Agile Leadership Principles encapsulate the core values and beliefs that guide effective leadership in agile environments. Central to these principles is fostering a collaborative and empowered team culture, where leaders prioritize individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Agile leaders emphasize delivering working products frequently, responding to change over following a plan, and maintaining close collaboration with customers to ensure their evolving needs are met.

The Agile Leadership Framework is a comprehensive approach designed to empower leaders in Agile organizations. At its core, this framework emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Agile leaders are tasked with guiding their teams through uncertainty and complexity while promoting transparency, trust, and accountability. By embracing Agile values and principles, leaders can inspire their teams to innovate, respond to change, and deliver value to customers more effectively. This framework equips leaders with the tools and techniques needed to navigate the dynamic nature of Agile environments, enabling them to drive organizational success in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape.

Leaders employ listening, empathy, commitment, and insight while sharing power and authority with team members. Supporting leaders are stewards who achieve results by focusing on the needs of the team. This style is the embodiment of the Scrum Master role.

The preferred leadership style for Scrum projects is Supporting Leadership. Larry Spears identifies ten traits that every effective leader should possess:

1.  Listening—Supporting leaders are expected to listen intently and receptively to what is being said, or not said. They are able to get in touch with their inner voice to understand and reflect on their own feelings.
2.  Empathy—Good supporting leaders accept and recognize individuals for their special and unique skills and abilities. They assume workers have good intentions and accept them as individuals, even when there are behavioural or performance issues.
3.  Healing—The motivation and potential to heal oneself and one’s relationship with others is a strong trait of servant leaders. Supporting leaders recognize and take the opportunity to help their colleagues who are experiencing emotional pain.
4.  Awareness—Awareness and particularly self-awareness is a trait of supporting leaders. This allows them to better understand and integrate issues such as those related to ethics, power, and values.
5.  Persuasion—Supporting leaders use persuasion, rather than their positional authority to gain group consensus and make decisions. Rather than forcing compliance and coercion as is typical in some authoritarian management styles, supporting leaders practice persuasion.
6.  Conceptualization—The ability to view and analyse problems (in an organization) from a broader conceptual and visionary perspective, rather than focusing on merely the immediate short-term goals, is a unique skill of good supporting leaders.
7.  Foresight—Their intuitive minds allow supporting leaders to use and apply past lessons and present realities to foresee the outcome of current situations and decisions.
8.  Stewardship—Stewardship demands a commitment to serving others. Supporting leaders prefer persuasion over control to ensure that they gain the trust of others in the organization.
9.  Commitment to the growth of others—Servant leaders have a deep commitment to the growth of people within their organization. They take on the responsibility of nurturing the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of others (e.g., providing access to resources for personal and professional development, encouraging workers to participate in decision making).
10.  Building community—Supporting leaders are interested in building communities within a working environment, particularly given the shift in societies away from smaller communities to large institutions shaping and controlling human lives.

Scrum believes that all leaders of Scrum projects (including the Scrum Master and Product Owner) should be supporting-leaders who have the above traits.

For more informative articles on Scrum and Agile, please visit www.scrumstudy.com
Follow us on twitter – @SCRUMstudy_

Agile Leadership Principles encapsulate the core values and beliefs that guide effective leadership in agile environments. Central to these principles is fostering a collaborative and empowered team culture, where leaders prioritize individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Agile leaders emphasize delivering working products frequently, responding to change over following a plan, and maintaining close collaboration with customers to ensure their evolving needs are met.

The Agile Leadership Framework is a comprehensive approach designed to empower leaders in Agile organizations. At its core, this framework emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Agile leaders are tasked with guiding their teams through uncertainty and complexity while promoting transparency, trust, and accountability. By embracing Agile values and principles, leaders can inspire their teams to innovate, respond to change, and deliver value to customers more effectively. This framework equips leaders with the tools and techniques needed to navigate the dynamic nature of Agile environments, enabling them to drive organizational success in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape.

Leaders employ listening, empathy, commitment, and insight while sharing power and authority with team members. Supporting leaders are stewards who achieve results by focusing on the needs of the team. This style is the embodiment of the Scrum Master role.

