Agile Values Are Great, But Your Leadership Won’t Let Them Happen — Adapt Or Burn Out
After 10 years in product roles, I’m convinced of one thing: the biggest blockers to true agility aren’t tools, frameworks, or even teams — they’re leadership behaviors.
Like many of you, I’ve worked in multiple companies that proudly called themselves “agile.”
The badges were everywhere: Scrum masters, Jira boards, SAFe certifications. The rituals were in place.
But the real mindset? Very rare.
At first, I thought this was a problem we could fix. Maybe we just needed better training. Or stronger product culture.
Or more coaching at the leadership level. So I spent years trying to build that: driving user-centric thinking, pushing for iterative delivery, creating space for autonomy and ownership.
But here’s the reality I’ve learned the hard way: most leadership teams still run on a fundamentally different operating system. They want predictability. They want quarterly delivery targets. They want roadmaps they can sell to Sales and Finance.
And when real agility starts to show up — with uncertainty, discovery work, iteration — the system pushes back. Hard.
You can build the most empowered product team in the world, but if your leadership culture is fear-based and top-down, that team will constantly hit invisible walls.
And this is not always malicious. Sometimes it’s simply structural: B2B sales cycles depend on fixed commitments. Finance needs to plan revenues.
Legal needs compliance to be done on time. In large orgs, true agility clashes with the very processes that keep the business running.
So here’s where I’ve landed: trying to “install” Agile in these environments is often a waste of energy. Instead, the smarter move is learning to be adaptive — at both team and leadership levels.
Here’s what I focus on now:
Build trust, not theater. Stop chasing Agile ceremonies for the sake of it. Instead, focus on building trust with leadership through transparency and delivery.
Carve out agile pockets. Not every initiative needs to be waterfall. For discovery, MVPs, or new products — fight to create space for true agility where it matters most.
Manage expectations. Help leadership understand what agility can and cannot do. Agile won’t give them fixed dates on an uncertain problem — and that’s okay.
Shield your teams. Your job as a PM is to absorb organizational chaos, not pass it on to your teams. Use buffers, phased delivery, and “customer-facing roadmaps” if needed.
Adapt your leadership narrative. Talk the language your leadership understands (business outcomes, risk management) while practicing agility inside your team.
Pick your battles. In some contexts, Agile is not the right tool. Sometimes lean, sometimes waterfall, sometimes just pragmatic delivery — use what works for the situation.
I still believe in Agile values. I believe in empowered teams, iterative learning, and customer focus. But after 10 years, I also believe in facing reality.
If your leadership won’t let Agile happen — don’t fight a losing battle. Learn to be adaptive. That’s the real superpower.