The big companies are leading the way: Google, Spotify and even Deutsche Bahn have adopted agile management. The aim is to respond to changes in the market faster, more flexibly and in a more customer-oriented way. What has triggered this trend towards agile leadership, what does it mean and why is it important to question your own agile leadership style?
Globalization and digitalization have literally shifted the world into the next gear. Everything has become faster and demands short decision-making paths and quick reactions. Everything is on the move and changing, but no one can say where it is going. Hardly anyone is still in a position to assess which trends and changes will affect the industry tomorrow. This makes it all the more important to position yourself in such a way that you can change course quickly. This is precisely what agile leadership means.
Understanding the importance of agility in management is one thing. The other is to put this concept into practice. The core values of agile leadership are:
For agile leadership, you need a mindset with values and principles that make an agile company orientation possible. An important aspect of the agile management style: employees are often closer to their topics than their superiors. They know the trends in their area of responsibility and can assess what is coming next better than anyone else. This makes it all the more important to provide them with skills. In an agile management style, the manager is no longer the one who decides everything. Strategies, procedures and business goals are discussed in the team. As the leader, you are still the captain who sets the general direction, but within which the employees are free to decide as long as the course is right.
If you have established an agile management style in your company, it is important to question yourself critically. Is the direction still right? Can I meet the demands placed on the team myself? Your own management style must be questioned if the previously tried and tested solution strategies no longer work in conflict situations, for example. In such situations, an agile manager quickly recognizes a need for adjustment and enters into an exchange with those involved. Agile leadership should be understood as a process that is constantly reinventing itself. In the midst of constant change, it is important to continually adapt your own communication and conflict skills.
The biggest challenge of agile leadership is that there are no longer any reliable signposts. Whereas in the past a direction was set that could be consistently followed, today you have to continuously adapt your course. Managers are often faced with situations that they themselves experience as uncontrollable. In these situations, it is important that you reflect on your talents and regain access to your own resources. This starts with accepting that tried-and-tested strategies no longer work and perceiving this not as a failure, but as an opportunity for something new.
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