The Servant Leader

Pivotal/Tanzu Labs

AN EXPERT FACILITATOR AND COACH; CAN STEP UP OR STEP BACK AS NEEDED.

A skillful leader does not make decisions in a vacuum; they make space for the team to make decisions as a group.

Many Pivotal/Tanzu Labs engineers feel that anchors are responsible for assessing what needs to be done — from an engineering perspective — and making sure those tasks get done through skillful facilitation and delegation. The trick here is providing enough leadership to move the team forward without taking control of the decision-making process. Much like the Peer, it may be unclear to outsiders who the anchor (servant leader) actually is.

Leader of the team

Responsibilities

  • Bring the team to a higher level of situational awareness
  • Facilitate conversations, especially through activities
  • Keep the team moving forward
  • Model values and norms for the team to imitate
  • Make sure everyone has a voice in decision-making

Considerations

  • A servant leader opens up the team for more diversity and safety for experimentation
  • Even while growing, the team needs to be held to a standard of excellence

Challenges

  • Anchors may put unreasonable expectations on themselves and feel alone and stressed
  • Anchors with many other responsibilities have little time to pair and code
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