The preferred leadership style for Scrum projects is Supporting Leadership. Larry Spears identifies ten traits that every effective leader should possess:

1.  Listening—Supporting leaders are expected to listen intently and receptively to what is being said, or not said. They are able to get in touch with their inner voice to understand and reflect on their own feelings.
2.  Empathy—Good supporting leaders accept and recognize individuals for their special and unique skills and abilities. They assume workers have good intentions and accept them as individuals, even when there are behavioural or performance issues.
3.  Healing—The motivation and potential to heal oneself and one’s relationship with others is a strong trait of servant leaders. Supporting leaders recognize and take the opportunity to help their colleagues who are experiencing emotional pain.
4.  Awareness—Awareness and particularly self-awareness is a trait of supporting leaders. This allows them to better understand and integrate issues such as those related to ethics, power, and values.
5.  Persuasion—Supporting leaders use persuasion, rather than their positional authority to gain group consensus and make decisions. Rather than forcing compliance and coercion as is typical in some authoritarian management styles, supporting leaders practice persuasion.
6.  Conceptualization—The ability to view and analyse problems (in an organization) from a broader conceptual and visionary perspective, rather than focusing on merely the immediate short-term goals, is a unique skill of good supporting leaders.
7.  Foresight—Their intuitive minds allow supporting leaders to use and apply past lessons and present realities to foresee the outcome of current situations and decisions.
8.  Stewardship—Stewardship demands a commitment to serving others. Supporting leaders prefer persuasion over control to ensure that they gain the trust of others in the organization.
9.  Commitment to the growth of others—Servant leaders have a deep commitment to the growth of people within their organization. They take on the responsibility of nurturing the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of others (e.g., providing access to resources for personal and professional development, encouraging workers to participate in decision making).
10.  Building community—Supporting leaders are interested in building communities within a working environment, particularly given the shift in societies away from smaller communities to large institutions shaping and controlling human lives.

Scrum believes that all leaders of Scrum projects (including the Scrum Master and Product Owner) should be supporting-leaders who have the above traits.

For more informative articles on Scrum and Agile, please visit www.scrumstudy.com
Follow us on twitter – @SCRUMstudy_

A Professional Agile Leadership Meetup is a crucial gathering for fostering the skills and understanding necessary for effective Agile leadership. These meetups provide a collaborative platform where leaders can exchange insights, best practices, and challenges associated with guiding Agile teams. The focus is on developing leadership competencies that support Agile principles and values, such as encouraging a culture of continuous improvement, promoting collaboration, and facilitating adaptive planning. By participating in these meetups, leaders can enhance their ability to drive organizational agility, align teams with strategic goals, and cultivate an environment that empowers individuals and teams to deliver high-quality results. These sessions often include workshops, discussions, and case studies, enabling leaders to gain practical knowledge and apply Agile methodologies more effectively within their organizations.

The Agile Leadership Certification empowers leaders with the knowledge and skills to effectively guide their teams in agile environments. This certification focuses on developing a deep understanding of agile principles, practices, and methodologies, enabling leaders to foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation. Through comprehensive training and practical application, certified agile leaders learn to facilitate collaboration, enhance productivity, and drive successful project outcomes. By earning this certification, leaders demonstrate their commitment to agile excellence and their ability to inspire and lead teams in a rapidly evolving business landscape. This credential is essential for those aiming to excel in agile project management and leadership roles.

The Agile Leadership Certification is a prestigious credential that underscores the value of effective leadership in Agile environments. This certification equips leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to drive Agile transformation and cultivate high-performing teams.

How important is Continuous Value Justification in a Scrum Project?

Every project is expected to create some form of business value that outweighs the associated costs

and risks in order for it to be undertaken. But what is business value? And how can one ensure

that the project delivers business value on the expected lines? Business value can be looked at

in financial or non-financial terms such as reduction in costs, increase in revenue, enhancement

in brand value, and increase in satisfaction level among customers, reduction in the number of

complaints, reduction in risks or improvement in organizational capability, etc.

To ensure realization of business value, Scrum relies on continuous value justification. Continuous

value justification refers to assessment of business value regularly to determine whether the

justification or viability of executing the project continues to exist. Business value should be assessed

regularly to determine whether the justification or viability of executing the project continues to

exist. Frequent assessment of investment in the project relative to business value being created

qualifies the continued viability of a project. The expected requirements from the project may

change frequently, which can impact both project investment and value creation.

A key aspect of Scrum is its ability to quickly adjust to chaos created by a rapidly changing business

model. In projects with ambiguous user requirements and significant potential for frequent changes,

Scrum provides considerable advantages over other project delivery models. Monitoring the rate of

delivering value is an important requirement for Scrum projects. Periodically tracking and reporting

the creation of value assists in assessing project status and provides important information to the

customer and other Business stakeholders. Hence, continuous value justification plays a vital role in the key

decision making processes related to the project.