 Hi, I'm Jeff Watts and welcome to a new series of videos I'm putting together called Agile Leadership Hacks. These videos will be short, sharp insights into how you can be a more effective Agile Leader and create a more agile culture at your organization. I hope you enjoy them. This first video is called Make Someone Else the Hero and it's inspired by a quote by Harry Truman and he said it's amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit. I can remember a boss of mine and I'm sure you've come across people similar and this boss was well known for taking the credit and hogging the limelight of other people. No matter who had done what, if it was successful, this person wanted to be in the spotlight and they would claim the credit for it. Now they try and justify it by saying that whenever anything went wrong in the organization because of his seniority he would be the one that take the fall. So when things went right, he should ultimately be the one who's accountable for it. He created the environment where these people could be successful, so it was his success ultimately. This person's behavior and probably many of the people like that was driven by an insecurity. So he would attach himself to any sense of success from anywhere within the organization and this boss, like many people who act in the same way, tend to demotivate instead of inspire. They command significantly less respect than they think and they encourage pessimism rather than passion. On the other hand though, I can also vividly remember another boss of mine, somebody who was almost a complete opposite of the previous boss that I was talking about. Whenever there was any successes, that boss would make sure that the people who were involved would be at the forefront. He was in the background, pushing people forward, perhaps even when they didn't feel they were deserving of the credit that was being dished out. But he saw his success in making sure that these people around him, the members of his team, he felt ownership of the success and being part of that team, me and my other colleagues, I remember us talking about how how positive things were, how safe we felt, how innovative and creative we were, how we didn't feel threatened and as a result, we talked about our willingness to to run through brick walls for him. That sort of passion and commitment and engagement simply by making someone else the hero. So why is this important in an agile context? Well, it all comes down to self-management and proactivity. In order to cope with complexity, organizations need people who feel comfortable taking ownership, who step up and take the autonomy that's offered to them. And people who are more confident about not being undermined, who feel rewarded for their behaviors and recognize for the value that they're adding, are more likely to do that. A leader in an organization isn't going to be there all the time and the more complex the situation, the chances are, they're going to be less likely to be able to deal with that complexity themselves. So having people within your team, within your organization, who feel more confident, feel more capable, feel more able to deal with situations themselves and more likely to lead to a Brazilian organization and a safer, agile, more proacted, more engaged, more enthused culture. So my challenge to you as an agile leader is when you're faced with the option of taking credit for something yourself, make someone else the hero. And the long term, that's the mark of a true servant leader. That's the mark of a leader who inspires their people, who creates empowered, confident, resilient people. I hope you've enjoyed this first Agile Leadership Hack and I look forward to hearing your comments about how you put it into practice. Tune in next time for another Agile Leadership Hack with me, Jeff Watts.