The path towards true leadership
The readers going through this piece more or less know the definition of a Scrum Master.
Co-Creators Ken & Jeff, in their Scrum Guide 2020, having introduced exclusively the framework for Scrum, have put it as:
“Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organisation.”
The article’s objective is introducing the shift in the mindset or attitude. This is a pre-requisite to become a genuine leader, as far as my experience goes.
Currently, major tension managed by the Scrum Masters can be said to be the tension between a specific purpose, and associated safety. It has a couple of interpretations:
- In what way I can render my Scrum Teams a safe environment?
- In what way I can feel safe, for enabling this environment?
My opinion is there is no hard and fast rule for a safe path toward True Leadership. Hundreds of Scrum Masters have a common question for me in the workshop. People expect differently from the core leadership – how can I move forward in my journey? In what manner can I unleash the positive energy entirely and humanise the teams’ nature from a self-organising viewpoint?
For answering the query, I would like to use two distinct Mind Structures, as conceptualised and introduced by Bob Anderson.
Creative + Reactive Mindset
The Reactive Mindset or through process begins with a certain problem. When you experience an issue, a frightening feeling comes into existence, leading to results that are fluctuating in nature. As the level of fright dwindles from low to high, the results oscillate.
The Creative Structure of the mindset is starkly different, where the patterns, besides the performance, are unlike the Reactive thought-process. Scrum Masters with a creative thought-process would essentially bootstrap their mental faculties from a highly creative viewpoint. They possess the passion, a clear vision and limitless love in serving their organisational teams and companies. Simultaneously, they are not concerned about the outcome. For them, every problem is a golden opportunity. Hence, the loop supports Scrum Master traversing towards creative dimensions of the thought-process or attitude. Thus, the natural tendency of attitude is leading towards balanced, sustainable results.
Once the Scrum Masters have the realisation of their creative power, they deftly shift the manner in which they deliver their suite of services. The focus remains on what they try to create, on the basis of knowledge they have. They also pertinently realise there is no existence of a safe and sound path to genuine leadership. Rarely do we function creatively always. Our minds do juggle. But cultivating mindfulness when you are reactive can positively aid in deciphering thoughts. By consciously focusing on the shifting thoughts, a creative mindset, which I term as Abundance mindset, can be achieved.
About the Author
Venkatesh is a Founder of tryScrum.com, a Management Consulting firm. He is also a Professional Scrum Trainer ® with Scrum.org, a Certified Enterprise Coach®, CAL-Educator and Certified Team Coach® with Scrum Alliance (2nd person in India to hold this credentials), Scrum Foundations Educator with Scrum Alliance, Brain-Based Coach (BBC) with Neuroleadership Institute, Leadership Circle Practitioner with LCP, Certified Disciplined Agilist from – (DAC), Design Thinking Expert with IDEO.
He is also a Professional Kanban Trainer(PKT) with ProKanban.org
He is the first person in the World to hold CEC, CTC, CAL-Educator & PST together!
He is also an ICF-ACC (Associate Certified Coach) and Accredited ICAgile Instructor.
He worked with various organizations, including HP, RBS, Ericsson, HID Global & PayPal.
About tryScrum
tryScrum is a professional coaching and consulting company. The company aims to challenge prescience thinking, which will help in the process of transformation. The company has provided its course to over 2000 individuals and still strives to deliver their services, by offering their elite leadership training and many other available fields.
For more information, please visit www.tryscrum.com