Developing Leadership Agility: 6 Mistakes Leaders Make

by Trail Ridge © 2005 - 2017
Developing Leadership Agility
Five Six Mistakes You’re Making as a Leader
Pete Behrens
@petebehrens
#aab2017

Pete Behrens
CEC CST
Certified
Enterprise
Coach
Certified
Scrum
Trainer
Certified 
Agile 
Leadership
CAL
a few clients i work with
board of directors

first, a story…
Josh & Matt in back of the car
Matt: “Dad, Josh hit me”.
(Dad ignores Matt.)
Matt: “Daaaad, it hurts!”
Dad: “what do you want to do?”
Matt: “I want to hit him”
Dad: “OK”
Josh: “Dad, Matt hit me…”
Dad: “What do you want to do?”
Josh: “Hit him back”
Dad: “OK”
(Boys fight, cry, wonder…)
Josh: “Dad, why’d you make us fight?
Dad: “What did you learn?”
It’s not about them, it’s about how you show up

Mistake over-focus on others
You
Organization
is a reflection of you
obedient employees
Do The Agile!

Management’s Record…
?!
!
R. Hogan & Kaiser, 2005 
What we know about leadership. 
Review of General Psychology
70% SAY THEIR MANAGER
IS THE MOST STRESSFUL
PART OF THEIR JOB.

ReFocus on YOU!
“Unless leaders do 
their own development 
they are unlikely to create 
business transformation.” 
- Robert Anderson 
in Mastering Leadership

Lars’ Story…
While little has changed in the
way research is conducted.
Lars is taking it personally 
and experimenting on himself.
Global Research
Director

Taking Ownership…
This is a 
mindset shift!
Lars offers, AND JOINS
agile training every year -
for 5 years!
inviting leaders and
engaging different
stakeholders each year

Experiments on Himself
Paired-Leadership
Mission-oriented Me-staffing

Co-creating with others
Flash-Swarm Experiments

Results…
Lars models a safe-to-
experiment culture where
researchers not only
experiment on research,
they experiment in HOW
they conduct research!
Global Research
Director
Employee engagement
Customer satisfaction
New contracts signed
results…

Mistake over-focus on delivery
PACE OF
CHANGE
TECHNOLOGY
Automation
and
G
L
O
BA L I Z A T
IO
N

Grace’s story…
Her and her POs conduct Sprint 
Reviews with key “Stakeholders”
Business Operations
Leader

Experiments with more stakeholders
Feeling
uncomfortable
she opened
the review up
to more real
users…
…and learned a
great deal…

Checking Assumptions
& Pivot
Experiment
Sep 1 Sep 15 Oct 1
Oct 15
Nov 1
Nov 15
Dec 1
Oct 15 Nov 1 Nov 15 Dec 1
Stakeholder experiments enable Grace 
to pivot months before delivery milestones.

The world is changing…
Widget Factory
Design Factory

Spotify
Music Service
Happy
Customers!
Mission
Control
Co-Create

EMERGE
CO-
CREATION
AND IT
ERAT
I
ON
THROUGH

Engaging stakeholders
Now Grace
connects and
engages users
every chance
she gets.

Engaging stakeholders
Example co-creative engagement with stakeholders

Refocus for Agile Leaders
You others
Experiments Delivery
before
before

My “AHA” Journey
My wife (Jana) and I talking
Jana: “Susan is bugging me again”
Pete: “Why is Susan still a friend?”
Jana: “Stop fixing my problems!”
(Pete realizes he stepped
on a relationship land mind)
Pete: “Fixing issues is what I do”.
Jana: “It doesn’t help me.”
Pete: “Why else talk about her?”
Jana: “I just want you to listen.”
Pete: “What good does that do?”
Pete learned a valuable lesson regarding his lack
of awareness of his thinking and leadership

My “AHA” Journey
the expert
Solves problems
Gets work done!
Knows best
Nobody does it better

Mistake over-focus on skills
?!
!
2016 Penna Survey as reported at
http://www.rpx2.com/self-awareness-performance-management
80%
Only 25% of 
employees agree
80% of Managers 
believe they are 
supportive of employees
25%

Self-Awareness is the key
AHA!
Maybe it’s me
Fixing this does not
require skill acquisition,
it requires enlightenment

My Leadership Journey
the achiever
Aligns resources
Drives productivity
“Facilitates” others
Nobody leads better

Awareness is the starting point
AWARENESS precedes CHOICE
?
CHOICE precedes CHANGE
AHA!

