If you reflect on your education growing up, your tertiary and even your professional business training; how much of it truely addressed cultivating successful business outcomes from a wholistic leadership perspective? How much of the approaches taught was about driving success inclusive of valuing people?  I was intentionally taught teamwork as a team member. My business management leadership training was shaped from the perspective of “getting the most out of people.”Almost like how to squeeze the blood out of stones. Useful to a deliverable extent however most often not sustainable nor fulfilling in the long term.

This traditional approach limits the opportunities to create business operating systems that ‘calls people to contribute their best. ’As an agile business leader, you will create operating processes and cultural standards that are beacons for people to want to do their best for you, for the customer and ultimately the business. Still in todays rapidly changing business markets being a beacon for working better is not as free of struggle as we would like it to be, as we believe it should be. 

Those who choose to be an agile business leader and continue to do so successfully have personal drive, are admired by their peers and demonstrate productivity. You may know someone like this or have read about these successful business leaders and thought it looks so easy for them. The good news is that while experienced professionals make it look like magic, it can definitely be learnt. Think of an artist, musician or elite athlete you admire. Now consider how long have they been learning, training and exploring? Becoming an agile business leader is no different. To move from just aspiring to actively being an agile business leader you need to make a choice. Actually you need to make five;

1. Be Curious. 

Curiosity is the power of innovation, it’s what pulls us to tweak operating efficiency further, it fuels our courage to question the status quo in traditional business management and it’s the spark that connects us to bringing out the best in others. 

2. Do Learn. 

Learning is a verb.An active method for progressing. Without learning we don’t change, and without change we don’t progress our results. In fact the best Agile Business Leaders have ‘learning loops’ built into the way they operate daily. This makes ‘adapting’ or ‘improving’ as built in as the thought and movement to dance around puddles.

3. Know Values.

Stress merely represents the gap between the expectation of you and what you value. There will essentially be two steps to embodying agile values that will power up your leadership; one, value people and their contributions. Two, value the operating systems that govern people and determine their contributions. 

4. Have Grace. 

The distinguishing attitude of admired leaders is acknowledgement and humility. Acknowledgement that their impact represent the sum of all they lead. Humility of serving more significant outcomes than themselves; be that the customer, community or a legacy for others.

5. Practice Agile

The fundamentals that underpin being an agile business leader come from the agile values, principles and variety of practices available for you to choose from. Agile has become an all encompassing word to additionally include Lean, System Thinking, Lean Startup, Design Thinking and other modern day business practices. 

Are you an aspiring agile business leader? It’s time to choose. 

If you choose yes, then i’m here to help. When you’re ready join our tribe of mentees. :)

“The best way to change it is to do it.

And then after a while you become it, and it’s easy.”

Ursula Burns Chairwoman & CEO fo Xerox

Image Source: https://fortune.com/most-powerful-women/2014/ursula-burns/