What do you do if your Agile team needs effective leadership styles?

1 Challenge 1: Lack of alignment and vision

One of the main challenges that agile teams face is the lack of alignment and vision among the team members, stakeholders, and customers. Without a clear and shared understanding of the goals, expectations, and priorities of the project, the team may struggle to deliver value, adapt to changes, and resolve conflicts. To address this challenge, agile leaders need to adopt a visionary leadership style, which involves communicating the vision, inspiring the team, and aligning the interests of different parties. A visionary leader also encourages feedback, experimentation, and learning from failures, which are essential for agile teams to innovate and improve.

2 Challenge 2: Low engagement and motivation

Another challenge that agile teams face is the low engagement and motivation of some team members, who may feel overwhelmed, underappreciated, or bored by the work. This can affect the team's performance, morale, and cohesion, and lead to high turnover, burnout, or dissatisfaction. To address this challenge, agile leaders need to adopt an affiliative leadership style, which involves creating a positive and supportive team culture, recognizing and rewarding achievements, and fostering trust and collaboration. An affiliative leader also provides emotional support, feedback, and coaching, which are vital for agile teams to grow and develop.

4 Challenge 4: Resistance to change and improvement

A fourth challenge that agile teams face is the resistance to change and improvement, which may stem from fear, inertia, or complacency. This can hinder the team's ability to respond to customer feedback, market trends, or new opportunities, and lead to stagnation, obsolescence, or irrelevance. To address this challenge, agile leaders need to adopt a change-oriented leadership style, which involves initiating, leading, and managing change and improvement. A change-oriented leader also creates a sense of urgency, involvement, and ownership, which are crucial for agile teams to embrace and sustain change and improvement.

5 Challenge 5: Conflict and disagreement

A fifth challenge that agile teams face is the conflict and disagreement that may arise from different opinions, personalities, or interests. This can affect the team's harmony, productivity, and creativity, and lead to resentment, frustration, or hostility. To address this challenge, agile leaders need to adopt a collaborative leadership style, which involves facilitating, mediating, and resolving conflict and disagreement. A collaborative leader also promotes diversity, inclusion, and respect, which are key for agile teams to leverage their differences and synergies.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?