August 27, 2012

No Guilt Agile Leadership

By Stephanie Davis

Peter Saddington of Agile Scout visited Valpak for a Tampa Bay Agile meetup recently.  He spoke on the topic of high performing teams: “The New Role of Management in Building and Sustaining High-Performance Teams”

He talked about how self-organizing teams are more theory than reality.  In reality, teams self-organize for survival but not necessarily for high-performance.  He put forth that it is management’s job to be “high touch” with our teams and emotionally invested in them to get and sustain high-performance.  So, Agile is not about getting out of the way of your teams but rather staying involved as servant leaders.

What this means to me? …  I no longer have to feel guilty about being a high-touch manager!  In fact, I didn’t even know there was a term for it … high-touch manager … I like the sound of that.  I do hereby declare that I am not going to just shut up and get out of the way.  I am going to stay involved and serve my teams towards high-performing.

About Stephanie Davis

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I’m currently VP of Innovation & Delivery Enablement at NMI, where I get to work at the intersection of strategy, delivery, and transformation. I lead an incredible team responsible for portfolio, program, and project management—and we’re also driving some of the most exciting shifts in how we work through AI, Agile Ops, and automation. At the core, I’m passionate about making things work better—whether that’s helping teams deliver with more clarity and confidence, modernizing how we operate, or scaling new ways of working across the business. I love connecting big-picture vision with practical execution, and I take pride in creating the conditions for people and ideas to thrive. I believe transformation isn’t just about process or tech—it’s about mindset. And the most powerful results come when we combine innovation with intentionality, and execution with joy. View all posts by Stephanie Davis
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