More Related Content Similar to The 7 most valuable leadership behaviors for leading change (20) The 7 most valuable leadership behaviors for leading change1. 1© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.V4.0.0© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The 7 Most Valuable Leadership
Behaviors for Leading Change
Agile 2016, June 27nd
Richard Knaster
SAFE Fellow & Principal Consultant
Scaled Agile Inc.
@richardknaster
2. 2© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
7 Most Valuable Leadership Behaviors
#1 - Exhibit the Lean-Agile mindset
#2 - Lead the change
#3 - Know the way and emphasize lifelong learning
#4 - Develop people
#5 - Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers
#6 - Decentralize decision-making
#7 - Evolve the role of managers
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Leaders must know what to do!
It is not enough that management
commit themselves to quality and
productivity, they must know what it
is they must do.
Such a responsibility cannot
be delegated.
—W. Edwards Deming
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#1 - Using a Lean-Agile mindset
LEADERSHIP
Respectfor
peopleandculture
Flow
Innovation
Relentless
improvement
VALUE
House of Lean
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
Agile Manifesto
Value in the shortest
sustainable lead time
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#2 - Leaders must lead the change
Empowering is NOT just giving
permission
Empowering is about providing
approval plus, knowledge, tools,
budget, people, time and inspiration
Leaders MUST be truly available to
the teams and help remove obstacles
“I have a dream…”—Dr. Martin Luther King
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Using a proven change method
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Create a powerful guiding coalition
3. Develop the vision and strategy
4. Communicate the vision
5. Empower employees for broad-based action
6. Generate short term wins
7. Consolidate gains and produce more wins
8. Anchor new approaches in the culture
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#3 - Leaders must know the way
Lean-Agile Leaders are lifelong
learners who help teams build better
systems through understanding and
exhibiting the values, principles and
practices of Lean, systems
thinking, and Agile development.
—Dean Leffingwell
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And emphasize life-long learning
Principles of Product Development Flow,
Don Reinertsen
The Lean Machine, Dantar Oosterwald
Lean Product and Process Development,
Allen Ward and Durward Sobeck II
The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt
Out of the Crisis, E. Deming
Agile Software Requirements, Dean
Leffingwell
Switch, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick
Lencioni
9. 9© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
#4 - Leaders must develop people, not things
Attract, recruit, and retain capable individuals
Build high-performance teams
Perform career counseling and personal
development
Listen and support teams in problem identification,
root cause analysis, and decision-making
Create an environment where the facts are always
friendly
Provide freedom and safety so individuals and
teams are free to innovate, experiment, and even
fail on occasion
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#5 - Unlock the motivation of knowledge workers
Workers are knowledge workers if they know more about the
work they perform than their bosses. —Peter Drucker
▸Workers themselves are best placed to make
decisions about how to perform their work
▸To effectively lead, the workers must be
heard and respected
▸Knowledge workers have to manage
themselves. They have to have autonomy.
▸Continuing innovation has to be part of their
work, the task, and the responsibility of
knowledge workers
Used with permission from The Drucker Institute at
Claremont Graduate University
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#5 - And empower others
As we look ahead into the next century leaders will be those who empower
others—Bill Gates
▸Build a learning organization and emphasize life-
long learning
▸Create an environment of mutual influence
▸Foster decentralized decision-making
▸Provide vision, with minimum specific work
requirements
▸Eliminate demotivating policies, procedures, MBOs.
Revamp personnel evaluation.
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#6 – By Decentralizing decision-making
Any inefficiency of decentralization costs less than the value of faster
response time.—Principles of Product Development Flow, Don
Reinertsen
Centralize decisions that:
- Are infrequent, long-lasting, and have significant economies of
scale
Decentralize all others:
- Frequent decisions
- Time-critical decisions
- Decisions that require local information
Define the economic logic behind a decision; empower individuals
and teams to actually make them
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#7 - Evolve the Role of Managers
Successful transformations are based on educating management
first to become lean-thinking manager-teachers”, who lead, rather
than follow, the transformation
People are already doing their best; the problems are with the system.
Only management can change the system. —W. Edwards Deming
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Using an Effective Leadership Style
The effectiveness of your workers is determined
in large part by your personal leadership style.
