What is the Focus of an Agile Leader?

Focus on Your Own Leadership

Our focus as leaders demonstrates our priorities. Our responses demonstrate our character. Our ability to act with purpose, and react with clarity is crucial to our ability to lead in disruptive environments. And while it may seem selfish to focus on ourself, organizations mirror their leaders.

If we want adaptive organizations, we need adaptive leaders.

The human experience is 1% about the events that happen and 99% about our reactions to those very events. How do you show up as a leader? How do you react to change, surprise, mistakes, failure, miscommunication, and feedback? Our character shows up in the micro-moments of challenges that happen every day.

Furthermore, Trust, respect, and value of the work and the people doing the work are all signaled through our focus and priorities, whether we intend it or not. Your priorities and focus signal importance to others on the work itself, the milestones and budgets toward meeting strategic goals, or on the people and relationships of those working toward those goals.

Agile leaders are aware of their thinking and behaviors,
and their impact on others around them.

There is no “right” focus profile for an agile leader, and no “best” way to respond to real-time events. However, knowing your focus profile, reaction biases and their impact on others is critical to your effectiveness as a leader. Further, your ability to adapt your focus situationally and catch your reactions in real-time is key to operating in more complex and rapidly changing environments.

Reflect on your leadership

Consider the time you spend doing work with your head down, leading others in doing the work, and coaching others to grow their competency at work. Identify where you feel stuck or too busy and look to shift your focus.

Consider your default behavior in meetings. Do you jump-in or stay back? Interrupt or patiently wait? Challenge others directly or roll your eyes? We all have biases and defaults. Identify and reflect on yours defaults.

Consider your reaction to surprises and how that impacts others.

Focus ON the Organization

An organization is both an entity itself and a conduit to providing value to others. Leadership stewards the organization itself, the value it provides, and the delivery mechanisms to provide it. Agile leadership recognizes that each of these require ongoing focus, feedback, learning and growth.

Agile leaders balance working “ON” the business with working “IN” the business.

An organization is made up of people. Leadership is the act of focusing, inspiring, aligning, and influencing others for shared purpose and outcomes. Agile leadership is able to focus, align and influence when the outside environments are complex, uncertain and changing rapidly. And while most of us developed expertise in something other than people, effective leadership requires (re)learning the human side of organizations and change.

Agile leaders situationally adjust their focus across the work, the projects and the people with a bias towards the people.

Agile leadership is leadership with a bias towards agility and change. And agility and change is hard for people and organizations. 

Reflect on where you direct focus

Evaluate the clarity and alignment of your organization’s direction, your awareness of where your organization is in relation to it AND your organization’s ability to quickly pivot when they are not aligned.

Consider the time your leadership team spends working “IN” the organization vs. “ON” the organization. Create intentional leadership team time to focus on the organization itself in how it is operating towards its stated vision and goals.

Focus Strategically, Act Tactically

Organizations require focus and alignment toward a goal. Agility is not directionless. Rather, agility is the ability to recognize that the direction headed may be wrong, the organization is off-track of that desired direction, or there are outside changes impacting their progress toward that direction.

“Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower. Leaders know the importance of planning. Agile leaders know the importance of throwing away the plan. Agility requires more planning and fewer plans and details in the plans. That means planning and replanning.

Agile leaders co-create clear, compelling direction with an ability to pivot when new information surfaces.

Our focal lens determines our effectiveness as a leader. Focus too near-term on urgent and responsive actions may demonstrate real-time care but also may leave people seasick in the waves of disruption. Focus too long-term on futuristic goals may inspire and motivate people but also may leave those people confused and frustrated.

Agile leaders balance vision, strategy and tactics to inspire, connect, engage and respond appropriately.

The ability to balance and shift your focus across three focal lenses: visionary, strategic and tactical (in that order!) are critical to your effectiveness as a leader. And while there is no “right” balance, the ability to scan and adjust your balance in real-time is critical.

Evaluate how your time is spent

Evaluate the time and energy your leadership teams spends on vision, strategy and tactics. How balanced is it? Where is your weakness? How effective is your leadership team at scanning the horizon to identify and respond to changes in our markets and other outside influences?

Consider how much time your leadership team spends planning, replanning, and following plans. How detailed are the plans you create? How much do they change, or should change? Are they at the right level of abstraction to avoid costly rework?

Focus on Learning

Agile leadership is a life-long practice and pursuit of discovery, learning and growth. Much like fitness and health, agile leadership is not an end-state, requires regular maintenance and discipline. Improve or atrophy. This requires focus and practice every day, every week, every month, and every year.

Agile leaders develop a muscle of learning and growth.

Consider the Catalyst (Re)Learning cycle

(Re)Focus: You, and your organizations, are a product of your focus. Clarify a focus and pivot / (re)focus as we learn new information to stay on a valuable course.

Resolve: More than intent, resolve is determination toward taking action on your focus. Intent feels over-accommodative. Resolve is more assertive toward action.

(Re)Act: Move toward your focus. Experiment. Try. Test. You must also react to surprises you didn’t plan for. Finding a healthy balance between action toward your focus (importance) and reaction on new information (urgent) is critical.

Reflect: Step back and evaluate your focus, resolve and (re)actions. What did you do well? What can you do better? What new focus areas need to be prioritized or de-prioritized? Further, take note and evaluate your previous reflective notes.