Ignoring Feedback vs Agile Leadership

In the previous post about "What is Agile Leadership" I mentioned the following anti-patterns for a good Agile leader:

1. Command and Control Mentality

2. Ignoring Feedback and Continuous Improvement

3. Lack of Transparency

4. Overemphasis on Processes over People

5. Setting Unrealistic Expectations

The idea behind mentioning and recognising these anti-patterns is that it is easier to explain what not to do, when defining good agile leadership.

"Understanding anti-patterns is equally valuable as learning from mistakes."

So let's focus in this post on the second anti-pattern; ignoring feedback and continuous improvement.

Why do we do this?

There are various reasons why managers (and non-managerial leaders) ignore feedback and continuous improvement.

1. Ego and Defensiveness: Some managers may take feedback as a personal criticism of their leadership style or decisions. This can trigger defensiveness and resistance to change.

2. Fear of Change: Change, even if it leads to improvement, can be unsettling for some individuals. Managers may resist feedback because they are comfortable with their current methods and fear the uncertainty that comes with change.

3. Lack of Awareness: Managers may not fully understand the value of feedback for improving processes, products, and team performance. They may see feedback as a nuisance rather than an asset. They may not understand how to effectively implement these practices.

4. Time Constraints: Managers often have demanding schedules and may perceive feedback and improvement efforts as time-consuming. They might prioritise immediate tasks over long-term development.

5. Overconfidence: Some managers may believe that they already have all the answers or that their way of doing things is the best way. This overconfidence can lead them to dismiss feedback from others.

6. Hierarchy and Authority: In hierarchical organisations, managers at higher levels may feel that they have the authority and expertise to make decisions without seeking input from those lower in the hierarchy.

7. Short-Term Focus: Managers under pressure to deliver short-term results may prioritise immediate tasks over long-term process improvements and may not see the value in dedicating time to feedback and continuous improvement initiatives.

Often, you will see the reason for ignoring feedback and continuous improvement is caused by a combination of these reasons.

To be honest, I also have sometimes difficulties to really listen and consider feedback. Recently I have read an interesting book about having impact on people without pushing, since pushing does not work. It nicely explains that feedback can hurt our ego (reason 1), especially when the feedback is not in line with our own believes or ideas. Our self defence system will start working and feedback is simply reflected without considering the value. It is good to be aware of this and to make sure you are not ignoring valuable feedback on the auto-pilot.

Why does it not fit Agile Leadership?

By the way, ignoring feedback and continuos improvement is not typical for people in leadership positions. I have also seen development teams making the same mistakes. However, let's focus in this post on leadership and particular why this is undesired for Agile leadership.

One aspect of being a good Agile leader is being a "servant leader"; do what is needed to enable the teams as good as possible. This makes sense because the real value is delivered by the teams, so enabling them will enable (improved) value delivery. In order to understand what the team needs we have to really listen to the teams and welcome their feedback. Also we have to do something with this feedback which leads to improvements. An Agile leader should understand that there is always room for improvement.

Lessons learned and recommendations

The concept of (early) feedback is an integral part of the Agile way of working. The sprint reviews ritual after a two-week sprint is meant to gather feedback from stakeholders on progress and the product so-far. Often we see that stakeholders do not free up time to attend these meetings. This is a waste since you loose a great opportunity to discuss the work together and exchanging feedback and even identifying improvements.

Another well known Scrum ritual is the Retrospective. In this ritual the team, in a safe environment analyses the past sprint and share feedback internally on how to improve the next sprints.

So giving and receiving feedback is build in the Agile way of working if you use these rituals properly.

Nevertheless, the Agile way of working falls short in effectively capturing feedback for the leadership of the organisation within which the agile teams operate. To maintain consistency in our operating model, I propose viewing leadership as a team responsible for delivering a product - an efficient and supportive organisation- to their stakeholders, the agile teams. Why not establish a routine review where leadership presents their most recent organisational enhancements, outlines upcoming improvements, and seeks feedback from their stakeholders? This approach ensures that feedback to leadership becomes a regular ritual, easily repeatable on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Also the concept of continuous improvement is an integral part of Agile way of working. So when we introduced Agile we spent a lot of time to explain this concept, the advantages but also the way you create time and capacity to work on continuous improvement.

There is a task for leadership to explain stakeholders, especially paying stakeholders that it is not realistic and also not desirable to expect 100% of the capacity of the team to be spend on their demand. A healthy team should reserve time to improve themselves and their product.

I hope this post gave some more insight in one of the anti-patterns of Agile Leadership; ignore feedback and continuous improvement. Please contact us in case you have questions or need help regarding this topic.