Effective Leadership Styles for Scrum Masters

Scrum masters have to know and be able to apply effective leadership styles to serve agile teams. Servant leadership alone is not enough, Scrum masters need to know a variety of leadership styles to support agile teams and help them to deliver value. This post provides an overview of many effective leadership styles that Scrum masters can use when working in agile teams.

The Scrum guides states that “the Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team”. Scrum masters should help teams to adopt Scrum and improve their way of working, and serve the team by creating an environment where people can work effectively and are protected from outside interference.

Servant leadership is a style that is often mentioned as the leadership approach that Scrum master can use. Mindtools describes it as:

As a servant leader, you’re a “servant first” — you focus on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. You acknowledge other people’s perspectives, give them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in decisions where appropriate, and build a sense of community within your team. This leads to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships with team members and other stakeholders.

Leadership styles

Although servant leadership can be effective when leading self-organizing teams, it isn’t the only leadership style that Scrum masters can use. In fact, there are…