Five oops Six mistakes leaders make

by Trail Ridge © 2005 - 2017
Developing Leadership Agility
Five Six Mistakes You’re Making as a Leader
Pete Behrens
@petebehrens
#SGSIN

Pete Behrens
CEC CST
Certified
Enterprise
Coach
Certified
Scrum
Trainer
Certified 
Agile 
Leadership
CAL
a few clients i work with
board of directors

first, a story…
Pete learns a valuable
lesson in how his kids
reflect his parenting
approach

first, a story…
How are YOU showing
up as a leader?

Mistake over-focus on others
You
Organization
is a reflection of you
obedient employees
Do The Agile!

Management’s Record…
?!
!
R. Hogan & Kaiser, 2005 
What we know about leadership. 
Review of General Psychology
70% SAY THEIR MANAGER
IS THE MOST STRESSFUL
PART OF THEIR JOB.

ReFocus on YOU!
“Unless leaders do 
their own development 
they are unlikely to create 
business transformation.” 
- Robert Anderson 
in Mastering Leadership

Lars’ Story…
While little has changed in the
way research is conducted.
Lars is taking it personally 
and experimenting on himself.
Global Research
Director

Taking Ownership…
This is a 
mindset shift!
Lars offers, AND JOINS
agile training every year -
for 5 years!
inviting leaders and
engaging different
stakeholders each year

Experiments on Himself
Paired-Leadership
Mission-oriented Me-staffing

Co-creating with others
Flash-Swarm Experiments

Results…
Lars models a safe-to-
experiment culture where
researchers not only
experiment on research,
they experiment in HOW
they conduct research!
Global Research
Director
Employee engagement
Customer satisfaction
New contracts signed
results…
I’m
experimenting
on me too!

Refocus for Agile Leaders
You othersbefore

Mistake over-focus on delivery
PACE OF
CHANGE
TECHNOLOGY
Automation
and
G
L
O
BA L I Z A T
IO
N

Grace’s story…
Her and her POs conduct Sprint 
Reviews with key “Stakeholders”
Business Operations
Leader

Experiments with more stakeholders
Feeling
uncomfortable
she opened
the review up
to more real
users…
…and learned a
great deal…

Checking Assumptions
& Pivot
Experiment
Stakeholder experiments enable Grace 
to pivot months before key milestones.
Sep 1 Sep 15 Oct 1
Oct 15
Nov 1
Nov 15 Dec 1

change in focus…
Widget Factory
Design Factory

change in focus…
Spotify
Music Service
Happy
Customers!
Mission
Control
Co-Create

change in focus…
EMERGE
CO-
CREATION
AND IT
ERAT
I
ON
THROUGH

Engaging stakeholders
Now Grace
connects and
engages users
every chance
she gets.

Engaging stakeholders
Example co-creative engagement with stakeholders

You others
Experiments Delivery
before
before

My “AHA” Journey
Pete learns a
valuable lesson
regarding his
lack of awareness
in his thinking and
leadership with
his spouse, Jana

the expert
Solves problems
Gets work done!
Knows best
Nobody does it better

Mistake over-focus on skills
?!
!
2016 Penna Survey as reported at
http://www.rpx2.com/self-awareness-performance-management
80%
Only 25% of 
employees agree
80% of Managers 
believe they are 
supportive of employees
25%

Self-Awareness is the key
AHA!
Maybe it’s me
Fixing this does not
require skill acquisition.
It requires self
enlightenment !

My Leadership Journey
the achiever
Aligns resources
Drives productivity
“Facilitates” others
Nobody leads better

Awareness is the starting point
AWARENESS precedes CHOICE
?
CHOICE precedes CHANGE
AHA!

