Leadership in Agile Environment

In all Scrum documents, you would have come across that one of Scrum Master’s main responsibilities is servant leadership. Let’s look at what is servant leadership and how you can use to become a more effective leader in agile environment.

What is servant leadership?

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership), servant leadership is both a leadership philosophy and set of leadership practices. Traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid.” By comparison, the servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Robert K. Greenleaf introduced the phrase “servant leadership” in 1970. In his essay, Greenleaf said that “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first… That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.”

Ten characteristics are believed to be the central of a servant leader:

How can the Scrum Master be the true servant leader?

• Facilitate daily scrum, and other meetings to know where the team is at and impediment items.
• Manage a team not by telling them what to do or force the team to follow the Scrum process. Instead of that, they work with team to explain the benefits and coach the team in agile best practices.
• Help the team to collaborate better
• Shield the team from diversions and distractions
• Recognize and encourage the efforts the team members
• Understand and willing to work with team members through their challenges.
• Help people to solve their problems and conflicts.