Not too long ago the journey to Leadership position in a organization depended on how much experience you have gained in your domain. A factory worker became a foreman and then became a supervisor and so on, over a period of employment as he (it was typically a He) kept gaining experience and perfecting his skillsets. He became a leader of other workers and assigned work to them as well as acted as a problem solver. The tasks were limited and to be an effective leader he needed to make sure that the tasks are assigned equitably and get completed on time.

Now, in an Agile environment we have a team of knowledge workers who belong to different functions and the knowledge is distributed across the team. People in the team bring different expertise and it is difficult for any one person to have the understanding of the entire skillset that the team brings together. The role of leadership in the Knowledge economy has changed, it has moved from assignment and guidance to empowerment and results facilitation.

In this post I will talk about the TREAT behaviors of leadership for managing knowledge workers and will demonstrate how this maps to a Servant Leader role in Agile – typically the Product Owner, equally applicable to the Scrum Master. In Servant Leadership, the leader is focused on ensuring all-round growth for the team members – professional, knowledge, autonomy and even their health and well-being. If you have heard this term for the first time here, this article from Forbes.com is a good introduction to the concept.

I had the opportunity to learn TREAT behaviors and their application from Prof Vishal Gupta in our Leadership Skills class. He has authored the book – First Among Equals, which is filled with insights and advice on how to become an effective leader in a Knowledge Based world.  The book’s title refers to a paradigm where the team is made up of equals in terms of knowledge and value they bring to the team. Prof Gupta narrates the story of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and India’s first attempt to launch the Rohini satellite using SLV-3. The launch was scheduled on 10^th August 1979 and Dr. Kalam was leading the project. 40 seconds before the launch, the computer detected a possible fault and put the launch of the vehicle on hold.

Dr. Kalam conferred with his team of experts and allowed the launch to take place through manual controls. 317 seconds after the launch, the vehicle crashed. People from the press were waiting for the media briefing from Dr Kalam. Prof Satish Dhawan was the chairman of Indian Space Research Organization at that time. He went along with Dr Kalam to face the media and he addressed the media, rather than Dr. Kalam. He said – “We failed! But I have very good trust in my team that next time we will be succeeding for sure.”

The next launch of SLV-3 was planned for 18^th July 1980 and this time it was a successful launch.  Prof Dhawan asked Dr Kalam to address the media for this success. As we know, in time Dr Kalam went on to become the President of India and was conferred the Bharat Ratna, but he never forgot this incident. Almost every time the topic of Leadership came up for discussion, he would narrate this incident. In a knowledge world – “a leader is Equal in the team but is the First to face the consequences when things go wrong.”

TREAT and the Agile Product Owner

The First among Equals leaders show five distinct orientations that make up the TREAT leadership behaviors. Below, I have given a short introduction to each of the five and how these will help a Product Owner in an Agile team.

T – Task Orientation

These are behaviors that are related to assignment of work and timely delivery –

1. Clarifying – Assignment of tasks, communicating clear understanding of job responsibilities, task objectives and deadlines.
2. Problem Solving – Identification of work related problems and giving suggestions for improvement.
3. Monitoring – Keeping abreast of progress of work activities, external environment related to work, maintaining quality.
4. Buffering – Serving as the main buffer between the team and the organization. Filter unnecessary administrative duties and politics while ensuring communication between the organization and the team.

The product owner in an Agile environment is responsible for getting the work for the team in the form of a backlog. The Clarifying and Problem solving behaviors come to the forefront while defining the backlog and breaking down of epics in to user stories which can then be consumed by the Scrum team. He/She will do well to monitor the progress of tasks taken in a Sprint and ensure each gets completed on time. When a Sprint is in progress, quite a few things from the Sprint backlog can move back to the Product Owner for further clarification. The Product Owner needs to keep up with the pace of the team and resolve the questions in time.

Typically, when an organization is going through the Agile transformation process – the baggage of the past practices still remain at the working level. These show up from time to time in the form of additional work requests to the Scrum team. The Product Owner needs to act as a Buffer between the team and the external environment. To quote Prof Gupta – “A leader of the team needs to be like an umbrella and not like a pipe. A pipe allows the water (often murky water) at the top to flow down to the lower levels. On the other hand, an umbrella protects individuals below it from the unwanted water and saves them from getting wet.”

