Updated on December 11, 2020 with information on Artisan Agility’s new leadership training program called “The Leadership Edge“
See all of the blog posts in our Leadership Failures series here.
When a business begins the transformation to Agile Development, it’s really hard to understand exactly what skills the organization needs to adapt to the new way of working. Unfortunately, many businesses assume that they are ready to go once they incorporate a basic understanding of the Agile framework they want to use.
Then they quickly learn that isn’t the case.
Speak with any Agile coach and you’ll discover a litany of skills unusual to most IT organizations including servant leadership, coaching, facilitation, and negotiation skills in addition to the more expected programming and testing skills.
A transformation to Agile Development is going to require a list of new skills that you are not only going to have to acquire to get the transformation started, but you’re also going to have to figure out how to:
- Continue the skill growth after the initial “burst” of training.
- Train new employees that join the organization after the transformation has begun.
- Modify your hiring approach to zero in on candidates that possess the fundamental personality traits that make them easier to train.
So, what kind of skills are we talking about and where can you get them?
- Agile Development and Scrum Fundamentals
- Detailed understanding of Scrum
- Coaching skills – we recommend Coaching Agile Teams as well as the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster class
- Facilitation skills – we recommend The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making as well as the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster class
- Writing, Sizing, and Slicing User Stories – we recommend Artisan Agility’s Amazing Stories! training program, Mike Cohn’s User Stories Applied and Agile Estimating and Planning
- Agile Software Development – we recommend going to the masters: Jim Shore and his book The Art of Agile Development and Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin’s Clean Code and The Clean Coder
- Agile Testing – we recommend Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams
- Scaling – we recommend (mostly because we were doing stuff like this at Siemens a long, long time before scaling frameworks were a figment in anyone’s imagination) Large Scale Scrum: More with LeSS
- Project Management – we recommend Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver
- Leadership – we recommend Artisan Agility’s “The Leadership Edge” training system (more below).
Artisan Agility’s The Leadership Edge Training System
We are in the midst of a silent crisis. Leadership skills have deteriorated such as most businesses are building 21st century products with 19th century leadership skills. Business agility has introduced a new and exciting element into the organization: the self-managing team.
A 21st century leader needs to know how to
- Use emotional intelligence to lead employees
- Create a psychologically safe environment
- Staff teams of high-producing, A-players
- Motivate teams to high performance
- Empower teams to autonomous operation
- Elevate teams to continuous learning
- Connect vision and purpose to daily decisions
- Define and activate a team “operating system”
- Use emotional regulation to remain calm, even in stressful situations
- Synergize day-to-day operations with the world around her
Do you have these skills? Are you creating high-producing, high-performing, autonomous self-managing teams? Can you spend half of your day with your teams and still stay on top of your priorities?
No? Then join us in Artisan’s “The Leadership Edge” training system. Twelve core modules will teach you the 21st century skills you need. Each module contains a video lesson, a quiz to check your learning, student workbooks for your notes, and practical assignments where you will immediately use the skills you are being taught.
For more information, including easy payment terms and our money-back guarantee, click here. As our way of saying thank you we’ll also give you a discount code worth $200 off the purchase price (click here to learn more).
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