Agile leadership and agile management are usually projected as synonymic terms, however both differs hugely from each other. Leadership as it is implied here is different from management.  Management focuses more on making the team work. On the other hand, an agile leader needs to embrace the agile principles of being flexible and adaptable along with motivating others to follow them. Before going into agile leadership and its practices, let’s take a look at the differences between agile management and agile leadership.

Management v/s Agile Leadership: 

ManagementAgile Leadership
Management focuses on tasksLeadership is about people
Management focuses on controlLeadership is about empowering and letting people control
Management focuses on efficiencyLeadership is about effectiveness
Management focuses on doing things rightLeadership is about doing the right things
Management focuses on speedLeadership is about direction
Management focuses on practicesLeadership is about principles
 


Thus, agile leadership varies from agile management. Leadership comes by right and not by appointment. The right to lead has to be earned by the agile leader by gaining respect from the agile team.

Agile Leadership Techniques:

  • Being a model: An agile leader should be a model of desired behavior and should be having the four characteristics of a leader: Honesty, Forward looking, Competent and Inspiring.
  • Creating and communicating a vision: An agile leader should be able to set forth a compelling vision for the team. The communication should be in an inspiring manner that will channelize everyone’s energy.
  • Enable others to act: Agile leadership involves trusting the team to do the work and also enabling them so that they are able to perform the work.

Besides the above characteristics, an agile leader also needs to pursue certain leadership practices in order to enable smooth work process and successful project development.

Best Practices of Agile Leadership:

  • Willingness to change the status quotient: An agile leader should be willing to take the bull by its horns in order to enforce a change. He or she should be capable of handling risks, learning from mistakes and generating small victories.
  • Getting the right people involved: The most important requirement for successful development of agile project is an efficient agile team. An agile leader should find a way to get the right time in place.
  • Encouraging the team members: Besides leading, an agile leader should also know how to show appreciation, reward and recognition to the agile team those who work with him or her in the project

These are the characteristics and practices that an agile leader should ideally possess which aliens him or her from the agile management. To know more about agile leadership and agile project management, you can join Simplilearn’s PMI-ACP online training and improve your PMI-ACP exam preparation towards attaining a PMI-ACP agile certification. You can also attend agile certification classroom training courses for better insights. Know the upcoming dates of PMI-ACP exam training for your city.

Related Reading:

  • Agile Adaptive Leadership
  • Agile Certification Training USA
  • Agile Certification Training India

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