Have you ever jumped into the deep end to only realise what you’ve done after the fact? This is what happened to me. I’d jumped from team based roles, to an executive role. And it felt like it happened overnight. The fortunate thing was that I’d been working with Agile teams for years where the values and principles of Agile have prepared me to be able to adapt to this new role. During this talk, I will share with you my journey, both the good and bad parts, and how Agile has helped me as a first time leader. We will look at some of the values and principles, tools and techniques that I’ve adapted to help me as a leader, and my hope is to help you as an Agile leader too.

1. Jumping in the deep end:
My journey as an Agile leader
Ryan McKergow - Group Manager (Queensland) - Elabor8

2. Where my journey began
!2

3. Where my journey took me to
(& took me home)
!3

4. What my role entails…
Vision, Mission & Strategy
Business Development,
Sales & Account
Management
Reporting
People Leadership &
Recruitment
Budgets, Revenue,
Utilisation, OPEX & Profit
Administration &
Marketing
!4

5. Management Leadership
Management vs Leadership
Organiser
Process
Direction
Plan
Rules
Vision
Integrity
Coach
Motivate
Trust
Respect
Influence
!5

6. What makes any
of this Agile?
!6

7. Manifesto for Agile Leadership
!7
We are uncovering beRer ways of leading people & organisaSons
by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
People over processes and tools
Delivering outcomes over comprehensive documentaSon
Customer collaboraFon over contract negoSaSon
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the leV more.

8. 1. Uncovering better ways of
leading people & organisations
!8

9. 9
Whether I’m at the office, at
home, or on the road, I
always have a stack of books
I’m looking forward to
reading.
Bill Gates

10. What’s my life hack for this?
!10

11. Daily reflections
I reflect on what was:
• What worked well
• What didn’t work well
• AcSons to improve
11

12. 2. People over processes and tools
!12

13. My inspiration for people over processes
!13

14. 14
We won't solve our problems
if we expect it to be solved by
a few supermen or
superwomen.
We need everybody.
Margaret Heffernan

15. Putting it into action > Team Social Contract
!15

16. Putting it into action > “Initiation”
!16

17. 3. Delivering outcomes
over comprehensive documentation
!17

18. Putting it into action > Team planning board
!18

19. Putting it into action > Community enablement
!19

20. 4. Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
!20

21. Without customers you wouldn’t be in business
!21

22. 5. Responding to change
over following a plan
!22

23. Have vision of where you’re going, but the path
will change along the way
!23

24. Summarising > Manifesto for Agile Leadership
!24
We are uncovering beRer ways of leading people & organisaSons
by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
People over processes and tools
Delivering outcomes over comprehensive documentaSon
Customer collaboraFon over contract negoSaSon
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the leV more.

25. Jumping in the deep end:
My journey as an Agile leader
Ryan McKergow - Group Manager (Queensland) - Elabor8