Ever feel like you and your team are stretched across multiple demands or that the goal posts change constantly? Never before have businesses felt so acutely this constant need to adapt, pivot and change tack. This book will teach you how you can not only survive in the context of digital transformation, but also thrive and grow, by adopting a powerful agile leadership model. This new and revised edition of The Agile Leader lays out clearly in eight steps how agile leaders empower their team to make decision quickly, evaluate correctly where the biggest opportunities are and mould their strategies around market dynamics and ever-changing needs. If there's one leadership skill that successful businesses have in spades, it's the ability to enable teams to adapt and grow within complex eco-systems of clients, partners and suppliers. By focusing on teamwork and collaboration, as well as promoting shared decision making and ruthless prioritizing, leaders can transform the way they work as well as how their teams function to make them more malleable. Simon Hayward is an agile leadership expert. In this new edition of this successful book, he distills years of leadership and agile research into an actionable 8 step plan, brought to life with examples of agile digital businesses. Learn how to become agile and make digital transformation and delivery part of your business as usual.

Hone Your Agile Leadership Skills to Help Your Organization Transform and Thrive To leverage the immense opportunities associated with accelerating change, organizations need teams capable of trying new ideas quickly, learning from their experiences, and adapting based on that learning. Helping these teams to grow and thrive requires agile leaders who support, inspire, and encourage, and who can leave behind the management skills of directing, monitoring, and rewarding or punishing. The Professional Agile Leader is a realistic, practical guide, written by experienced agile leaders who share their collective experiences in helping agile leaders to grow responsive and adaptive teams. They structure powerful lessons around a case study based on decades of experience helping agile leaders achieve and sustain agile transformation. Best of all, they never settle for high-level hand-waving--they show you how it's really done. Reignite once-successful organizations that have lost their way Form cross-functional teams and empower them with purpose Learn to let go, as your teams start taking more responsibility Overcome forces that want to reel you back into the "old rules" Realign the whole organization, since agile and traditional models can't coexist forever Achieve the most challenging goal of all: changing culture Great agile leaders aren't born that way--they're regular people who care deeply about helping others achieve shared goals and have discovered a better way to lead. Whatever your role in the organization, this guide will help you master those skills and mindsets a whole lot faster. "Drawing on vast experience, Ron, Kurt, and Laurens tease out practical tips and patterns for good leadership [and show] how a leader can help shape the environment for agile teams to succeed. . . . The narrative style of the book makes it easy to read, and I am sure there will be many times that you see yourself in it." --From the Foreword by Dave West, CEO and Product Owner, Scrum.org Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Practical, Proven Tools for Leading and Empowering High-Performing Agile Teams A leader is like a farmer, who doesn’t grow crops by pulling them but instead creates the perfect environment for the crops to grow and thrive. If you lead in organizations that have adopted agile methods, you know it’s crucial to create the right environment for your agile teams. Traditional tools such as Gantt charts, detailed plans, and internal KPIs aren’t adequate for complex and fast-changing markets, but merely trusting employees and teams to self-manage is insufficient as well. In Agile Leadership Toolkit, longtime agile leader Peter Koning provides a practical and invaluable steering wheel for agile leaders and their teams. Drawing on his extensive experience helping leaders drive more value from agile, Koning offers a comprehensive toolkit for continuously improving your environment, including structures, metrics, meeting techniques, and governance for creating thriving teams that build disruptive products and services. Koning thoughtfully explains how to lead agile teams at large scale and how team members fit into both the team and the wider organization. Architect environments that help teams learn, grow, and flourish for the long term Get timely feedback everyone can use to improve Co-create goals focused on the customer, not the internal organization Help teams brainstorm and visualize the value of their work to the customer Facilitate team ownership and accelerate team learning Support culture change, and design healthier team habits Make bigger changes faster This actionable guide is for leaders at all levels—whether you’re supervising your first agile team, responsible for multiple teams, or lead the entire company. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

This new volume explores the new paradigm that is Industry 4.0—the application of information-intensive technologies that integrate software, hardware, and biology (cyber-physical systems) for effective manufacturing and related industries. This volume focuses specifically on leadership that can respond quickly and effectively to changing conditions in the Industry 4.0 environment. It looks at leadership skills needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, skills that can be applied to many other changing conditions as well. The authors consider the role of virtual leadership in an age of working from home; present case studies that provide valuable lessons for the agile leader; and examine the crucial role of human resources in providing agile leadership to an organization. The volume aggregates original theoretical, conceptual, and empirical research on challenges and opportunities in the context on Industry 4.0.

