Agile for Leaders
Lead Your Agile Teams to Success
Agile can improve delivery speed, alignment, and morale—but only when leaders understand what agile requires from the organization. This course gives executives and managers a clear understanding of Scrum and the leadership behaviors that determine success.
It’s designed to help leadership teams set realistic expectations, remove organizational obstacles, and create the conditions for agile teams to thrive.
Chosen by companies in SaaS, Healthcare, Government, Consulting, Financial Services, Retail, Energy, Aerospace and more.
Taught by People Who Helped Shape Scrum
Mountain Goat Software was co-founded by Mike Cohn, a co-founder of both the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance, and author of some of the most influential books in Agile software development, including User Stories Applied, Agile Estimating & Planning, and Succeeding with Agile.
For more than 25 years, Mountain Goat Software has helped teams and organizations adopt Scrum in ways that actually work—across industries, team types, and organizational cultures.
When you train with Mountain Goat, you’re learning from people who have:
- Helped define modern Agile practice
- Guided thousands of teams
- Seen what works, and what doesn’t, over decades
Why Leaders Invest In Agile
Organizations adopt agile because it improves outcomes in complex, fast-changing environments.
- Better ability to manage changing priorities
- Increased project visibility
- Improved business/IT alignment
- Faster delivery speed
- Higher team morale
Research Shows:
- 16% higher productivity
- 37% faster time to market
- Improved employee satisfaction after Scrum adoption
How We Approach Teaching Scrum (and Why)
To help leaders get value quickly, here’s how we run the 90-minute session.
We Focus OnDecisions, Not Definitions
In 90 minutes, we won’t try to “cover agile.” Instead, we’ll focus on the leadership choices that most influence whether agile succeeds in your organization.
We EmphasizeReal-World Leadership Situations
We use examples that reflect executive reality—competing priorities, dependencies, interruptions, unclear outcomes, and pressure for predictability—so the ideas translate to Monday morning.
We Make ItInteractive By Design
This isn’t a lecture. Expect a guided conversation with practical scenarios and time for questions, so you leave with clearer thinking—not just notes.
We TeachPrinciples, Not Just Rules
Practices are easy to copy. Knowing why they work helps you make better decisions when your context doesn’t match the textbook.
What Leaders Will Gain
After this course, participants will be able to:
Explain agile and Scrum in clear business terms
Set realistic expectations around forecasting and delivery
Understand the roles of Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and teams
Identify leadership behaviors that block agile results
Make better decisions about prioritization and team stability
Your Mountain Goat Instructors
Mountain Goat has handpicked instructors that share our training values. These are people with deep experience, who are leading teams with agile today and can give you real-world answers about what does and doesn’t work.
Mike Cohn
With 20+ years of agile training experience, Mike has honed a talent for explaining agile concepts with clear illustrations and real-life examples. Participants enjoy his passion for teaching the agile methodologies in a relatable and digestible way.
Read more...Mike is CEO of Mountain Goat Software, and one of the industry’s most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit Agile Alliance, home of the Agile Manifesto.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, A-CSM, CSP-SM, CSP-PO
Brian Milner
Starting out as a developer, Brian worked up through management layers, then transitioned to Scrum Master, then Coach and now Certified Scrum Trainer. His practical experience in both waterfall and agile organizations helps him clarify what works and what doesn’t, plus he has many years’ experience helping teams transition to agile.
Read more...Brian also brings more than 20 years of software development experience to his classes. People remark on his ability to answer even tough questions with ease, enthusiasm, and insight.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, CAL-Educator, CAL-1, A-CSM, A-CSPO, CSP-CM, CSP-PO, Path to CSP Educator, Scrum Foundations Educator.
Lance Dacy
As a Certified Scrum Trainer, Lance has trained and coached teams through many successful Scrum implementations since 2011, from Fortune 20 companies to small start-ups. Lance is also experienced in showing agile coaches and managers how to help cross functional, self-organizing teams deliver high value for customers as early as possible by using Scrum.
Read more...Lance is a true evangelist for Scrum, having founded the successful DFW Scrum User Group in Dallas as an outlet for professional networking and a community sounding-board for Scrum. He has a fun and generous personality, and shares his passion for Scrum in every course.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, CAL-1, A-CSM, A-CSPO, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, Path to CSP Educator, Scrum Foundations Educator.
Join thousands of Scrum Masters, agile practitioners, and leaders who have learned Scrum with Mountain Goat Software—and applied it successfully in the real world.
Course Includes:
How The Course Is Structured
Agile For Leaders follows a practical four-part flow:
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Benefits Of Agile
-
What Scrum Is (For Leaders)
-
Leadership Behaviors That Determine Success (Customized)
-
Q&A And Next Steps
Benefits Of Agile
We explore why agile works and what organizations typically gain.
Topics include:
- Managing changing priorities
- Increasing visibility and transparency
- Improving business/technology alignment
- Increasing delivery speed
- Improving morale and engagement
- Productivity and time-to-market research findings
What Scrum Is (For Leaders)
Leaders don’t need to memorize rules—but they do need to understand the system they’re sponsoring.
Topics include:
- Scrum as a “brand of agile”
- Roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers
- Self-organizing teams
- Sprints and sprint constraints
- Product backlog evolution
- Story points vs. hours
- Velocity (and what it is not)
- Forecasting with velocity ranges
- Scrum events: Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Retrospective, Daily Scrum, and refinement
Participants leave with a clear understanding of Scrum—and the leadership expectations it creates.
Leadership Behaviors That Determine Success (Customized)
Scrum often exposes organizational problems—but it won’t fix them automatically. Leaders can.
This section is customized to your organization. During a short planning call, we’ll identify the leadership behaviors most important to your success and focus on those.
Common Areas Of Focus Include:
- Demonstrating executive commitment
- Empowering teams and key roles
- Planning realistically in uncertainty
- Keeping teams stable long enough to become high-performing
- Prioritizing ruthlessly and limiting work in progress
- Protecting sprint goals so teams can focus and deliver
Q&A
Discussion, questions, and recommended next steps.
Let’s Discuss Your Goals
If you’re considering agile adoption—or frustrated that Scrum isn’t delivering better results—this course can help align leaders around what agile requires.
Schedule a short call and we’ll:
- