Agile to Agility Podcast Interview with Pete Behrens
Agile Leadership Journey™ Founder Pete Behrens was recently interviewed by Miljan Bajic on the Agile to Agility podcast. The two discussed a variety of topics around leadership in general and how Agile Leadership Journey™ came to fruition. Here’s a high-level overview of what was discussed in the episode.
Leadership is an act, not a title. It’s something that everybody does, regardless of if they are aware of it, and how can we all learn to do it better? Pete talked about building layers and increasing in depth in order to be more adaptive. A leader with only one tool — or one layer of depth — cannot be adaptable, simply because they don’t have an alternate tool to go to. “All they have is a hammer, so everything is a nail,” says Pete. Developing the layers is key to becoming an agile leader, but it’s not the first step.
Building awareness as the foundation of leadership development
Miljan pulled Pete into several deep topics right off the bat, including discussion of awareness as a leader. Understanding of self is vital to your success as a leader because leveraging what you know about yourself guides how you apply your various tools in a given situation.
Pete explained the origins of our Awareness Workshop and why he brings historical context into the way he teaches. “When we teach, we start with history first,” he states. The human brain is built for autonomy, but the way our systems are designed, it’s limited the psychological safety to challenge leadership. Most corporations today run on a Game of Thrones “technology” style of leadership — there are “kings” and “queens”, and everyone is driven by the prestige gained for their actions.
Agile leadership is not a new concept, even though it feels new. In reality, what we teach is a shift from the context that we have become accustomed to and going back to those days where autonomy ruled. Approaching leadership from the perspective of shifting mindsets, inspiring collaboration and co-creation, and catalyzing effective action.
Pete and Miljan also discussed how much bad leadership exists, not with any mal intent but simply a lack of awareness. Miljan points out that some people are suffering from decision-making and leaders don’t even know it.
Influencing organizational culture change
Shifting into cultural changes, Pete and Miljan talked in depth about behaviors and how those affect an overall organization. Every leader at every position has influence. It’s in these moments where culture really lives. This is where a leader shows up — it’s not about the values that are on posters hanging around the office, but how a leader chooses to influence small moments and decisions that are happening.
If behavior is a symptom of thinking, then awareness and mindset are the driving factors, Pete explains. A leader has the ability to completely shift the way business is conducted simply by being aware of their Power Style. A conversation that is started by “What do you think?” is vastly different than when the leader poses the question as, “Don’t you think?”
Organizations reflect what the leader is doing. A leader influences an overall spirit of competition, disengagement, innovation, etc. Any organizational changes that are attempted will fail if the leader isn’t on board or if they are behaving differently than what is trying to be cultivated.
The Agile Leadership Journey Guide Community
Pete and Miljan wrap the episode by talking about the evolution of our community and the launch of ALJ’s (Re)Learning Leadership podcast.
Although the model for ALJ’s programs started when Pete shifted his engineering background to helping leaders engineer their people systems, the community really came into being when Pete asked the question, “Can we get a shared group of people that are willing to bet on a shared model and who are okay to adapt that model through an empirical process?”
Together, we have focused on a way to scale mindset change and leadership values. We don’t teach agile. We teach leadership, shaping culture, and leading through change and complexity. We encourage exploration outside of systems and process development; outside of your bubble. By learning to ditch homogeneous thinking, we can develop leaders who build depth over time.
