In large companies, the way in which success will be measured is often precisely defined. Why? Well, the answer is very simple, employees will receive a salary and defined bonuses, if any according to success and performance at work.
The business environment in which companies now operate is changing very rapidly. Some goal or metric for achieving it can become completely irrelevant in less than a year and thus can lead to confusion for leaders or team members themselves. Also, just such an uncertain business environment deserves to have goals and metrics defined differently. Very often, the goal may be customer satisfaction rather than the number of units sold. Companies with an agile business setting put the user at the center, and all they do is ask themselves what value they give to the user by their actions. Such questions cannot be answered by the simple metrics described at the beginning. The number of installed applications or the number of shoes sold cannot give us an answer as to how satisfied our user is and whether he is getting the value he expected.
In such an environment, an agile leader uses primarily his skills such as reflection, curiosity, responsibility and an unconditionally positive attitude to respond to business conditions that are different than they were until recently. In an agile environment, the “Definition of Done” parameter is often mentioned. The team comes to this definition together at sprint planning or at a similar agile “ceremony”, ie a meeting. This parameter tells us that the team is satisfied with the product it has reached with its work and that it can be further “distributed” to the market or the user for whom the product is intended. What the agile leader knows is that the definition of “finished” is almost certainly not the definition of success. This is the key thing if a leader wants to focus on real success. When planning, he additionally elaborates with his team what success is for the team. What happens to the finished product so it works? What does that success look like? Who is responsible for that success? What brings customer and company satisfaction to their product or service? All of these questions are what makes a distinction between a traditional and an agile leader.
The traditional leader with his skills and leadership skills is what enabled the team to reach desired results and brought a certain number of things to the company. The company verified and rewarded it. An agile leader often sees goal after goal. He discusses with the team the value they create for the client and how they all together help the company to really focus on the customer.
For an agile leader, to simply focus on real success is not enough for him and his team to discuss the value they create for the user. It is necessary for the company to understand and support this way of thinking, but also to initiate it if necessary.
