Let's be honest. How many of you feel like you are carrying the weight of your entire Agile transformation on your shoulders?
You are the one solving the hard technical problems, the one driving the strategy, and the one coordinating every hand-off between teams. You are the hero.
And that is exactly the problem.
In a traditional, static world, we rewarded the "Heroic Leader." But we don't live in that world anymore. We operate in a VUCA environment: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. In this landscape, the leader who assumes sole responsibility for coordination becomes the primary constraint to scaling.
If you want your organization to survive, let alone thrive, you have to stop being the Hero and start being the Catalyst.
The Three Levels of Leadership Agility
To understand where you need to go, you have to understand where you are. Leadership agility isn't a binary state; it's a progression of mastery. About 45% of the managers I see are stuck at the Expert level. These are the tactical problem solvers. They lead by authority and view their reports as "hands" to execute solutions. Their style is "hub-and-spoke" micromanagement, which kills flow.
The next step up is the Achiever (about 35% of managers). These are strategic drivers who view the team as a machine to be tuned. While better, they still view the organization as something to be driven rather than grown.
The goal is to reach the top 5%: the Catalyst. Catalyst leaders view the organization as a human system. They don't drive; they build "dissipative" structures that allow the team to metabolize complexity. They shift from "my way" (Assertive) or "your way" (Accommodative) to Participative Power, setting the constraints and guardrails, then inviting the team to co-create the solution.
You Fall to the Level of Your Systems
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, hit the nail on the head:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
Agile leaders often obsess over goals (velocity, delivery dates) but ignore the system. If you are an Expert or Achiever leader, your "system" likely prioritizes Resource Efficiency (keeping people busy) over Flow Efficiency (keeping work moving).
To be a Catalyst, you must become an architect of the system. You have to stop managing individuals and start managing the interactions between them. This means designing cross-functional teams to minimize hand-offs and reciprocal dependencies.
It also means developing Analytical Agility. Stop tampering with the team every time velocity dips! You need to use Process Behavior Charts to distinguish "noise" (routine variation) from "signals" (system changes). When you react to noise, you create chaos. As a Catalyst, your mandate is to stop asking for explanations for random variation.
The "How": Small Changes, Big Impact
How do you make this shift? You might think you need a massive reorganization, but the science suggests otherwise. Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.
You need to change the Microstructures of how you interact. Conventional meetings, presentations, managed discussions, and status reports are designed for control, not engagement. They exclude the vast majority of people from shaping the future.
Instead, try using Liberating Structures. Take a simple practice like 1-2-4-All, where you ask a question, have people reflect alone (1), share in pairs (2), share in fours (4), and then share with the whole group (All). This shifts the control of content from you to the participants. It unleashes the collective intelligence of the room.
By making these small structural changes, you stop being the bottleneck and start building a system where innovation can emerge from anywhere.
Diagnosing Resistance with ADKAR
Even with the right structures, you will face resistance. The Catalyst leader doesn't blame "difficult people." They diagnose the system.
We use the ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to find the Barrier Point, the first missing element blocking change.
Here is a common mistake I see: A team resists Scrum (lack of Desire), so the leader sends them to a two-day certification course (providing Knowledge). That is a waste of money. If the desire isn't there, training just increases resistance (unless I teach the course LOL).
As a Catalyst, you build a "Sponsorship Coalition." You realize that employees need to hear the Awareness (the business "why") from Senior Leaders, but they need the Desire ("what's in it for me?") from their direct supervisors. You don't try to be the messenger for everything.
Remember, people don’t like change. WAIT, people don’t like change they don’t initiate. There, that’s better.
Recovering from Command-and-Control
In Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins confesses to being a "recovering command-and-control-aholic." Many of us are. We are addicted to being the one with the answers.
Recovery requires a shift in identity. True behavior change is identity change. You have to stop seeing yourself as the "Driver" and start seeing yourself as the "Gardener" or the "Architect."
You have to learn to "take it to the team." When a problem arises, resist the urge to fix it. Instead, reveal the system to itself. Let the team fail safely so they can learn. Reframing failure not as a performance issue, but as a system learning opportunity, is essential for psychological safety.
The Bottom Line
You don't need to be a superhero. You need to be a system builder. You need to focus on 1% improvements, facilitate participative power, and design an environment where the right thing is the easy thing to do.
Stop trying to be the Hero. Be the Catalyst.