Leader as expert
Leader as conductor
Leader as developer
Recommended Reading:
Managing for Excellence,
David Bradford and
Allan Cohen
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Leader as expert
Characteristics
Technician or master craftsman
Promoted because they were the
best at their job
Problem solver, the one people go
to for answers
Understands the domain and the
technology
Work is when people leave them alone
Can be effective when manager has greater knowledge
than direct reports
Challenges
Limits learning and growth of
direct reports
Focus on technical problems to
the detriment of human factors
Managing for Excellence, David Bradford and Allan Cohen
16. 16© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Leader as conductor
Characteristics
The central decision maker, nerve
center, coordinator
Orchestrates all individual parts of the
organization into a harmonious whole
Subtle and indirect manipulation to
their solution
Manages across individuals, teams,
and departments
Work is coordinating others
Challenges
Narrows the focus of direct
reports to their own areas
Conflict tends to push upward
looking for the boss to fix
Use systems and procedures to
control work
Works harder and harder, without
realizing full potential
Managing for Excellence, David Bradford and Allan Cohen
Can be effective when coordination is a prerequisite
for maximum performance
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Don’t get caught in the responsibility trap
Negative reinforcing
cycle
Fails to make full use
of the knowledge and
competencies of direct
reports
Produces narrow and
self-interested direct
reports
for coordination for answers for overall unit goals
direct reports
feel
overcontrolled
direct reports feel
blocked,
underused
direct reports feel
committed only to
own subgoals
Managing for Excellence, David Bradford and Allan Cohen
18. 18© 2016 Scaled Agile, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Leader as developer of people
Behaviors
Creates a team jointly responsible
for success
Asks, “How can each problem be
solved in a way that further develops
my people’s commitment and
capabilities?”
Work is developing other’s abilities
Escape the trap with a post-heroic, Lean Leadership style
Benefits
Increased direct report
ownership and responsibility
Increased employee
engagement and motivation
Allows leader to spend more
time managing laterally and
upward
There is no limit to the power of
getting things done
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#7 - Create an environment of mutual influence
Create a safe environment for learning, growth and mutual influence
Encourage direct reports:
To disagree where appropriate
To advocate for the positions they
believe in
To push for their own needs
To enter into joint problem solving
To negotiate, compromise,
agree, commit
Garth Andrews holding the
coveted Horse’s Rear award
Managing for Excellence, David Bradford and Allan Cohen
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Core Leadership Personal Characteristics for Change
Committed
Communicative
Confident
Courageous
Decisive
Empathic
Empowering
Honest
Humorous
Inspirational
Listens
Persistent
Optimistic
Respectful
Trustworthy
Editor's Notes © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC One of our best thought leaders is Kotter. Here’s some positive things from him that Leadership can do. These eight ideas are the responsibility of Executive and Senior Management.
ASK: Why is #8 last on the list?A: #8 can’t happen until when the reward system is changed. It’s the result. As a worker, you feel better working when you feel like your voice is heard, and when you start to see the results. It’s not until this happens that culture changes.
It’s like Drucker said, “If you want people to be motivated, tell them their work is important”
So in the the context of this, we need to think about the issues we want to address… (transition to next slide/exercise)
Developers books open, Managers not
These represent incredible bodies of knowledge that you can’t get in a weekend
SUGGESTION: If you read one of these book a month, you’ll start to develop you own unique perspectives and insights
Cite Lean Machine as one example: Interesting, easy read that show a 5-7 year evolution.
These represent incredible bodies of knowledge that you can’t get in a weekend
SUGGESTION: If you read one of these book a month, you’ll start to develop you own unique perspectives and insights
Cite Lean Machine as one example: Interesting, easy read that show a 5-7 year evolution.
© 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC
ASK: Why is decision making so critical? A: When decisions aren’t made, it leads to delay. Decisions facilitate flow. Plus one side benefit is that de-centralizing decisions can be empowering.
ASK: What is empowerment? What does that mean to you?
ASK: What comes with empowerment? A: The old cliché With decision making power comes great responsibility
Some decisions should be centralized. Some should de-centralized.
ASK: How to decide what should be centralized? There’s some questions to ask about the decision. Our next exercise covers that.
Regardless of who makes decisions, they are important because they directly impact flow.
In this suggested reading, the authors take an on objective, non-pejorative view of the different management styles. Let’ s look at some of the differences between Leaders as: Expert, Conductor and Developer
© 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC © 2007 Trail Ridge Consulting, LLC