What is the main message of The Agile Leader?

The main message of The Agile Leader is to adapt and lead effectively in a rapidly changing business landscape.

How long does it take to read The Agile Leader?

The estimated reading time for The Agile Leader is several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in a matter of minutes.

Who is the author of The Agile Leader?

The author of The Agile Leader is Simon Hayward.

Management & Leadership

The Agile Leader Book Summary - The Agile Leader Book explained in key points

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The Agile Leader summary

Name: The Agile Leader
Rating: 4.4 (257 reviews)
Author: Simon Hayward

Simon Hayward

How to Create an Agile Business in the Digital Age

4.4 (257 ratings)

21 mins

Brief summary

"The Agile Leader" by Simon Hayward introduces a new way of leadership in the fast-changing business world. The book provides practical advice on how to develop an agile mindset and lead with flexibility and resilience.

Topics

Coaching Product Management Scrum & Agile

Table of Contents

The Agile Leader
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Transform your organization, fast.

Conventional wisdom tells us we shouldn’t rush important decisions. We’re told it’s sensible to wait and see. After all, quality takes time, doesn’t it?

But what happens when the success of your business depends on how quickly you make those all-important decisions?

In today’s digital world, start-ups are disrupting industries with lightning speed. Traditional companies are left trailing in their wake. To keep up with this relentless pace of change, all business leaders need to make their businesses more agile.

That’s where these blinks come in. They are packed with practical advice and fascinating insights from well-known organizations, and they will be your guide to transforming your company, your team, and your own leadership style.

You’ll discover how businesses can become agile. You’ll find out how traditional companies can acquire laser-like focus; how they can learn to take risks, fail fast, and stay connected to their customers.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why senior leaders need to make fewer decisions;
how traditional companies can think like start-ups; and
what sports players can teach business leaders about agility.

Agile leaders need to foster a sense of disruption and connection.

What comes to mind when you think of agility? Perhaps a sports player streaking across the pitch, switching direction with ease. They are highly trained. Their reactions are lighting-fast. They respond to their opponent’s every move. And they don’t just defend their position, they attack too – with incredible precision.

There’s a lot that today’s business leaders can learn from the agile athlete. As the sports player reacts to a shifting reality on the pitch, so the leader must respond to accelerating change in his industry. As the sportsman must have the strength to finely coordinate his entire body, so the leader must transform his whole organization, not just one part of it.

The key message here is: Agile leaders need to foster a sense of disruption and connection.

If you’re a business leader In our digital world, agility is crucial for you. This is because we’re now operating in what is known as a VUCA world. VUCA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. This world is never static – it’s always changing. Just think about all the internet-connected devices we have in our homes and offices. There are around 30 billion of them around the world. A few years ago most people couldn’t even imagine how vast this “internet of things” would become.

To survive in this new world, leaders must stay connected – both to their customers, and to the social trends which drive those customers’ needs and expectations.

Companies which can build this connection thrive. Take a look at traditional retailers that have paid attention to changing consumer trends. These companies have introduced online shopping with same-day delivery. Some offer break-through interfaces such as software which lets customers virtually try on clothes before purchasing. These retailers have stayed relevant and profitable, and have successfully moved to a digital business model.

But in our VUCA world, business leaders can’t simply react to change – they need to drive it as well.

This is disruption. It happens when companies and leaders rip up the rulebook. The risks are big for these pioneering leaders, but so are the rewards. Just consider Uber’s seismic shift of the global taxi industry. Its innovative app transformed and disrupted city travel.

The most agile companies excel at both disruption and connection. Take Airbnb, the online marketplace for travel accommodation. Not only has this digital start-up permanently disrupted the hotel industry, but it’s achieved this by building a massive online community of hosts and travelers. This community spans nearly 200 countries. Think about this geographical spread. Doesn’t it sound like the very definition of connection?

Agile leaders are eager to learn from the people around them.

Agility isn’t a single skill; it’s a set of skills. Just consider the agile sports player from the previous blink. She can only beat the opposition if she is mentally astute. That means identifying the learning opportunities in every game – and, hopefully, doing better next time. And, of course, she must also be in great physical shape, with strong muscles which move her effortlessly around the pitch. It’s not muscles or brains, it’s got to be both.

