Leadership in Scrum: The Key Factor Behind Failures

Scrum Teams are self-managing. That sentence is sometimes misunderstood as “Scrum doesn’t need leadership”. Our experience in the field shows the opposite: in most places where Scrum gets stuck, the problem isn’t the team but the leadership behaviour around it.

What does leadership mean in Scrum?

The Scrum Guide describes the Scrum Master as a true leader who serves the Scrum Team and the organisation. This is leadership that creates the environment, not leadership that gives orders. But leadership doesn’t belong to the Scrum Master alone:

• The Product Owner leads by setting the product’s direction and being able to say “no”.
• Developers lead through their decisions about quality and how the work gets done.
• Managers lead by removing structural obstacles in the team’s way and clarifying goals.

This approach is often called servant leadership: a leader’s success is measured by their team’s success.

Why does leadership go missing?

• Unclear roles. In agile transformations the role of managers isn’t defined; some step back, others keep managing the team with old habits.
• Old measures. If managers are still judged on utilisation and individual performance, expecting team-oriented behaviour isn’t realistic.
• Fear of change. Letting go of control means dealing with uncertainty, which isn’t easy for most leaders.
• Lack of training. While teams get Scrum training, leaders are often left out of the process.

The effect on teams

• Decisions are made outside the team. Work changes mid-Sprint and the Sprint Goal loses its meaning.
• Impediments become permanent. Problems that can’t be solved at team level wait for months because no leader owns them.
• Motivation drops. Teams expected to manage themselves but forced to submit every decision for approval soon stop taking initiative.
• Scrum becomes a ritual. The events happen, but nothing changes.

Six areas leaders should develop in a Scrum environment

1. Transparency and open communication

Share goals, constraints and the reasons behind decisions openly. When the team knows the “why”, it finds the “how” itself.

2. Delegation

Make clear which decisions belong to the team and which to the leader. When delegation stays vague, teams either ask about everything or about nothing.

3. Removing impediments

Own and solve the structural problems the team can’t solve on its own: dependencies, approval processes, missing resources.

4. Managing with data

Understand the team with flow data, not personal impressions: delivery times, waiting work, how often Sprint Goals are met. You can’t manage what you can’t see.

5. Psychological safety

Create an environment where mistakes and bad news aren’t punished. Scrum’s values of openness and courage only grow in such an environment. See The Five Scrum Values for more.

6. Leading by example

Run your own work with agile principles too: make your priorities visible, ask for feedback, don’t be afraid to experiment.

Conclusion

Scrum gives teams a working framework, but leaders create the environment that fills it with meaning. A Scrum transformation without a change in leadership behaviour stays, at best, at team level.

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To plan an agile leadership workshop with your leadership team, have a look at our training and coaching. Related: The CEO and sponsor factor in agile transformation.