Session Title : Leadership Agility Session Overview : The role of the Agile Leader has changed in the VUCA world. Traditional leaders who don’t adapt to the rapidly changing business environment are bound to fail. The talk examines the role of the Agile Leader, stages of leadership development and some of the competencies of an Agile Leader required to succeed in the modern world.

1. Leadership Agility
Srinath Ramakrishnan
Agile Coach and Consultant

2. About me
• Over 20 years of IT experience
• Enterprise Agile Coach

3. http://www.funverkstools.com/VUCAStart.aspx

4. Accelerating Change
• Technological
• Economic
• Social
• Political
• Environmental
https://medium.com/@arnoldbeekes/we-havent-learned-to-deal-with-exponential-change-981bb53c34f1
“If the rate of change
on the outside
exceeds the rate of
change on the
inside, the end is near”
- Jack Welch

5. Growing Interconnection/Complexity
http://www.tomorrowtodayglobal.com/2017/09/05/tuesday-tip-simplify-2-ways-deal-complexity/complexity/
• Global Economy
• New Communication
Technologies
• Premium on Customer and
Supplier relationships
• Importance of business
partnerships

6. Essence of Leadership Agility - Reflective Action
https://www.ephotozine.com/articles/fujifilm-finepix-hs30exr-bridge-camera-review-19047/images/highres-fujifilmfinepixhs30exr-1_1335879921.jpg
Focus
Step back
Reflect – Gain a
broader, deeper view
Act: Reengage,
take action
It is the ability to lead effectively under conditions of rapid change and
mounting complexity

7. Leadership Agility
• Based on 5 year intensive research –
used methods such as Direct
Observation, in depth interviews, case
studies etc.
• Included 600 managers
• Combination of Qualitative and
Quantitative methods

8. Stages of Personal Development
Explorer
Enthusiast
Operator
Conformer
Expert
Achiever
Catalyst
Co-creator
Synergist
Childhood Stages
Adult Stages
Source : Ken Wilber, Bob Kegan, Bill Torbert and Susan Cook- Greuter

9. Leadership Agility Compass
Leaders who are successful in turbulent organizational environments exhibit four
mutually reinforcing competencies
Seeking feedback
and
experimenting
with new
behavior
Analyzing and
solving problems
innovatively
Scoping initiatives
and setting
direction
Understanding
others’ concerns
and priorities &
resolving them
http://www.changewise.biz/?p=1387

10. Levels of Leadership Agility
55%
35%
10%
Degree of Interdependence / Complexity
PaceofChange
Courtesy : Leadership Agility

11. Three Arenas
• Leading Change - Initiatives taken to improve an
organization and its key relationships
• Leading Teams - Initiatives to improve a team and its key
relationships
• Pivotal Conversations - Person-to-person discussions with
important outcomes at stake

12. Expert Leadership
• Guiding assumptions: Leaders are respected and
followed because of their authority and expertise
• Organizational change: Tactical focus on incremental
improvements within one’s unit, with minimal
stakeholder engagement
http://www.findtheedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/how-to-be-an-expert.jpg
https://www.one12counseling.com/about-vision/individual-supervision-web3/

13. Expert Leadership
• Team Leadership: Focuses on one on
one supervision vs
management/leadership of direct reports
as a system
• Pivotal conversations
• Low tolerance for conflict: Assertive or
accommodative – advocates or
inquires.
• Tends to avoid giving or requesting
feedback.
http://www.findtheedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/how-to-be-an-expert.jpg
https://www.one12counseling.com/about-vision/individual-supervision-web3/

14. Achiever Leadership
• Guiding assumptions: Motivate others by making it
challenging satisfying to contribute to larger objectives
• Organizational change: Strategic outcome focus,
making episodic changes to address environmental
changes while seeking stakeholder buy-in
http://www.centerforstrengths.com/wp-content/uploads/achiever_mountaintop_oneguy.jpg
https://leadingstrategicinitiatives.com/2011/04/20/how-to-energize-strategic-initiatives-with-outcomes/

15. Achiever Leadership
• Team Leadership: Treats direct reports
as a system that needs to be
orchestrated as a team
• Pivotal conversations
• Moderate tolerance for conflict:
primarily assertive or
accommodative
• Will accept or even initiate feedback,
if helpful in achieving desired
outcomes.
https://www.visitphilly.com/things-to-do/attractions/the-philadelphia-orchestra/

