Challenges of Being a Servant Leader
We recently asked Agile Mentors Community members:
“When it comes to servant leadership (as a Scrum Master or manager) what is the single biggest challenge you are facing?”
One member said it’s challenging to be a servant leader because the product owner is also the team’s manager. Instead of going to the Scrum Master, the team goes to him for every challenge and impediment.
Mike Cohn commented that this combination on a team is almost always a challenge. He added that if the product owner/manager continues to be the go-to person for everything, nothing will change. Hopefully, Mike continued, the product owner can learn that part of his job is to help others do some of his managerial tasks so he can move to bigger challenges.
The ‘Brent’ on the Team
The community recently read The Phoenix Project for book club, which references having a ‘Brent’ on your team. A ‘Brent’ is the person where blockers start and end on a team. Since everyone is dependent on ‘Brent,’ removing blockers becomes a slow and painful process.
Several members in the community joked how they too have a ‘Brent’ on their team.
Servant Leadership Isn’t Understood
Another member commented that his biggest challenge with servant leadership is other people, both inside and outside the team, not understanding what it means. Sometimes people want a very directive leader, even though that’s not what they need.
Lack of an Agile Mindset
My challenge, a member from London added, is the lack of Agile mindset and understanding, especially outside of the development department. People don’t understand why it’s a better way to work. There’s a lack of initiative in our organization, and managers want to tell us what to do.
Letting the Team Fail
A member from Maryland added that sometimes the best way to develop people is to allow them to make mistakes.
He shared his coaching situation where the company vice president assigned product owners to features, not teams. He called out the problem, but the Vice President wouldn’t listen.
Fairly soon, he was proven right. As different teams took on different features, the product owner role was constantly changing from team to team. The teams were stuck in the forming stage, which negatively impacted performance.
The company learned a valuable lesson about the value of true agile teams. No presentation or workshop could have taught them this lesson as well as the pain they experienced. It was hard to watch, the member said, but they owned the lesson.
Is ‘Servant’ Serving Us Well?
A member was told by a client that the word ‘servant’ is negative and not to use it at the company.
In Mike Cohn’s Certified Scrum Master class, he explores the notion of ‘host leadership’ instead.
We explored the idea of host leadership in the discussion:
In this case, the leader is neither a hero nor a servant. They are a host, as in somebody who receives and entertains guests. As a host, we all have duties and responsibilities: from setting up a good environment for our guests to being part of the event together with them and helping them have a good time.
One member said he is not a fan of host leadership but has been known to change his mind.
Another member added she likes it better than servant leadership.
All of the members agreed that being a leader without authority, whatever you want to call it, is a tough job.
To join the conversation and to hear more comments from team members on the challenges of being a servant leader, join the Agile Mentors Community. Visit https://www.agilementors.com for more information on membership.