What's it mean to be badass in 2025 and 2026?
Stay right here. I'll tell you all about it. That's this week on the Badass
Agile Podcast.
Greetings, team. Welcome to the Badass Agile Podcast. I'm
your host, Chris Will.
Oh, my friend, I have missed you. The best part of my day is
sitting down in front of this microphone and talking to you. Well,
if you've been listening for a while, you've heard my episodes on the 13
qualities of a Badass leader. Maybe it's time for an update. This is a
weird world we live in. But first, let's take a moment to remember why
we're here. To create an elite tribe of leaders who truly
serve their clients and communities by doing what matters and what
works, relentlessly chasing value and excellence like a
badass. There's so many resources out there about what you need to do
to be agile, but we're focused on who you need to become in
order to lead teams. So let's hammer down those fundamentals
to create a truly unique and powerful force in this industry.
If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor. Share it with your friends so
they can benefit, too. Now, I'm not a political person, or at least I
prefer not to be political in mixed company because you never know who you're going
to offend. And I completely respect every person's choice
to pick the values, the virtues and the leaders and the issues
that represent them best. But no matter which side of the fence you're on, I
think you'll agree stuff is a bit messed right now. As of this writing,
Jimmy Kimmel was just suspended for his
speech and as of yet, has not been reinstated, although there's a ton of
protest and backlash happening. But the point being that these are
weird times that we live in. Economic instability, political
instability, all kinds of issues around mental
wellness, violence, poverty. I think
people are feeling more and more helpless, and that's what I want to talk about
in this episode. Whether you practice agile or you don't, you
have an opportunity to effect change. Effecting change by being the
leader that you want to see and helping others do the same.
So now more than ever, a badass leader is fearless. They
are certain. Fearless and certain enough to say what they need to say,
to say what they believe. Look, you've been in this industry for a while.
You probably have some opinions on how to do Agile or Scrum or Kanban or
whatever, how to do those things well. So go ahead, speak
your mind. Stop worrying about what the agile industrial complex is going
to say. Stop worrying about what the founders might think or what the people
around you have to say, especially when their hatred
and intolerance boils up. Now, a great leader is
someone who can say what they want to say, but also be
open to the opinions of others, to changing their mind,
to being exposed to new facts and realities that shape those
opinions. But one of my favorite qualities of a badass leader, and
it takes a lot of work to achieve it, is that kind of emotional control
that allows you to hear what other people are saying, to not take it
personally, to not let it negatively affect your state,
and to not let it sway your opinion. Being open to other
ideas, to me is cornerstone to agility. You're not always
right. You're not always expected to have the answers and to be right.
You're expected to use a team of people to figure out
right. We've lost that in society and I
suspect we've lost it inside our teams and practices as well.
So without taking any special classes or picking up a book or going to
meditation, can you focus on the simple practice of
being aware of your responses when somebody says
something in a LinkedIn comment and it rubs you a little bit the
wrong way? It might even be a little bit aggressive or offensive or rude.
Can you display calm and evenness of
disposition so that you don't engage in one of those flame
threads that you see everywhere on all forms of social media?
I'm currently of the mind that social media is a little bit of a poison.
If I could do one thing, I'd probably turn off the ability to comment on
any of it because it's for the most part a waste of time and on
a really bad day it's bad for your emotional well being. So
don't go there. So I think a great leader knows how to hear
something, even something unpleasant, even something ill intended
or mean, and realize that it's not about you and that
responding to an emotional response with another, more
offensive emotional response isn't going to do anything to make you feel
better. You have to feel better all on your own. You have to stand
by your convictions while maintaining a strength and
certainty. Not so that you can be civil or
polite for its own sake, but because that's how great leaders
behave. They're not easily shaken up, they're in their
center. So being more aware of how you're responding to the
situations around you, just giving a careful think, read something
twice before you send it and ask yourself, is this
necessary? Is it true Is it right? Is it
helpful then? If not, throw the draft away.
Number two, now more than ever, fail, fail,
fail. Encourage others to fail. We are so much contrary to
the point that I just made. We're so much in the head space of
needing to be certain, needing to be sure about what happens tomorrow,
that we're unwilling to take risks. Say no
to the job that isn't right for you. Stick your nose into an area or
a domain where you don't belong. See what you can learn. Maybe there's new
opportunities there. Build the thing that only you could build.
Break all conventions and patterns and try something new
without asking for permission, but be willing to explore
boundaries and limits. I see people all the time
in our little space, our little practice. People whose opinions I don't
necessarily agree with, who are starting their own thing. They have the
courage to say, well, listen, I'm tired of waiting for people to grant me a
job. I'm going to build something on my own. That's what we're all about here,
and badass agile in the Forge for the next year or so. At the very
minimum, it's about empowering yourself and others
to try. In an age where we have so much intelligence, so much technology,
it's so easy to reach 8 billion people. If you need to,
why not use that platform to say something distinct and
most importantly, to take control over your own destiny?
Who's going to give you your next job? Who's going to sign your next paycheck?
You are. And finally, in a time where it's difficult to
remain hopeful and positive, be hopeful and
positive, it'll mean the world to others around you. And
again, I think that's what leaders do. They go first. They
recognize that others are watching and hoping. They put in their
trust in you to somehow know what to do next. When nobody knows
what to do next, that ain't easy. But if you can do it, despite
all of the noise and all of the disagreement and all of the uncertainty
that's flying all around you, if you can do that right now, you can
lead people in ways that has nothing to do with Agile and
yet everything to do with what we do every day,
how's that for a riddle? The point is one of the unwritten rules
of Agile, hidden under the principle that what we do must be
sustainable, that we can carry this on indefinitely,
implies that we have a duty to not do things that burn people
out. And that includes being a beacon of hope and
happiness and positivity and opportunity for
everyone around you. Because, my friend, they need it right now more
than ever. Anyway, that was sitting in the back corner of my brain and I
thought I would dump it here so that you all could enjoy it. You can
find me, as always@badassagile.com or reach me using
the contact information in the show notes below. Want to thank you
as always for being a listener, and I'm looking forward to seeing you next time
here in the Badass Agile podcast. Until then, stay Badass.