Agile leadership

Flexible, balanced and effective

What is agile leadership?

Agile organizational and working methods have become mainstream in many organizations. For years, “agile” has been a buzzword—sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. It’s often cited as one of the most overused buzzwords in working life, likely because it’s been sprinkled over leaders and employees as a fancy term for being adaptable and flexible. At the same time, we see more and more organizations choosing agile structures and work methods to succeed with complex development tasks that demand value creation faster, more flexibly, and more efficiently.

Agile organizational forms are rooted in the “Agile Manifesto,” which prioritizes values such as collaboration, embracing change, and customer interaction above rigid processes, strict adherence to plans, or extensive documentation. In practice, this means working iteratively and incrementally in self-organizing teams, striving for gradual and rapid deliveries to create greater value for users, customers, and citizens. There is often a strong focus on implementing agile frameworks like Scrum or SAFe—but agile leadership itself sometimes lags behind, as the practical literature offers few clear answers.

What does agile leadership mean for you as a leader?

Leadership in an agile context is distributed among both formal and informal leaders—and to a large extent delegated to self-organizing teams. As an agile leader, it is therefore essential to promote and lead according to agile values and principles. This means focusing more on collaboration, change management, and early/continuous value creation—and less on control, heavy documentation, or rigid plans. To succeed as an agile leader also requires trust: believing that tasks will be accomplished when employees and teams are given the right environment, frameworks, and mandates.

To succeed as an agile leader, you must be able to quickly and smoothly adapt your own leadership approach. You also need the ability and courage to read and respond to changing circumstances with a broad repertoire of actions and leadership styles. It is therefore important to understand your own leadership style and preferences—including how your leadership supports or hinders trust and collaboration in agile teams.

Additionally, the agile leader has a special responsibility for ensuring direction, coordination, and commitment within—and across—teams. The focus is less on who holds the leadership role but more on how leadership is produced collectively. Leadership in an agile context emerges when people collaborating in teams create shared direction, clear coordination, and strong commitment toward common deliverables and goals.

High demand for agile leaders

Flexible and rapid adaptation to changing challenges is increasingly a competitive parameter. This has led many organizations to implement agile organizational forms that create value by closely following customer or citizen needs. This means decision-making power and competence are increasingly pushed downward and outward into the organization. While most organizations remain hierarchical in structure, they often have areas or units operating according to agile values and practices. Agile leaders must therefore be able to navigate both internally within—and across—hierarchical and agile organizational forms: adapting their own style to circumstances while fostering shared direction, coordination, and commitment. This places high demands on developing leaders’ self-reflection and self-awareness—you must be able to read both the landscape and your own emotions/behavior in relation to it.

Inspiration

We teach you how to strengthen your agile leadership

LEAD offers advisory services on transformation from traditional to agile organizing/leadership as well as tailored courses and training programs on agile leadership.

Presentations

Inspirational research-based presentations on agile leadership for all levels within your organization

Consulting

Advisory regarding the development of your agile leadership practices/decisions/initiatives

Workshops

Facilitation of active workshops focused on agile leadership at both management and employee levels

How can LEAD help your organization with agile leadership?

In our courses you gain knowledge and tools for success as a leader in agile organizations. We always strive to tailor our courses/training programs to participants’ wishes—working from their own organizational contexts/cases. Our advisory services typically address questions such as:

Agile organizational forms: How do you design your organization according to agile principles? Where does it make sense What does successful transformation require from leadership development? How do you navigate across hierarchical/agile forms when they coexist?
Leading agile work methods: How can you use agile methods? How do you adapt them to your needs/context? How do you lead iterative processes aiming at ongoing adjustments/improvements?
Agile teams: What should you consider when assembling multidisciplinary/agile teams? How do you develop cooperation/team performance? How do you foster leadership in self-organized multidisciplinary teams?
Personal leadership: What are my core assumptions about leadership? Where is my greatest growth potential as an agile leader? What must I learn/unlearn for success in an agile setting? How do I find the right balance depending on task/context?

The consulting team working with agile leadership

Andreas Fricke Møller

Partner

Laust Søndertoft Pedersen

Chief Consultant

Mette Tange

Chief Consultant

Contact us for more information about what we can do for your organization

Are you facing organizational change? Do you need strategic advice or a cultural development program?

Contact us so we can tailor together a program that develops precisely those competencies and structures needed to strengthen and future-proof your organization.

Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen

Managing Director & Partner

Master of Law

Mobile: +45 22 42 18 11
Email: aba@lead.eu