Rachel’s story…
Financial Portfolio
Director
Rachel was seeking to improve
her leadership effectiveness.
She chose
to conduct
a 360° view
of herself

Balancing Power Style
Accommodate Assert
Ask
Wait
Listen
Tell
Do
Share

Balancing Power Style
Accommodate Assert
Ask
Wait
Listen
Tell
Do
Share
she is over-
accommodative
Self-Awareness is the meta-skill

Awareness precedes Choice
?
default
new
plan
do
reflect
Developing
Catalyst Habits

You others
Awareness skills
before
before
before

Mistake over-focus on behavior
Don’t be a January Person
January February
73%
of people with
fitness goals
give them up
bodybuilding.com 
in November 2012

Satty’s Story…
Managing Director
With a financial crisis in force,
Satty faced tough decisions

Traditional structures
Like many
organizations,
they separated
development &
support.
SupportArchitecture
USA India

Radical Re-structuring
3-Month experiment -
break down silos to
address systemic
behaviors.
USA India
Support 2.0
Created hyper-collaborative
x-functional, x-location teams

Focused empowered teams
Business
Analysts
project
managers
Software
Developers
systems
testers
scrum team
Professional
Development
Leader
Eliminated job titles to
drive self-organized
teams to solve problems.

Agile results…
Year 0 1 2 3 4 5
$12M
$3M
Reduced costs
Teams 1/2 the size
outperformed former
Quality & Stakeholder
Satisfaction raised
Organizational adaptability
& resiliency developed
Employee Engagement
improved

Ongoing success… Created a Digital Labs
Service to partner with
clients and guide agility.
Profits
CostsManaging Director

Change Behaviors with Structure
PROCESS
STRUCTURE
CULTURE
If you seek
behavior
change,
change the
organization
structures.
Culture 
follows
Structure

You others
Awareness skills
structure behaviors
before
before
before
before

Catalyst
co-create & iterate
self-aware & experiment
create agile cultures
enable & engage teams

Mistake over-focus on performance
Employee Engagement
performance
20
40
60
80
100
More
Faster
Cheaper
Customer Alignment
Do The Agile!Let’s BE agile!Do The Agile!
health+
Organization resiliency
Quality Products

Organizations focusing on
performance + health are
3-times more successful
than those focusing on
performance alone.
Performance + Health

performance resilience
1980
Companies
1990 2000 2010 2020
10
20
30
40
Tom Peters
Jim Collins
In search of
Excellence
Built to Last
By 2006
Only 30%
Still High
Performing

PROCESS
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
Performance Focus is short-term
TIME
Leadership
Do The Agile!
OUTSIDE-IN
AGILITY
LIMITED
AGILITY
Scrum exposes
impediments
often deeply
rooted within the
organization and
difficult to
address - limiting
agile maturity.

agile performance impediments…
Culture at odds
with agile values
Organizational
resistance 
to change
Management’s
Fear of the 
loss of control
PROCESS
CULTURE
STRUCTURE
38%
42%
46%
Version One State of Agility
10th Annual Report 2016
The most common
impediments to
organizational
agility relate to
organizational
health.

Health Focus is long-term
TIME
OUTSIDE-IN
AGILITY
PROCESS
STRUCTURE
SUSTAIN
&
GROW
AGILITY
CULTURE
IN
SIDE-O
U
T
By aligning agile to
the culture and
building structures
to support agility,
organizations can
sustain and grow
agility and improve
long-term results.

Chris’ Story…
Senior VP
Engineering
ValueDelivery
2000 2005 2010 2015
Be the Best
in class
Be
the
Best at Agile…
to
be
the
Best in
class
2006
CRASH!

Competitive Teams win!
#1#2 #3
May Jun Jul Aug
compete 
showcase! ship!compete 
showcase!
compete 
showcase!

Competitive Teams win!
#1
49%
having the “best
time” or a “good
time” at work
pre-agile
89%
post-agile

Thriving with Agility
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
800%
600%
400%
200%
Market
Leader
Since transitioning to Agile, they 
outpaced all other competitors

You others
Awareness skills
health performance
Experiments delivery
structure behaviors
before
before
before
before
before

Mistake over-focus on the destination
Join me in the
closing keynote
to get the rest 
of this story…

Agile Leadership Models
None of these Leaders were 
the CEO, head of HR or “top dog”.
Yet each these Leaders enabled a 
culture of agility to thrive under them.

Leader
Organization
enable
action
Certified Agile
Leadership (CAL)
AHA!

Fitness
Health
are not owned,
they’re rented.
and rent is due
every day.
Agility
this also 
applies to
&

You others
Awareness skills
health performance
Experiments delivery
structure behaviors
It’s a Lifelong Journey!6.
enjoy the ride
before
before
before
before
before

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