If you follow my writing much, you’ve noticed that I often challenge traditional leaders to lean into their own personal transformation when it comes to agile. At times, I think I’ve been quite hard on them.
I do this from a perspective of deep respect, and personal experience & empathy, and with the hope of inspiring emergent agile leaders.
CAL class discussion
In my last CAL class, we had a detailed discussion on trust. In that class, it was private, so composed entirely of leaders from a singular organization.
I was emphasizing the need for agile leaders to extend trust (freely give, stretch or reach out, give till it hurts) to their team members as they embarked on a new agile transformation. Another way I tried to express it was for them to—
Step back;
Create space;
Leave a void.
So that they allowed the team to step in and start taking on more accountability & responsibility for their own work and outcomes.
Many of them were incredibly uncomfortable with this notion. Most viewed their teams as less than capable of being fully accountable without having leadership pushing them along that path. Some of the leaders expressed frustration with their teams because they weren’t stepping up and in to grab the accountability the leaders were giving them.
In fact, this was a very common complaint. That they (the leaders) were stepping back, taking risks, and really trying to create the space for team empowerment, responsibility, and accountability. BUT that the teams seemed to be frozen and unwilling to step up/in and take what they were being given.
Two-sides to this coin
First, I told them that I’d seen this pattern quite often. Where teams were slow to or unwilling to step into this new balance of ownership and accountability.
I don’t know the exact root causes, but I suspect it’s something around the following—
Lack of trusting the leader’s intentions in the agile transformation;
Historical baggage and dysfunctional contexts;
Fear or (be careful what you ask for you just might get it) syndrome; or
Lack of experience and/or skill.
The other side of the coin relates to leadership behavior. You see, there’s saying you’re supporting the teams, giving them space, extending trust, etc.
In many ways, that’s the easy part.
Then there is actually behaving the way you say versus how you perceive yourself to be behaving. I find that many leaders lack self-awareness in this area and don’t actually change their behavior. They then wonder about (and get frustrated with) the teams not taking ownership. Not realizing that it’s their behavior that is the impediment to their teams doing just that.
Point being—they haven’t created the space.
Wrapping Up
If you find yourself getting frustrated with your teams NOT taking on ownership, accountability, and responsibility the way you envisioned they would, I would recommend these two actions—
Reflect on whether you’re TRULY giving the teams consistent space to step in and up. My experience is that ~80% of the time, this is the actual impediment (i.e. it’s not a team problem, it’s a leadership (you) problem.
If you’re truly giving them space, then start actively coaching and encouraging the team to step in and up. This may require some 1:1 coaching with individuals to help them get over whatever is holding them back.
One final point, not everyone can easily move from being told what to do to be self-directed. It can be a really hard shift for some. You may have to move some folks to other roles who simply aren’t capable of making the shift. And remember, this doesn’t mean they’re bad people or employees. It simply means they need a different role and space to succeed in.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.