Architecting and Orchestrating Agile focuses not only on the day to day agile activities and people interaction, but also focuses on the designing aspects of Agile. And it starts with Program and Portfolio stakeholders alignment of strategic themes, driving clarity with business and architectural Epics and how that fits down to program and team level tactical planning. The leadership must make sure that the technology team understands the business value of a product feature and do anything possible to keep the development cost down. And at the same time, the business and product owners should understand the technology that help them to function better and solve business problems effectively. This emergence is a true gain for an agile organization. So the big question is whether the IT governance in your agile organization is creating desirable IT behavior and helping address your opportunities. In order to make governance effective, it needs to be designed correctly. Transparency, information sharing, communications and performance measurements are some of the key components to establishing governance that ensures business and IT have synergies.

Are you a manager in an agile context and does your team work according to the Scrum framework? Scrum.org, as one of the largest international certifiers, has presented the Professional Agile Leadership (TM) (PAL E) certification, an approach that addresses the challenges and tasks of agile leadership in the context of Scrum. This approach is presented by the author, himself a consultant and trainer in this field for many years. The structure of the book is based on the topics covered in the exam. However, the book attaches great importance not only to pure exam preparation, but to focus on the feasibility in everyday life. This book is NOT an official textbook of Scrum.org - Professional Agile Leadership (TM) (PAL E) is a registered trademark of the named organization. It has been updated and adapted based on the statements of the Scrum Guide V. 2020.

Navigating the New Era: Mastering Agile Leadership for Today's Business World In the rapidly evolving business landscape, agility is not just an option; it's a necessity. "Mastering Agile Leadership for Today's Business World" by Cordy S. Wilson is a vital guide for modern leaders facing the challenges of the VUCA world — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This book is an essential resource for understanding and mastering agile leadership, a style that prioritizes adaptability, innovation, and responsiveness. Wilson's insightful work delves deep into the transformation from traditional hierarchical structures to a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and continuous improvement. It emphasizes the critical role of agile leadership in fostering environments where creativity flourishes and employees are motivated to take ownership and responsibility. The book highlights the profound impact of this shift on employee satisfaction, productivity, and the organization's ability to respond to rapidly changing market conditions. This comprehensive guide serves as both an instructional manual and a wake-up call, addressing the necessity of digital transformation and the human element in the agile equation. It outlines practical strategies for navigating the complexities of modern business, enhancing competitiveness, and fostering a positive corporate culture. For leaders looking to thrive in today's dynamic business environment, "Successful Employee Management in the Agile Age" is an indispensable tool. It equips you with the mindset and techniques to transform challenges into opportunities and lead your organization to new heights of success.

The Cynefin framework is used to provide a compass for decision makers and business experts to better assess a situation or problem and derive appropriate actions from this assessment. An important aspect is the choice of the right method or framework. The author, a successful project manager for several decades, relates the findings of the Cynefin framework to the introduction and implementation of agile methods such as Scrum and Kanban. He points out that not every method fits every task to the same extent and that it makes sense to choose the right approaches - instead of using a general standard that always fits halfway. As a basis for a suitable decision, he offers an introduction to agility and the importance of agile working for companies and organizations. It enables managers to use effective approaches and thus to implement successful and low-risk projects.

This volume outlines emerging issues for research and practice related to agile coping dynamics in the digital era. Chapters in this book report on current research on the key constructs and processes underlying coping dynamics in multi-disciplinary domains and across the life-span. Chapters compare current research trends in terms of future potential directions for research on coping dynamics in the digital era. The book also critically evaluates the relevance, applicability and utility of the research findings and theoretical premises in various classical, current and potential emerging issues for research and practice in the smart digital technological world of work for employee across their careers. Among the topics discussed: The digital era: contextual issues and coping Issues for organizational practice Issues for individuals Coping within the employability context Agile Coping in the Digital Era provides theoretical premises and research perspectives, while also evaluating the practical utility of theory and research ideas for management and employee practices in Industry 4.0 organizational contexts.