well?
• What can we be proud of?
• What did we do well?
• What made us more productive this time?

Identify potential for improvement:

• What could have gone better?
• What sometimes led to frustration?
• What has hindered our productivity?
• What problems have arisen?
• What mistakes have we made?

Change ways of acting:

• What specifically needs to be changed to remove these obstacles?
• What should we do differently so that the frustration no longer occurs?
• What can we change so that we notice sooner that we are on the wrong track?
• …

Elements of leading self-organised teams

The ability to form real teams

As already outlined in the section "Trust in the teams", the active players in self-organised teams become even more important. Therefore, it is important that the people who work with each other are also "able" to work with each other. The chemistry must be right, there must be a basis of trust. It is the task of the managers to form these teams and to give room for team development away from the daily business.

But who fits with whom? Often it is not the professional skills that harmonise with each other, but the personalities that fit together or that cannot work together at all. Therefore, the focus of the team composition should always be primarily on the personalities and not on the professional qualifications. These are mostly learnable.

The aim of working together is that the whole becomes more than the sum of the individual parts. This means that through diverse experiences, perspectives and competencies, a better solution is found in the end than if everyone had developed or created something for themselves.

In order to form teams in a purposeful way, to recognise team dynamics and to steer them in such a way that productivity emerges from them, a lot of experience and a distinct perception is required. It is therefore also advisable at this point to supplement one's own opinion with the view and opinion of experienced team developers.

Conclusion

Four elements define the leadership of self-organised teams

Self-organised teams need leadership. For this to succeed, leaders focus on four elements: the "what" - i.e. goal clarity, the "why" - the purpose, a culture of trust and a genuine team culture. The main difference to "classic" leadership is that the "why", i.e. the path to the goal, is the responsibility of the teams.

Leaders who succeed in developing self-organised teams create several opportunities for themselves, the teams, each team member and the company. These are above all:

• Self-confidence and team confidence grow significantly.
• The entrepreneurial thinking and acting of every employee is increasing.
• Decisions are made more quickly where they are needed.
• The willingness to cooperate is increasing.
• Each individual is continuously developing.
• Individuals' ability to deal with conflict improves.
• Better solutions are developed because problems and issues are considered from different perspectives.

Self-organisation of teams is also becoming more and more important against the background of advancing mobile working. Therefore, it is now part of the duty of managers to actively engage with this management philosophy and pave the way for more self-organisation in companies.