  Effective leadership is one of the key drivers of business and project
success, and one of the most active areas of management research. But how does
leadership work in agile software development, which emphasizes self-management
and self-organization and marginalizes traditional leadership roles? To find
out, this study examines agile leadership from the perspective of thirteen
professionals who identify as agile leaders, in different roles, at ten
different software development companies of varying sizes. Data from
semi-structured interviews reveals that leadership: (1) is dynamically shared
among team members; (2) engenders a sense of belonging to the team; and (3)
involves balancing competing organizational cultures (e.g. balancing the new
agile culture with the old milestone-driven culture). In other words, agile
leadership is a property of a team, not a role, and effectiveness depends on
agile team members' identifying with the team, accepting responsibility, and
being sensitive to cultural conflict.
