A lot has been said about agile leadership recently. While the idea behind agile processes began in the technology field, today the need for agile management and leadership is growing increasingly important and are being infused into many areas of the organisation to enable enhanced efficiency and future-readiness.
Today’s workers, work environment and economy are dynamic, ever-changing and fast-paced, and along with the rise of technology and automation in industry, leaders have understood the need to introduce more flexible processes that come from the Agile Manifesto itself, which was developed by a group of thought leaders and propounds:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Agile Leadership in HR
Traditional HR practices often focus on rules and processes and follow a stricter hierarchical structure, whereas agile HR practices are more flexible and fluid, and help to empower and engage employees.
An agile leader, therefore, needs to have an agile mindset, which can adapt, anticipate and evolve with changing scenarios. An agile leader also values people, interactions and feedback over processes; they acknowledge other people’s perspectives and help their team to grow professionally and personally. This, in turn, leads to better engagement, trust and stronger connections within the team.
It creates a work culture of continuous learning, growth, innovation, collaboration and ownership within the organisation.
Agile Leadership and Capability Development
Agile HR leadership is closely intertwined with capability development. The continuous evolution that comes with agile organisations means that employees are encouraged to learn, unlearn and relearn, and are equipped with future-ready skills.
Agile HR practices in capability development also help organisations to attract and retain top talent and reduce the time and costs associated with employee attrition and recruiting new talent.
Agile capability development strategies also help to build cross-functional teams that are highly engaged and can deliver faster results.
Agile Leadership in Employee Rewards, Recognition, Compensations and Feedback
It is well understood that rewards, recognitions and compensations help to create a motivated and engaged workforce. It is important for employees to feel valued for their work and contributions to the company.
With an agile approach, companies would have frequent evaluations and assessments of their payment structure and compensation instead of annual appraisals.
Regularly assessing salary structures, benefits, rewards and compensation packages can help organisations identify and reduce pay gaps and personalise compensation plans to attract and retain employees.
Also, as opposed to the traditional annual review, an agile approach encourages regular employee feedback to the organisation, as well as team-centric performance management. Agile performance management builds stronger teams where employees take ownership of their work. This continuous process of feedback also allows teams and employees to course-correct, learn and improve.
Agile Leadership is the Future
We are truly living in a VUCA world today. The needs of employees, particularly, millennial employees, are changing and are very different from those of the generations before. Today’s workers have different expectations from their work, careers and organisations; they seek to be more motivated and engaged with their work.
The pandemic has shown us exactly how volatile the world can be. Its impact on the market, businesses, jobs and employees has been manifold. Employee wellbeing during this crisis has also come into sharp focus as lives have been thrown into turmoil because of losses, professionally and personally. Companies today need leaders who are compassionate, flexible and people-centric.
As organisations shift to new modes of working and technology becomes more commonplace in charting out how we work, agile leadership is needed to navigate companies towards survival, sustainability and success.
