As more companies explore elements of the agile framework, many managers and leaders worry that an employee-driven system will make them obsolete. These worries often come from middle managers, but there have been some executives who have voiced concerns. However, a flat organization isn’t necessarily a leaderless organization. On the contrary, many leaders will find that their roles are changing for the better now that their teams are becoming more agile. 

Check out how agile leaders are changing the companies they work for, whether they are leading the agile change or simply getting used to it. 

Agile Companies Need Strong Leaders

The step to evaluating the role of leaders within an agile framework is to dispel the myth that small, agile teams don’t need guidance. Your role within the company is not at risk of becoming redundant.  

“I’ve never seen, and have not even heard of, an organization that was successful in their pursuit of agility who did not have a strong leader guiding the vision for what the organization can become, motivating people to achieve that vision, nurturing the pursuit of that vision, and protecting, when necessary, the people who want that vision from the people who don’t,” writes Kurt Bittner at Scrum.org. 

While some agile practitioners might dream of a world where small teams drive the company forward, there still needs to be a guiding hand by management. 

Additionally, agile is not a golden ticket solution to revolutionize an organization. 

“The thought is if we just get people together and have them run in sprints, we're going to get all this innovation and morale,” says innovation and agile coach Jesse Fewell. “CEOs are discovering that Agile is just the admission fee to the innovation game.” 

The role of leadership will change when a company develops agile practices, but employees will still need leaders, and leaders will still need to work hard to keep the company ahead of its competitors. 

Many Leaders Have to Change Their Way of Thinking

Embracing agile doesn’t just mean updating processes and holding team trainings. Many leaders have to completely change their way of thinking and look at improving the organization as a whole. 

For example, Chris Shayan, an experience architect, says leaders in an agile work environment are better off responding to change rather than trying to develop and enforce plans. Instead of maintaining the status quo and trying to prevent any diversions from the norm, employees and leaders can work to improve how work gets done and respond to problems creatively. 

“Most detailed predictions and plans of conventional project management are a waste of time and money. Although teams should create a vision and plan, they should plan only those tasks that won’t have changed by the time they get to them,” he writes.

Management can’t give lip service to making changes and then not follow through. Similarly, they can’t demand change from employees but then expect staff to respect traditional hierarchies and management processes. This does mean, on occasion, that leaders need to change their behaviors and expectations.

“Often, leaders say they value transparency,” writes work environment sociologist Tracy Brower. “But what they really mean is they want to know what their teams are doing at all times. Transparency in agile leadership requires leaders who are transparent about their own work—sharing information about what they’re working on.”

From there, employees can step up and provide solutions and work to help their leaders — while having a space to talk about what they need in return. 

“Agile management explicitly gives primacy to adding value to customers. “Hence it is more threatening to the status quo, but it is also more honest as to what’s at stake,” explains Steve Denning, author of “The Age of Agile.”

He says this is a benefit and a challenge to bringing agile into an organization. Leaders who continue to make decisions based on what is best for the company (or what is best for their jobs or bonuses) will have a harder time maintaining a process that is customer-driven. After all, without customers, a business has nothing. 

Leaders Can Lead the Change to An Agile Framework

The good news is that leaders who are excited about the principles of agile, even if it means they have to change, can do a lot to win over employees. 

Many companies are taking the parts of agile that work for them and adapting them to their organizations. Each company has its own agile best practices that differentiate from other companies based on its industry, operations, and size. 

This creates “an extremely reactive, yet structured work system that is incredibly productive and efficient.” 

When leaders get creative, they can mold agile into a process that works for their teams, rather than expecting everyone in the company to follow non-negotiable rules. This flexibility is what makes the agile framework so popular — every company, department and team can modify it as needed.  

As a good starting point, Eric Garton and Andy Noble, partners at Bain and Company, encourage leaders to establish smaller teams that are able to work outside of the traditional hierarchy to accomplish their goals when they’re first bringing agile to an organization. 

