Choose Your Path to Agile Leadership

In March 2022, some of us completed a training, in Agile Leadership. Now, we are CAL-ETO certified. Even though it’s been a while now, I want to briefly share why this training might be suitable for some of you as part of personal development. Furthermore, I want to share, what content was taught in the 3-day training, what it was like, and for whom it is suitable.

What are Agile Leadership and CAL-ETO?

We all live in a world that is becoming faster and faster due to factors such as globalization, digitalization, and networking. Therefore it is subject to permanent rapid change. In order to be best equipped for such a world, we need to adapt our leadership models accordingly. This applies to us personally (self-leadership), but also companies (team and organizational leadership). Why is this so important for companies? So that they can become faster, more flexible, and more customer-centric to survive in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

CAL-ETO reflects these approaches in a course or certificate program launched by the Scrum Alliance. A rough distinction is made between self-leadership or essentials (CAL-E), the leadership of teams (CAL-T), and leadership in companies or organizations (CAL-O). The CAL-ETO training provides tools on all levels that are necessary for agile leadership. In the training, however, you quickly realize that there are no hard limits here and that the tools can be applied to almost any area.

With whom did we do the training?

We booked the training through the provider Agile Coach and it was conducted by the trainer/coach Olaf Lewitz. He is a recognized an expert in the field. And has also coached many large companies in the agile environment, so he knows what he is talking about.

So who is the training suitable for?

Since the foundation of agile leadership is self-leadership, the training is suitable for anyone who is affected by agility and likes to work in an agile environment. Therefore, you don’t have to be a leader to take something away from the training. However, if you are in a leadership role or involved with leadership in any way, you can of course benefit from it even more, as it is only in this setting that some of the tools are applicable. This leadership approach fits very well with our responsive organization. We have already established the foundation for an agile company.

How was the training and can I recommend it?

It is still not easy for me to answer this question. Basically, the training was very special and completely different from any other training, I’ve done before. Furthermore, I don’t want to give too much away. The participants are very involved right from the start, they have to take responsibility and actively participate. So if you can get involved, I think you’ll enjoy the training and you’ll get a lot out of it.

A prerequisite for this, is another special feature. You reflect intensively on what you have learned during the day, either alone or, ideally, in discussion with others. In doing so, you will get a lot of new thoughts and aspects that make the training even more valuable. I hope that this post has sensitized you a bit to the topic of Agile Leadership and provided you with a basis for deciding whether it might be suitable for you. In my opinion, the provided content was very valuable, and I already use it in my daily work.

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