Servant Leadership in Agile: The End of Command and Control

The switch from traditional, top-down management to agile project practices poses a dilemma for managers and the team, including test managers and testers. If agile teams self-manage their work, what does a test manager actually do now? And without strong guidance from a traditional manager, how do teams organize their work? Dale Emery describes how successful agile teams resolve these conundrums-by adopting a seemingly paradoxical way of collaboration called “servant leadership.” A servant leader leads by serving and serves by leading. On high-performing agile teams, everyone is a servant leader in one way or another. There are no followers in the traditional sense and no command-and-control managers. Everyone leads-all the time. Everyone serves-all the time. Learn the principles and practices of servant leadership, and how servant leadership helps you apply your existing experience and skills in new ways to contribute to the success of your projects.