R – Relation Orientation

These are behaviors to create strong interpersonal relationships at work –

1. Inspiring – Generate enthusiasm for work and commitment to task objectives.
2. Supporting – Acting friendly, considerate and helpful. Showing sympathy and support during difficult situations.
3. Recognizing – Praise, appreciation and recognition for effective performance, achievements and special efforts.
4. Informing – Disseminating relevant information to keep the team in the know with developments related to the work.

Delivering a complex project is a long-term commitment over multiple sprints. During the project, there will be times when some of the work gets de-prioritized, some other work takes priority. There will be issues identified, which may result in re-work. During this phase a leader keeps the team motivated through keeping a spirit of enthusiasm. Any developments that impact the team’s priority should be disseminated to the team in a timely manner. The Product Owner should look for small achievements and celebrate them with the team, being generous in recognizing effort of the team. During the course of a project, there may be times when one or more team members go through difficult situations. The product owner should be supportive through word and deed during those periods.

E – Empowering

These are behaviors which provide freedom and choice at work –

1. Consulting – Checking with the team before making changes that affects them, encouraging suggestions from the team and asking for inputs in decision making.
2. Delegating – Allowing the team to have substantial responsibility and discretion in carrying out the activities.

The Sprint is managed by the Scrum team. The team decides how much can be delivered during a Sprint and that defines what gets taken in a Sprint backlog. In this sense, Agile is a naturally empowering environment. The Product Owner should ensure that the freedom to follow Agile practices are always available to the team. There may be an ask from stakeholders to change things during mid-sprint. If those changes are unavoidable, the Product Owner should consult with the team before taking a decision and making a commitment on behalf of the team.

A – Authenticity

Leading by example and setting standards of hard work, humility, integrity and courage –

1. Leads by example – Setting high standards of behaviors in terms of punctuality, integrity, hard work and meeting deadlines.
2. Authentic – Ensuring that there is no difference between what is said and what is done

Being Authentic is good. More so, in case of a work environment where everyone is looking at you for guidance. The Product Owner should lead by example. Agile allows everyone to see what anyone else is working on at a given point of time. The Product Owner should always use this to exemplify hard work and commitment. The Scrum team depends on the Product Owner for information from Stakeholders. Complete transparency is expected in this case, the Product Owner should not have any difference in his/her words and deeds.

T – Team Building

These are behaviors which help development of individual team members as well as build cohesive teams –

1. Team Building – Encouraging cooperation, teamwork and identification with the team as well as resolving any conflicts.
2. Developing – Facilitating skill acquisition, professional development, career advancement and providing access to resources and facilities.

Effective delivery of the project is dependent on how well the team can work together. Agile Scrum team is made up of cross functional experts who bring in skillsets from different domains to the team. To deliver the project, the team needs to come together and work as a single unit. The Product Owner’s role in this regard is to define a values-based culture for the whole team. The culture is something that will define the team’s behavior in the larger organizational context.

When the team comes together for the first time, the Product Owner should act as a facilitator to ensure that these experts from the different areas of the organization get to know each other and appreciate the differences among the team. The commonality between the members should be arrived at through discussions. The common values held by the team members as well as the aspirational values should be inputs to decide what will be the overall value based culture of the team. This approach takes time at the start of a project, but saves a lot of time later when the project is in full swing.

The continuous interactions also give insights into the aspirations of the team. For example, a team member who is responsible for testing, may have an aspiration to act as a business analyst. The Product Owner should facilitate the opportunity for skills upgrade and meeting these kind of aspirations. A Scrum is a learning setup and the cross functional knowledge should flow freely. The Product Owner can take initiative to ensure that this exchange of ideas takes place regularly within the team.

Any Product Owner that embraces and exemplifies these behaviors increases the chances of success of the team manifold and in the process himself/herself grows as a leader. Prof Gupta has also discussed four types of team members in terms of Competence and Commitment and how to engage with each type to get the best for the team and consequently for the organization. If you are in the business of creating value through Knowledge, this book will add a lot to your understanding of your team and will provide clear guidelines on how to get the best out of you as well as your team. Please use the comment box below to let me know your thoughts and we can have a discussion. May we keep inspiring each other.