How to Become an Agile Leader

The advanced technology made things more turbulent in all industries in the world. These changes influence the government section as well. That is the reason why leaders have to evolve together with those changes. Becoming an agile leader in today’s world is challenging. However, it is also essential for the success of the entire organization.

These changes do not only affect the methods leaders use. They also influence the behavior and motivation of other team members. That is the reason why agile leadership is essential. The leaders need to find the best possible way to adapt to the necessary changes and take advantage of them.

4 Steps to Become a Successful Agile Leader

Unfortunately, not all people know how to do that properly. Becoming an agile leader is a process that contains a couple of stages. Because of that, all people need to know them. Let’s find them out together!

Improvement of Knowledge and Skills

Becoming good at what you are doing is not enough for someone to boost his agility. They need to work on their skill and knowledge all the time. As we said, changes are happening all the time, and they often unexpectedly occur. With a high level of knowledge and skills, leaders may manage to predict those changes even before they happen.

A good example of that is the Coronavirus pandemic. No one expected that countries across the world would lock down their borders. Only the most agile leaders that were familiar with the potential disaster knew how to react. They prepared themselves and their team for a new way of functioning.

Knowledge improvement is possible in several different ways. For instance, leaders in the government section can attend training sessions, visit educational websites, etc. On the other hand, learning from mistakes is also another way to boost their knowledge. More precisely, the mistakes they made in the past are the best possible lessons they could get.

There is one more reason why regular knowledge improvement is essential. Performing the innovations in the government section is challenging. More precisely, innovations do not often happen. Because of that, the agile leader will use every opportunity to bring something new to the organization. However, he also needs to be sure the innovations will bring positive results. Making a mistake, in that case, can be costly.

In the end, the leaders need to be aware of their weaknesses and find the best way to improve them. Every agile leader remains a “student” forever, and he is willing to improve his skills all the time because he knows he is not perfect. In that way, they won’t harm the effectiveness of the entire organization in any way.

Gregory Chapman, a  content manager at TrustMyPaper, says: “The “real”  student that does not know how to write essays would look for the best essay writing service to improve his writing skills. The same method should agile leaders use. They can find a mentor that will help them improve their weaknesses. The agile readers won’t hesitate to apply pieces of advice they receive from the more experienced and successful people. “

Using Facilitative and Directive Leadership

Directive leadership is the most visible and popular type of leading in the government and private sector. The leader, in that case, gives instructions on what employees should do and how they should complete the tasks. The employees do not get the chance to participate in the development process of the entire organization. Yet, just because directive leadership is popular, that doesn’t mean it is adequate for every situation.

Facilitative leadership gives more freedom to all the team members in the decision-making process. The hierarchy in the government sector will always exist. However, leaders need to allow workers to participate in different problem-solving processes. Because of that, the combination of these two types of leadership can boost their agility.

Additionally, that type of combination will make bureaucracy less present in the governmental section. That will positively affect the desire of the workers to complete their jobs successfully. Knowing how to motivate the workers is the characteristic of every agile leader.

Leaders Need to Be Open-Minded

Entrepreneurs establish a list of characteristics their new employers should have. However, things in the government sector are a bit different than that. The leaders do not always directly decide who will get hired for a particular job position. Because of that, the team members in the governmental section often have different mentalities, desires, expectations, etc.

The leaders that are not agile will use the same approach for all of the team members. For instance, they will try to motivate them in the same way. However, agile leaders will always use different approaches and types of communication to support a team member. They will understand the requirements and expectations other team members have. Despite that, they will also understand their differences. In that way, they will know which approach would encourage their subordinates’ desire to work and achieve goals.

The Plan B Has to Exist

As we said, things do not go in the same direction always. The main ability of the agile leader is to prepare himself for the potential issue. Frank Hamilton, a writer expert, offer to use a real-life example to make things clear.

Let’s imagine that you and your team need to complete a particular task for three days. However, in the meantime, you got the task to write some type of paper. The deadline for both tasks is the same. You won’t have time to complete both duties at once. However, you previously found websites that write papers for you. Because of that, you knew that you could complete both tasks on time even before the problem occurred.

Plan B needs to exist in every moment, even when everything looks simple. Sudden changes won’t be a problem in that case. The entire organization will continue to function normally.

Conclusion

These four tips will explain to people how to become agile leaders. The process of development does not end quickly. They need to be patient and use every opportunity to learn something new. The knowledge and experience will allow them to adapt to all the changes that happen inside and outside the organization.