As an agile leader, you’ll also need a particular set of skills. Like our athlete, you must constantly seek learning experiences. And your organization needs muscles in order to put what you learn into practice. In a business context, this means getting feedback, and collaborating with the right people.

Agile businesses put clarity, and customers, at the heart of everything they do.

As we saw in previous blinks, agile businesses are akin to elite sports players. But sadly, most businesses act more like unfit couch potatoes. Now, if a couch potato wants to get fit, he has to unlearn the bad habits of a lifetime. The same is true of many businesses. If you want to make your company agile, you’ll need to change the way it operates.

This shift won’t be easy. Like our unfit middle-aged person with his beer belly, traditional corporations often have a bloated bureaucracy. It slows decision-making right down.

Agility requires clear business goals and a ruthless focus on priorities.

What’s your number one priority? Our elite athlete knows what his top priority is. It’s winning. To make that happen, he needs to stay in peak physical condition. This simple knowledge makes it easy for him to make choices. A leisurely lie-in or an early morning run? The run every time, of course.

As a leader, you need to know what your top business priorities are. This knowledge is crucial for your organization to stay fit and agile.

A great team is more than a group of talented individuals.

What goes into building an effective, agile team? Your instinctive answer might be talented, effective, agile individuals. Well, not quite. If we expand our analogy of a single sports player to a sports team, we can see why teamwork calls for a different approach.

Let’s consider a competitive rowing team. To win races, some team members must be strong and powerful. They sit in the back of the boat. Other rowers, who sit at the front, must have great rhythm and technique. And one team member – the cox, with her light bodyweight – must be a strategic thinker capable of guiding the rest of the team to victory.

To make good decisions, you need to use the right system of thinking.

How do you make decisions? In his 2011 book, Thinking Fast and Slow, economist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman described two different systems that we all use for decision-making. System One is fast and instinctive. And System Two is more about logical reasoning and takes longer.

For example, consider a champion fencer. In order to win the bout, he must analyze his opponent and outsmart him. This requires System Two thinking. However, our fencer must also instinctively move his body with lighting speed to avoid the jabs that his opponent makes at him. This requires quick System One thinking.

You need to give your staff the skills, and the will, to switch to agility.

Nudging your organization toward agility can be a bit like getting people to dance at a wedding. There’s usually some brave soul who’s first onto the dance floor. But the party only really gets going when a few more people join that courageous pioneer. So how can you persuade your coworkers to leave their hang-ups behind to join you in your quest for agility?

It might not be easy. Most of us find change threatening. But getting buy-in from your people is important. Research suggests that around 75 percent of organizational change initiatives fail because staff do not consider themselves engaged with the change. Instead, they feel excluded, alienated.

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What is The Agile Leader about?

The Agile Leader (2018) explores how leaders can steer traditional organizations in the fast-paced digital world. These blinks show that agile working can help corporate teams to compete with start-ups, and to keep up with ever-changing customer expectations.

The Agile Leader Review

The Agile Leader (2020) by Simon Hayward is an insightful book that explores the key ingredients of successful leadership in a rapidly changing world. Here are three reasons why this book stands out:

It offers practical strategies and tools that leaders can implement immediately to navigate complexity and uncertainty.
Through real-life examples and case studies, the book demonstrates how agility can drive innovation and create a competitive advantage.
Hayward's extensive research and expert insights provide a comprehensive understanding of the agile mindset and its impact on leadership effectiveness.

Best quote from The Agile Leader

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

—Simon Hayward

Who should read The Agile Leader?

Managers hoping to boost their team’s productivity
Entrepreneurs looking for a fresh perspective
Management consultants seeking new insights

About the Author

Dr Simon Hayward holds a doctorate in Business Administration from Alliance Manchester Business School. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a member of the British Academy of Management. Dr Hayward's first book, Connected Leadership: How to Build a More Agile, Customer-Driven Business, was the WHSmith Business Book of the Month in January 2016.

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