‘True leader’ replaced ‘servant leader’

The latest version of the Scrum Guide reads: “Scrum Masters are true leaders who serve the Scrum Team and the larger organization”, so the “true leader” replaced “the servant leader”. However, notice that a Scrum Master is a leader who serves, so the idea of servant-leadership is remained. A true leader encompasses a servant leader. What’s the reason why the wording was deleted from the Scrum Guide? It was done due to a pretty common anti-pattern: the Scrum Master as a secretary/scribe for the team. Plus, some people found it hard to reconcile “a leader” with “servant”. Unlike “the servant leader”, the “true leader” appears much broader and more vague. Essentially, they’re kind of the same attitudes. Since both phrases put stress on leadership, we’II touch upon the idea of true leadership.

Qualities of a true leader

Before moving on to what true leadership embraces, we need to touch upon a set of qualities and behaviours that are essential for a true leader to both possess and share. Just like Scrum won’t work without Scrum values, so won’t leadership thrive without certain qualities. Every one of them refers to a specific area of leadership.

Qualities of true leadership

The main Scrum Master responsibility is to increase the effectiveness of the Scrum Team. That’s what a true leader does. There have to be, however, met some conditions. One of them is a certain set of the qualities that SM should embody.

A true leader puts the needs of the team first. Everything they do is for the sake of the team, and not for their own good. Such a person is like a shadow that emerges if the circumstances forces them to react. A true leader facilitates or enables the team to act rather than takes immediate action by themselves.

Being a leader requires being humble. If you’re acting like you knew all the answers, you would gain respect from the team. By aknowledging your failures, you show the team members it’s perfectly ok to make mistakes. That’s what learning is about in the first place!

True leadership is goal-oriented. A Scrum Master as a true leader keeps facilitating the team meembers to be synchronized towards the common Goal. Any actions Scrum Master take should be driven by the Goal and towards to Goal.

A Scrum Master not only educates the team members on Scrum, but also set an example for them on how to act in accordance with the Scrum Values. They embody the values themselves. Most importantly, Scrum Master provides them with news insights into the ways how Scrum really works. Scrum won’t come to life unless it’s really comprehended. Comprehension begets conscious acting.

Scrum Master ensures the Scrum Team has more and more autonomy in acting, which gives rise to their owning the building-product process. Furthermore, it entails provding the Team with another Agile tools that they might utilize within the Scrum framework.

Leadership is keen to listen to others, especially while in trouble. Unlike hearing, listening requires taking measure. When the problems people raise are left behind on them, they might stop seeing the point of raising any impediments at all. Escalating a problem by a Scrum Master might be an example of how to help the team to get rid of blockers.

A leader who is an helper or enabler to the team must be assertive. That assertiveness relates to two distinctive area. The first one ties in with what a Scrum Master does or should do. They can’t let others make them do something they basically hadn’t been employed for such as gathering metrics, dealing with stakeholders or being a secretary for the team. Assertiveness goes under the value called ‘courage’.

How to be a better Scrum Master

In the case of a more mature Scrum team, A Scrum Master who is a true leader isn’t afraid to ask the team how to best help them out. Asking isn’t a weakness. On the contrary, good relevant questions have power to change the way people think or act. Plus, the team members might finally understand that it’s perfectly fine to ask. I’ve created a questionnaire for the Team during the Retro.

English trainer; learning environment creator; Crazy about EdTech, EdDesign and work visualization tools. I apply Agile techniques in teaching, esp Scrum. Scrum and Kanban mentee. Process improver.