Rachel’s story…
Financial Portfolio
Director
Rachel was seeking to improve
her leadership effectiveness.
She chose
to conduct
a 360° view
of herself

Balancing Power Style
Accommodate Assert
Ask
Wait
Listen
Tell
Do
Share

Balancing Power Style
Accommodate Assert
Ask
Wait
Listen
Tell
Do
Share
she is over-
accommodative
Self-Awareness is the meta-skill

Awareness precedes Choice
?
default
new
plan
do
reflect
Developing
Catalyst Habits

Mistake over-focus on behavior
Don’t be a January Person
January February
73%
of people with
fitness goals
give them up
bodybuilding.com 
in November 2012

Satty’s Story…
Managing Director
With a financial crisis in force,
Satty faced tough decisions

Traditional structures
Like many
organizations,
they separated
development &
support.
SupportArchitecture
USA India

Radical Re-structuring
3-Month experiment -
break down silos to
address systemic
behaviors.
USA India
Support 2.0
Created hyper-collaborative
x-functional, x-location teams

Radical results…
2008 09 10 11 12 2013
$12M
$3M
Reduced costs
Continued for
many years due to
reduced costs &
increased quality

Change Behavior with Structure
PROCESS
STRUCTURE
CULTURE
If you seek
behavior
change,
change the
environment.
Behaviors
& Culture 
follow
Structures

Ongoing success…
Created McKinsey
Digital Labs to
partner with clients
and guide agility.
Cost Center -> Profit Center

You others
Awareness skills
Experiments Delivery
structure behaviors
before
before
before
before

I was a
Triathlete?
I am a 
triathlete!
I am a
Triathlete!
Another Story…
SWIM RUNBIKE
COACH
I want to
Compete in 
a triathlon
Set a Goal
Assess
Train
Compete
Time
Performance
1
2
3
4
Feedback
Day
Week
Race
performancehealth

Mistake over-focus on performance
Employee Engagement
performance
20
40
60
80
100
More
Faster
Cheaper
Customer Alignment
Do The Agile!Let’s BE agile!Do The Agile!
health+
Organization resiliency
Quality Products

Performance + Health
Organizations focusing on
performance + health are
3-times more successful
than those focusing on
performance alone.

PROCESS
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
Performance Focus is short-term
TIME
Leadership
Do The Agile!
OUTSIDE-IN
AGILITY
LIMITED
AGILITY
Scrum exposes
impediments
often deeply
rooted within the
organization and
difficult to
address - limiting
agile maturity.

agile performance impediments…
Culture at odds
with agile values
Organizational
resistance 
to change
Management’s
Fear of the 
loss of control
PROCESS
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
38%
42%
46%
Version One State of Agility
10th Annual Report 2016
The most common
impediments to
organizational
agility relate to
organizational
health.

Health Focus is long-term
TIME
OUTSIDE-IN
AGILITY
PROCESS
STRUCTURE
SUSTAIN
&
GROW
AGILITY
CULTURE
IN
SIDE-O
U
T
By aligning agile to
the culture and
building structures
to support agility,
organizations can
sustain and grow
agility and improve
long-term results.

Chris’ Story…
Senior VP
Engineering
ValueDelivery
2000 2005 2010 2015
Be the
Best
at CRM
Be
the
Best at Agile…
to
be
the
Best at CRM
2006
CRASH!

Competitive Teams win!
#1#2 #3
May Jun Jul Aug
compete 
showcase! ship!compete 
showcase!
compete 
showcase!

Competitive Teams win!
#1
49%
having the “best time”
or a “good time” at
Salesforce.com
pre-ADM
89%
post-ADM

Thriving with Agility
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
800%
600%
400%
200%
ORACLE
SAP
Salesforce is the
Market Leader
Since Agile, Salesforce has 
outpaced all other competitors

Mistake over-focus on the destination

I was a
Triathlete?
I am a 
triathlete!
I am a
Triathlete!
Back to our story…
SWIM RUNBIKE
COACH
Set a Goal
Assess
Train
Compete
Never Stop
Time
Performance
1
2
3
4
5
Sustained
Performance
Feedback
Day
Week
Race
performancehealth

Fitness
Health
are not owned,
they’re rented.
and rent is due
every day.
Agility
this also 
applies to
&

You others
Awareness skills
health performance
Experiments delivery
structure behaviors
It’s a Lifelong Journey!6.
enjoy the ride
before
before
before
before
before

Agile Leadership Models
None of these Leaders were 
the CEO, head of HR or “top dog”.
Yet each these Leaders enabled a 
culture of agility to thrive under them.

Leader
Organization
enable
action
Certified Agile Leadership (CAL)
AHA!

Certified Agile Leadership (CAL)
Farmington Hills, MI
Pete Ron Chet

Developing Leadership Agility: 6 Mistakes Leaders Make

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Ähnlich wie Developing Leadership Agility: 6 Mistakes Leaders Make

Ähnlich wie Developing Leadership Agility: 6 Mistakes Leaders Make (20)

Mehr von Pete Behrens

Mehr von Pete Behrens (7)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (18)

Developing Leadership Agility: 6 Mistakes Leaders Make