Oftentimes in Agile, we speak for the need of Change Agents to be Servant-Leaders. When we refer to a Change Agent, the Change Agent can perhaps be a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Architect, and/or Executive. When we speak to Servant Leadership, it is first best to give a history of the overall idea.
Servant Leadership was first created by Robert Greenleaf. Robert Greenleaf is viewed as the founder of the Servant Leadership Movement. Servant Leadership essentially implies that the goal of a leader is to serve. A servant leader serves first, shares power, and places the needs of the team beyond that of his or her personal ideals. The Servant-Leader helps people and the Agile Team perform as highly as possible. Servant Leadership goes against traditional norms of leadership whereby the focus of the leader has traditionally meant empowering the company while unfortunately overlooking the contributions of workers of that company that are essential for value and the business outcomes of the company being achieved. Servant Leadership goes against traditional (Waterfall) management ideology whereby the Manager manages the Team and under traditional “command and control” norms tells the team what to do. By acting as a Servant-Leader, the Scrum Master shows a sense of empathy towards others and seeks to support the team by allowing the team, itself, to self-organize and deduce the solutions that are best fit for the team to be empowered.
Throughout the annals of history, we have seen countless examples of Servant Leadership whereby Leaders have placed the interest of others beyond that of themselves.
Jesus of Nazareth (Born: 4 BC; Died: AD 30-33 )
[Whomever]…wants to become great among you,..[you] must…[first serve]. And whomever wants to be first,…must be..[servant]…of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life…[for the]…many.
Mark 10:43-45
Mahatma Gandhi (Born: October 2, 1869; Died: January 30, 1948)
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” -Mahatma Gandhi-
As we conceptualize Servant Leadership, we can all be better Servant Leaders by focusing on several characteristics. They include:
Active Listening;
Humility;
Empathy;
& Stewardship.
The SAFe framework advocates that a new form of Leadership needs to emerge and be embraced by Leaders to support execution of Agile Teams. This form of Leadership should be one whereby the individualistic goals that we individually uphold should not be ones that supersede the goals of the Team that we are ultimately here to serve. Only by embracing this new way of working can we systemically improve as a company and as an organization; Thus, only when we do this can we ultimately “serve” and true value be achieved whereby the business outcomes of the Enterprise that we ultimately work toward then become obtainable.
