White Paper: Achieving Business Agility with SAFe® 5.0

Lean-Agile Leadership

An organization’s managers, executives, and other leaders provide the foundation for the adoption and success of Lean-Agile development and mastery of the competencies that lead to business agility. Only leaders have the authority to change and continuously improve the systems that govern the performance of work. Only leaders can create an environment that fosters high-performing Agile teams. By helping leaders develop along the three dimensions illustrated in Figure 5, organizations can establish the core competency of Lean-Agile Leadership.

Leading by Example

By internalizing and modeling leaner ways of thinking and operating, leaders can help people learn from their example, coaching, and encouragement. Ways leaders can accomplish this include:

• Authenticity. Leaders exhibit professional and ethical behaviors, acting with honesty, integrity, and transparency. Such leaders are true to themselves and their beliefs.