A ScrumMaster is a leader. The ScrumMaster is the prototype of a new type leadership. For he is a true leader without power given by the organization he works for. So he needs to create a way to lead that is not based on his position. [1] I once coached a ScrumMaster who really did not get this. She was not able to understand that her position does not give her any power over the team.
We can learn some lessons from Itay Talgam on how to lead as a ScrumMaster. In his marvelous TED talk he shows us, how conductors lead an orchestra differently. No way is wrong, but some ways are better than others. Have fun!
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[1] This is the reason, why a ScrumMaster can not be established by the management he works for. Management can say we want to have a ScrumMaster, but then they need to trust him. [2]
[2] In, (Peters 1994) Peters says he must trust to give trust. You can not trust the half way.
(Peters 1994), Peters, T. J. (1994). The Tom Peters seminar: crazy times call for crazy organizations. New York, Vintage Books.
I was just reading an article by James G Clawson author of “Level Three Leadership” (1999 Prentice Hall) in which he has described the transition of leadership models. From Aristocracy to Bureaucracy into what is termed an Infocracies.
In Infocracy model of organizations, leaders do not have positional (role) authority – they have authority because they are good at interpreting data into informations and influencing other interpreters of data.
Principles of Infocracies
1) data supercedes policies & judgment
2) databases have responsibility
3) database interpreters have authority
4) obedience is to the data
5) interpreters are bound by converging interpretations of the data
6) interpreters link to other databases and their interpreters; every interpreter is subject to these network nodes
7) interpreters should learn to understand their data
8) Infocratic cultures tend to be nondefensive and data driven
9) hierachies tend to be flatter and more egalitarian
10) feedback flows in all directions
11) fear of arbitrariness declines as more decisions are based on data
- from The New Infocracies Implications for Leadership, by James G. Clawson (2000) In W. G. Rowe, Cases In Leadership, Ivey