Adapting the understanding of leadership to changes in the market and therefore also in your own company cannot be done at the push of a button. It is a process that is shaped by people. If a still rather static leadership is to be transformed into an agile one, then this process is significantly shaped by the personality of the managers. Their attitude to the individual topics, the way they deal with mistakes and their openness to new ideas provide employees with valuable guidance. For agile leadership, managers must therefore first of all have important personality traits and work specifically on these characteristics. Leadership requires personal development.
A central idea of agile leadership is that managers no longer act as hierarchical authorities who assign and evaluate tasks and make decisions. Instead, they are there to support their team and encourage employees to make decisions themselves. Agile leadership promotes self-organization and personal responsibility.
This new understanding of management responsibility increases the ability to act. If all decisions are no longer made at a desk, but at the respective interface itself, companies can react much more quickly to changes in the market.
In an agile environment, managers have the task of empowering employees and handing over responsibility. The most important basis for this is trust. Those who are always skeptical and have to check and question everything are not only putting obstacles in the way of agility in their own company, but entire boulders. Agile managers must trust - themselves and their employees.
In a constantly changing business world, agility, i.e. adaptability, flexibility and responsiveness, has become one of the key concepts when it comes to meeting the demands of the market. Agile teams have become an essential part of modern organizations. As a result, the way in which managers lead these teams has also changed dramatically.
Traditionally, managers were seen as authority figures who gave clear instructions that then had to be carried out. In agile teams, however, the role of the manager shifts from a hierarchical position to an accompanying and supporting role. Instead, managers are coaches who no longer primarily act and make decisions themselves, but enable their employees to work more independently.
This paradigm shift requires a rethink and targeted work on one's own personality. In agile environments, managers are coaches, mentors and points of contact and must have the right skills for this.
The active implementation of agile leadership comes with a number of challenges in practice. One key problem is that many managers have difficulty relinquishing their need for control and sharing responsibility. Even if they have long understood in theory why it is so important to delegate responsibility, putting this into practice does not happen automatically. This is where targeted personal development is often important.
If a different understanding of leadership has prevailed in the company up to now, the changeover to agile leadership can cause uncertainty and resistance. Managers are called upon to lead by example and support the change process.
Becoming an agile leader is a process that takes time and effort. However, managers who successfully manage this change are rewarded by having high-performance, highly motivated teams at their side who are able to adapt flexibly to the demands of the market, make their own decisions and feel so personally connected to the company that they remain loyal to it in the long term.
For agile leadership to work, special demands are placed on the personality of managers in particular. In an agile environment, leadership works primarily by exemplifying the values of a company. Agile managers should therefore first identify themselves with the company, its goals and values before they can take the team members with them and inspire them.
Agile managers need the ability to put themselves in the shoes of their employees. They should understand their needs and, ideally, also sense where help is needed.
If you want to live agility as a manager, you should communicate transparently and openly. Instead of only disseminating information within the management circle, team members must always be kept up to date on the goals, priorities and progress of a project. Ideally, they should be involved in important decisions and be able to express their opinions openly, honestly and without fear.
In a modern working environment, there are hardly any lone wolves. This makes it all the more important to turn individuals into a team that works well together. In this way, it is also important to clarify interpersonal issues and to be able to recognize and resolve conflicts in good time.
Many managers still have the impulse to carry out important tasks themselves. Agile managers need to develop the ability to delegate responsibility to team members.
In agile environments, change is the order of the day. Managers must be able to manage change and lead their teams successfully through change processes.
If you want to develop in the direction of an agile manager, you must of course also have the ability to adapt quickly to changes, new situations and changing requirements and be able to react flexibly to new challenges.
Agile leaders need to be able to manage their time, resources and tasks effectively. Good self-management means self-care. Burnt-out managers who are always on the verge of burnout cannot be there for their team.
Of course, this is just a selection of different personality traits that you can work on to become a leader for your team and provide guidance. It is important to be aware of which mindset helps you to achieve your goals.
The modern working world requires a strict departure from control and micromanagement. Employees want a manager who is less controlling and delegating and more supporting and leading by example. This creates agility and the ability to act.
This process on the way to an agile team or an agile company can therefore only progress as quickly as the personality development of the manager. There are no levers that simply need to be moved into the right position to create the right mindset.
Personal development always means working on the whole person - their inner attitude, their resources, their self-knowledge. Agile managers should therefore work specifically on their weak points so that they can embody themselves as agile managers and act authentically instead of playing a role and, for example, only pretending to trust a team member.
Emotional intelligence is a good and important prerequisite for personal development in an agile environment. This helps you as a manager to understand yourself better, to perceive and regulate yourself and at the same time to recognize other people in your own environment with their wishes and needs.
Leading with an agile mindset is a very individual challenge for each person, because everyone starts from a different starting point. You have completely different personality traits to another manager and yet you have the same goal. Targeted training and coaching can help you to further develop your personality traits. With personal coaching sessions, you can develop into an agile manager in a protected environment. You receive authentic, direct feedback and know exactly where you stand and have your goal in mind.
Agile leadership is something of a synonym for authentic leadership. It thrives on the personality of the manager, their talent for motivating and inspiring others, handing over responsibility and maintaining open communication. The first step towards agile leadership is therefore always to work on the personality traits that are so important for agile leadership.
You can only convey enthusiasm and passion for your work if you act and lead from your own convictions. Authenticity promotes trust - on both sides.
Our agile working coaching supports managers in establishing or further developing agile thinking and action in their organization. Our experienced coaches will teach you the methods of agile working and help you to adapt them to your team and your individual needs.