Leadership

Abstract

Leadership is the ability to influence people, encouraging them to behave in a certain way in order to achieve the group’s goalsgoals . Leadership is independent of job titles and descriptions; usually, however, in order to lead, leaders need the power derived from their organizational positions. There are different leadership stylesleadership , such as task-oriented versus people-oriented, directive versus permissive, autocratic versus democratic. While leaders can shape their leadership style according to circumstances, followers might prefer different leadership styles depending on their situation. Agile software engineering adopts a leadership style that empowers the people involved in the product development process. For example, instead of promoting the idea that “leaders should keep power to themselves in order not to lose it,” the agile approach fosters the idea that “leaders gain power from sharing it.” This idea is expressed, among other ways, by the transparency of the agile development process that makes information accessible to anyone and enables each team member to be accountable for and fully involved in the development process.