Why is Agile Leadership Training So Popular and So Effective?

“In an agile project, the team take care of the tasks, and the leader takes care of the team” – Jim Highsmith

The Oxford Management Centre’s Agile Leadership course, which run from Dubai to London, and Vienna to New York continue to be among our most in demand and consistently highly rated training course– and their popularity and success is not just a reflection of our content, but the demand and interest across industries. So, what do we mean by agile leadership training? Is it just a management fad or jargon? Or does the evidence in fact suggest that agile leadership, can be the driver of genuine positive change in organisations, and people? In this article, we explore the background to agile leadership, why it is so popular and how the Oxford Management Centre’s training courses support its adoption in organisations.

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What Is Agile Leadership?

Agile leadership has gained remarkable traction and note in recent years, as organisations seek to navigate their path to success in a volatile era, defined by rapid technological advancements, market changes, and shifting consumer expectations. Whilst agile work methods were historically associated with Lean philosophies of Japanese automotive industries, and US software development practices in the 1990’s – the ideas and philosophy has now been applied across industries and across business departments. And its influence and popularity drives a need for more training and education in agile methods.

Historically, the influence and popularity of Japanese ‘Lean’ management from the 1960’s had a strong impact on the growth of agile thinking in business. Famously pioneered by Toyota in the 1950s, Lean focuses all managers across the organisation to eliminate waste (time, money, people), improve quality, and aim to create value by optimising workflows. The foundations of lean include practical management tools and ideas such as Kaizen (continuous improvement), Just-in-Time production, and Jidoka (automation with a human touch), and project tools such as Kanban. The lean approach encourages employees at all levels to identify inefficiencies and suggest solutions, promoting a culture of continuous learning and problem-solving and not rely on layers of people to make all decisions. Agile, is philosophically, culturally and systematically, strongly associated with these lean principles, firstly being applied in software development, and then extending across industries and professions.

Management theorists have consistently encouraged organisations to become more efficient, more innovative and more able to adapt and change and this has seen the demand for a more agile leadership style. For example, Peter Drucker, often considered the father of modern management by objectives, advised leaders to decentralise decision-making and “manage for change”. Later, John Kotter, laid the groundwork for agile leadership through his research on change management and he suggested organisations must build agility into their management processes, to survive  inevitable social, economic, and technological disruptions. Jim Highsmith, the co-author of the Agile Manifesto in 2001 pioneered the application of agile principles to leadership and he emphasises the importance of leaders fostering an environment where personal learning, innovation, and responsiveness are prioritised over rigid management structures and controls.

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Agile Successes And Popularity

It is estimated that over 71% of US companies now use agile methods (TechReport, 2023) and Forbes reported in 2024 that the world’s leading companies all use agile methods. Technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Spotify have all incorporated agile leadership principles into their cultural DNA, to grow their competitive edge and drive innovation. In financial services, ING Group, the major Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation, is often cited as a case study in agile transformation. ING purposefully restructured its leadership approach, moving away from hierarchical silos towards autonomous squads and tribes that allow for faster decision-making and product development. And, it is no surprise that manufacturing and automotive leaders, such as Bosch and Toyota, have also integrated agile leadership fully  into their operations. Harvard Business Review reported the dominance of agile methods and that in almost all cases, organisations see better results. As they report; “Agile teams work differently from chain-of-command bureaucracies. They are largely self-governing: Senior leaders tell team members where to innovate but not how.” (Harvard Business Review, May-June, 2018)

How Do You Recognise An Agile Leader?

As always in management and leadership, we are often led back to the famous maxim of the social psychologist Carl Jung who said; ‘we are what we do, not what we say we do’. Our personal behaviour, how we react to challenges, how we deal with people, is the real test of our leadership  – and an agile leader is distinguished by a few key behaviours.

Firstly, agile leaders are adaptable. They are comfortable with uncertainty and can pivot their strategies in response to emerging challenges and opportunities and they understand that processes need to evolve. Agile leaders understand quality and objectives, but they seek to avoid overbearing bureaucracy and repetitive administration, that does not add real value but instead stagnates debate, improvements and change.

Secondly, agile leaders focus on the value of collaboration. They encourage open communication and inclusive decision-making processes that harness the collective intelligence of their teams and networks of partners, suppliers and customers, in and outside of the organisation. Knowledge and connecting the right people is more important to creating value, than hierarchies and titles. Thirdly, an agile leader demonstrates empowerment, creating project environments where employees feel trusted to take initiative and experiment without fear of failure. Finally, agile leadership is rooted in continuous learning, that positive growth mindset, where teams and leaders embrace feedback and view mistakes and tests as opportunities for growth. There is an underlying belief that trying new things will mean not everything will work perfectly all the time, but through ideas, testing, learning and adapting, we end up enabling our team to make systematic improvements and drive their success.

Therefore, training in agile leadership is not simply a set of steps to learn and qualify in, it involves the encouragement of a mindset and attitude, that will continue to grow and adopt more agile methods and ways of working, over time. And all agile methods are tailored by leaders to their own organisations, and what works in one context, may not work in others.

Agile Leadership Training With Oxford Management Centre

Agile leadership skills and attitudes have therefore become increasingly in demand, both valued by organisations and providing a great additional boost to any professional career. The Agile Leadership course, is a five day programme that has consistently delivered the opportunity for ambitious managers to gain the knowledge and practical skills to enable them to make a difference when they return to the office.

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Using a mixture of learning modalities, from formal seminars that introduce key tools and methods, discussions, videos to table discussions, exercises and case studies, delegates on this course are always encouraged to engage in executive leadership conversation, to explore their thinking and application in context. Directors, senior managers, project leaders and professionals, gain the most through sharing their own insights into building agile ways of working – and discussing the behaviours and changes they can make, and where not.

The course explores key elements of agile leadership, from the strategic context (the need for change and agile ways of working) to the personal (leading with emotional intelligence, building trust and communicating clearly with teams). Practical ways to adopt agile methods of performance management, project development and team development are explained, and the importance of relationships, networks and collaborative practices is discussed as both a matter of business planning – but also personal influence. Throughout the course, there is an understanding that good understanding of theory leads to good practice, and likewise that as we practice, we better understand the theories. The course introduces strategic models and ideas that will enable confidence in high level executive discussions on change and strategy, long in the future, along with  the sharing of every day practical tools, methods and management techniques that can be applied, as soon as the delegate returns to the office. By training in agile leadership, delegates in this course will be able to contribute to the encouragement of a more efficient, faster moving and dynamic organisation.

And finally, it is worth noting that not only are agile environments and methods seen in the most successful global organisations, but they are consistently reported (Information Week 2016, McKinsey 2019) – as being staffed with happier people too.

And more happiness in our work, has to be a good thing.