“These teams are given permission to use Agile methods and processes and to work outside of the often energy-draining and slower-moving traditional processes and decision hierarchies,” they write. 

This is a good way for a leader at a non-agile company to see what agile teams can do while moving the company forward to reach its goals. This also gives leadership practice at breaking away from the norm, but in a controlled, project-focused environment.  

As agile is embraced within the organization, leaders need to continue removing barriers and changing the company to meet employee needs. “Yearly performance appraisals and individual bonuses do not fit well with an organization that uses self-organizing teams or squads or roles rather than job descriptions,” says trainer and facilitator Willy Zelen. 

Entire systems will likely change as a result of your agile efforts, systems that move beyond how single projects get done. 

Stepping into an Agile Company is An Adjustment

Not all leaders are so lucky that they are able to lead the transition of a company to become more agile. Some have to step into a new role, where they must adopt agile practices even though they have a waterfall-based background.  

Many leaders have a difficult time adjusting to agile because they used their past experience and practices to get where they are. When faced with a non-traditional hierarchy, it’s not uncommon for leaders to try to lean on their past experiences and revert to traditional behaviors, explain Nidhi Srivastava and Carl Shea at Tata Consultancy Services. 

At best, this creates an adjustment period within an organization as the new leader gets used to their work style. At worst, this can create organizational confusion and disrupt production.

Management consultant Rick Lepsinger points to Spotify as a success story of leadership in an agile environment. He explains that this company started agile and grew quickly, which means that leaders who work there need to be able to jump in, adapt and not be afraid of an agile environment. 

Those who do, like former global head of creator services Troy Carter, can make a positive impact. They can learn from the company while using their experience to improve it. Both parties benefit.    

Good Leaders are Needed Regardless of Company Structure

While there may be some speed bumps as your company develops its own version of the agile framework, most good leaders will be able to handle any problems or changes in order to benefit the company and employees. 

Duena Blomstrom, cofounder and CEO of PeopleNotTech, actually calls out various think pieces that focus on the traits of a good “agile leader” compared to other leaders. She lists traits like being adaptive and flexible to having strong levels of emotional intelligence. While all of these traits are nice, she says none are really specific to the agile framework. 

Any leader, regardless of the organization, can use emotional intelligence. As a result, calling managers and executives “agile leaders” means nothing if they aren’t fully involved in the organization’s agile processes.

As another example, consider the advice that Tamara Rosin at WalkMe gives for leaders to be more agile. She says that teams need autonomy, and the ability to try projects and new ideas without fear of failure. Those principles of autonomy and trust aren’t limited to agile, however. Any leader is able to empower teams to try new ideas and lead projects, even if they’re not done within an agile framework — it’s just good management.    

The team at the American Management Association summarizes this idea well: “With the growing need for agility, leaders may spend time studying and looking outward at agile characteristics—and then strategizing on how to help create them in our own organizations—when the qualities are already percolating internally.”

Good leaders can inspire and motivate teams while driving the company forward, no matter the types of processes used to accomplish those goals. 

Both Leaders and Employees Need Guidance Through Change

Change is hard. Your staff and your leadership team will all have concerns as new agile processes are developed. These responses are natural and your team will be able to overcome them with the right transition plans. 

“Too often we ignore the emotional aspect of change,” says Lean Change Management founder  Jason Little. “People respond to change differently… [and we immediately] leap to that reaction as resistance when it’s not. It’s a natural response to change and if we don’t allow time for the emotional reaction, taking a logical approach won’t move the change forward.”

For example, David McCreery, a consultant at Althris, says organizations often blame poor communication on an initiative’s failure. While this may be true, the lack of communication isn’t coming from the top down. Rather, it’s often because lower-level employees don’t have a platform to voice their concerns or don’t feel like management is listening. 

When employees and leaders feel supported in their organization, they are comfortable stepping into an agile environment. This means employees will trust their managers for guidance and managers will feel secure in a flatter, employee-driven environment.