Zuzana Sochova - The Agile Leader: Leveraging the Power of Influence

In the last two decades, a powerful movement has revolutionized the world of work.

Agility is the idea that we can put people before processes, focus on creating value, work in self-organizing teams, and cooperate directly with our customers to iteratively build increasingly useful and valuable products. Various organizations have grown to support this movement, including the Scrum Alliance, which offers training on the agile mindset and best practices. The movement has grown so popular so quickly that agile is now recognized as a key requirement for managing the modern workplace

I was fortunate to get into agile and Scum in the early days. After completing my studies in computer science, I earned increasingly responsible roles. Becoming a manager of others opened my eyes to the reality of the modern work world and how agile could change everything, given proper leadership.

I became a sort of evangelist, introducing agile practices to companies, and a Scrum trainer organizing and speaking at conferences, eventually being elected to the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors.

How did a young woman with colorful hair from a little-known country in the center of Europe achieve this? Certainly not by luck or wishful thinking. Its been hard and often uncomfortable work, constantly questioning conventional wisdom, stretching and challenging myself and others.

Ive already written blogs, articles, and books about agile, including The Great ScrumMaster: #ScrumMasterWay, where I present my ideas and experiences with servant leadership and how to guide teams on their journey to agility.

In all this time, Ive increasingly been called an agile leader. And yet, Ive repeatedly had to ask myself, What does being a leader in agile really mean? Is it an oxymoron, when we are supposed to be self-organizing, to even seek leadership? Who is an agile leader, and what does an agile leader do?

Answering these questions eventually led to the creation of the Certified Agile Leadership program at the Scrum Alliance.

Over the years, Ive collected so much information about leadership, most of it common sense, some of it contradictory or counterintuitive, that it became obvious I had to write it all down and put it into some sort of order. The result is this book.

This book is not a collection of recipes that, if followed, can transform anyone, step by step, into an agile leader ready to change the world. Rather, you may consider this to be more like a tasting menu or buffet where you can sample the various concepts and principles of agile leadership, so you can build your own set of tools and skills that work for you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Your leadership style must suit your unique personality, circumstances, and constraints. This book aims to help you find the ideas that will guide you in your own personal journey.

So, feel free to skip around, browse this book, and take what works for you. Maybe when youre feeling stumped, or in a rut, needing a bit of inspiration, this book can help. Ive included exercises, assessments, examples, and real-world stories of agile transformation. Take what works for you, and feel free to skip over what doesnt.

In the end, leadership is about providing a shared vision and changing organizations and cultures to achieve this vision. You will find a wealth of ideas, techniques, and hopefully inspiration so that you know you are not alone in your agile leadership journey.

Zuzana (Zuzi) ochov

This book is intended for anyone who has the courage to challenge the status quo of traditional organizational design and become an agile leader.

Its for managers, directors, executives, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is willing to take over the responsibility and ownership and become a leader. Its for anyone who has a passion to change things and anyone who cares about improving the agility at the organizational level. Leadership is a state of the mind; you dont need to have any positional power to become an agile leader.