16. Catalyst Leadership
• Guiding assumptions: Articulate an inspiring
vision and empower and develop others to make
it a reality
• Organizational change: Aim through the target:
Develop organizational capacity to meet any
strategic challenge
http://strategicoutcomesgroup.com/

17. Catalyst Leadership
• Team Leadership: Creates a highly
participative empowered team that
leads change together
• Pivotal conversations:
• Greater tolerance for conflict:
combines advocacy and inquiry as
needed in specific situations.
• Proactive in seeking and utilizing
feedback.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/structure-empowered-organization-44194.html

18. Levels of Leadership Agility
http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/3870357/6/stock-photo-3870357-russian-nesting-dolls.jpg
• You don’t skip stages of levels
• You retain the capacities you develop at
previous levels
• Your agility level can vary throughout the
day
• “Downshifting” to previous levels can be
intentional or unintentional
• It’s about expanding your repertoire

19. Applying Leadership Agility in Agile Coaching
• Initial days of Agile coaching
• Identify problems and provide solutions
• Team focused
• Plays the role of a Trainer / Mentor
• No big picture
• Experienced Coach
• Acts as a Reflective Observer
• Have teams sense problems and support them in resolving it on their own
• Uses more of Coaching / Facilitation skills
• Aligned and invested in Organization goals

20. Levels of Leadership Agility - Recap
Expert
• Operate in silos with little
emphasis on cross‐functional
teamwork
• Organizational improvements
are mainly tactical &
incremental
• Sub‐ordinates managed
primarily one‐on‐one;
Micro‐management,
fire‐fighting
Achiever
• Managers articulate strategic
objectives & create a
customer‐focused culture
• Managers initiate changes
within & across units and
seek buy‐in to change
• Managers orchestrate
teamwork in their own teams
and across units
Catalyst
• Managers articulate a vision
of long‐term organizational
agility
• Managers create highly
participative, candid,
empowered teams &
leadership culture
• Leaders are proactive in
seeking feedback and
experimenting with new
behavior

21. Applying Leadership Agility – Exercise
• ABC Unlimited is a medium sized Product Development organization.
• As part of its overall strategy, it was decided to move the software
development to Agile.
• Agile Transformation program started with an initial Assessment followed
by across the board agile training for the Development teams
• One team kicked off their Agile Transformation, 3 months ago and the
second one, 2 weeks back.
• Team # 1 has now hit a wall
• Can’t complete even 50% the committed stories
• Increasing number of bugs
• Lack of coordination between UX and Developers / Developers and Testers
• You are taking over as a Senior Manager for these teams

22. Applying Leadership Agility – Case Study
• How would you deal with this issue at an
• Expert Level
• Achiever Level
6 Mins

23. Applying Leadership Agility - Expert
• Managers who lead incremental improvements by using their
authority and expertise, supervise direct reports, and are
passionate but often opinionated problem-solvers
• Focuses on issues in so much detail that he gets overwhelmed with
its complexity
• Possible Responses
• Have one to one meetings with the Development Team Lead and the Product Owner.
• What can we do to complete these 4 stories by the end of this Sprint?
• Why is THIS story still not complete? Where is the problem?
• Why can’t we collaborate as a team?
• We will have to somehow show progress in this Sprint – may require working during
weekends. I will be there for any support
• I will keep a close watch on the progress at least for the next couple of Sprints.
• I will set a process in place not to repeat these issues in future.

24. Applying Leadership Agility – Achiever
Managers who lead by motivating others and gaining buy-in to
achieve strategic change objectives, orchestrate team performance,
work across boundaries, and step up to challenging conversations.
• Possible Responses
• Have meetings with the Team
• I would like to hear from all of you as to what we can improve on? Let’s brainstorm on
Friday and see what we can do for a start for the next Sprint.
• I will meet with the Product Owner and set certain expectations in terms of number of
stories we would work on, for the next 2 Sprints.
• We have 2 releases coming up in the next 4 months – What support do we need from us
to improve the way we work?
• Do we as a team need any specific training?

25. References

26. References
• Leadership Agility Website
• http://www.changewise.biz/?page_id=635
• Leadership Agility as a competitive Advantage – Article on Linkedin
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-agility-competitive-advantage-bernhard-h-hilmarsen
• Whitepaper on The Agile Leader – Agile Coaching Institute
• http://www.agilecoachinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/whitePaper-ACI-The-Agile-Leader-Jan-
2015.pdf

27. http://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/03/26/635945489150055587-869285762_thank_you.jpg
ramakrishnan.srinath@gmail.com
@rsrinath
https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinathramakrishnan/