

Agile Leadership - a Mind set, not a Tool set
The current dynamics of developments affect all industries and companies. How can we adequately deal with such volatility? The “agile” approach is seen as an answer to this question. But what exactly is agile and what defines agile leadership?
In the search for the right answers, to meet all the constantly changing demands of our time, agility is touted as a management miracle cure. Managers, projects and entire organizations are now supposed to become agile. Many concepts for managing an organization have come and gone, but “Agile Leadership” not only seems to hold its ground, but even gain in popularity. What are the driving factors? Hasn’t the world always been a dynamic place with exogenous shocks, trend reversals and crises?
The VUCA world
A term from US military jargon summed up the challenges of our time — VUCA. No wonder, then, that this acronym quickly gained a foothold in the business world as well, because hardly any other term summarizes the current intensification of change so precisely and covers the continuously observable increase in intensity, acceleration and simultaneity.

As much as we like to simplify the situation through structures, models or technology and reduce the variables to a manageable level, the previous ratio alone is no longer sufficient to get a grip on the VUCA factors in an accelerated and condensed context. For quite some time now, it is no longer about intellectual mastery, but rather about adaptivity and, in this context, also about consciously dealing with the emotional manifestations of the VUCA era.
The ways to VUCA
- Executives and managers have to act differently in this world.
- In this new world you are challenged as living, authentic individuals and personalities.
- Roles such as guide, inspirer, host, care taker or enabler are increasingly coming to the fore.

What does agility mean in a corporate context?
To make an organization adaptable, previous patterns of thought and action must be scrutinized and adapted. This is where agility comes into play. But what does this term mean in connection with corporate management? Have a look here at selected definitions:
“Agility is the ability of an organization to act flexibly, proactively, adaptably and with initiative in times of change and uncertainty.”
(Onpulsion Wirtschaftslexikon)
“(…) an effective integration of response ability and knowledge management in order to rapidly, efficiently and accurately adapt to any unexpected (or unpredictable) change in both proactive and reactive business/customer needs and opportunities without compromising with the cost or the quality of the product/process.”
(Ganguly, Nilchiania & Farr, 2009)
Implementation of the quick and adaptive reaction to unforeseeable environmental changes described here requires a new management understanding. Rigid power structures, micromanagement and company processes that can be planned linearly must give way to new forms of cooperation.
Agile Manifesto (2001)
“We’re finding better ways to develop software by doing it ourselves and helping others do it. Through this activity we have learned to appreciate:
- Individuals and interactions more than processes and tools
- Functioning software more than comprehensive documentation
- Cooperation with the customer more than contract negotiations
- Responding to change more than following a plan
That means that, although we find the values on the right-hand side important, we value the ones on the left-hand side higher.”
While both sides of the inequations have absolute importance and relevance for a company, agile leadership attaches greater importance to the valueson the left in order to be able to survive successfully in the VUCA world.
It is already clear from this that the implementation of true agility and agile leadership is no walk in the park. Some of the larger corporations still find it difficult, even after many years, to understand agile leadership as a new mindset, a holistic approach. Unfortunately, such experiences cause the mere mention of an agile way of working to trigger feelings of resentment in some places.

Agility — an empty phrase?
Agility is a misunderstood term in many companies today. The approach is often reduced to the methodology. For example, “scrum” is equated with agility. Process changes are considered from the point of view of efficiency, whereas agile structures actually aim at increasing effectiveness.
Accordingly, agile leadership does not just mean demanding higher productivity from employees, but also enabling them to work self-responsibly, on their own authority. Confidence is the basis for agile cooperation. It is precisely that confidence in the creativity of employees that is necessary for the required shift in responsibility. A company can use the challenges of our time to grow organically in different dimensions. To this end, one must make room and create a scope for decision-making and action. An adaptive, fast and especially creative reaction is unlikely to come in a narrow, restrictive environment at the push of a button.
How can the transition to agile action succeed in a company? What are the requirements for leadership skills in an agile environment?

Agile leadership
Our brain shows us the best role model for truly agile leadership. It adapts to new circumstances in a flash and works cooperatively instead of competitively. The amygdala is not more important than the frontal lobe and it is not so much the number of nerve cells in an area that matters, but the way they are interconnected. Anyone who has ever trained athletic movement sequences knows how important the right neural connection is in order to trigger a quick reaction to a situation. The situations that will arise are impossible to predict. But we can train the connections. If a challenge then occurs spontaneously, the brain organizes itself flexibly and reacts individually to the situation at hand.
So certain qualities can create the right framework for agile behavior:
- Improved competence: This includes empowering employees to self-responsibly meet the challenges they face. This is mostly the result of long-term, proactive personnel development paired with a plausible and emotionally binding communication about the company’s strategic vision.
- Speed: A quick response, not just to market changes but also to employee concerns, as well as consistent, timely feedback are of critical importance.
- Flexibility: Openness to suggestions for change at all levels and processes. The basis for this is the permanent questioning of the status quo. This is how unconventional solutions become possible in the first place.
- Responsiveness: To be able to react quickly to identified changes, it is necessary to be able to act even in situations of uncertainty. Responsiveness is mostly the result of the previous qualities and requires trust, paired with the provision of necessary skills at all levels.
The manager also reinvents himself in this construct and makes adaptations to his own behavior. You have to learn to really meet the employees at eye level, to take them seriously and cultivate the relationship level. The keywords are more freedom of choice and more empowerment.
Leave the “top-down” point of view behind
Agile approaches such as experimentation, the development of prototypes, retrospectives or the “stand-up” meetings will fizzle out if the framework does not explicitly encourage independent and self-responsible work. Joint planning is as much a part of the agile repertoire as open communication and differentiated, mutual feedback.
Anyone who demands agility as a manager has to leave the “top-down” view behind and share necessary information without reservation, exemplify an open feedback culture and meet employees on an equal footing. This will help to create spaces for the development of creativity, the foundation for fast and adequate adaptation to constantly changing framework conditions. Trust, confidence and responsibility can find their way through the hierarchy and even transform it in the long run.
Agility as an internal transformation force
Current transformation projects such as agile leadership and New Work repeatedly emphasize the shift of responsibility, the trust in employees and open, bidirectional feedback. If all these things are implemented consistently, an organization can gradually develop in the direction of a sociocracy or a holocracy.
These organization forms are characterized by their consistent self-organization. The members of an organization develop shared responsibility for their company. A collective intelligence arises that can hold unimagined creative potential for finding solutions.
Dynamic steering and control replaces the previous approach of strategic planning. In the context of self-realization, the individual could merge into a collective “we” and hierarchical positions give way to a new understanding of roles. What sounds like a vision of the future is already a common practice in some pioneering companies and shows how the fear-based perfectionism of a rigid organizational structure can transform into a pragmatic, adaptive and indeed agile solution.
Self check:
- What do I consider the greatest advantage of agility?
- What is the “dark side” of agility?
- When did I already experience agility in my life?
- What does agility need so that it can grow?
- What or who is spoiling my agility?
- How much do I rely on trust and confidence with my employees, how much on control?
- How clear is it to me why I cannot (yet) trust my employees?
- How strongly do I cultivate an open culture with mutual feedback? Do I provide feedback more than once a year?
- How do I react to changes in my industry?
- How do I use the potential of my employees to find solutions, or am I the one giving the reaction to a problem?
- How honestly do I tolerate mistakes made by my employees and consider them as opportunities for their further development?
Bibliography:
Frederic Laloux
- Reinventing Organizations visuell: Ein illustrierter Leitfaden sinnstiftender Formen der Zusammenarbeit, Vahlen Verlag (December 15, 2016)
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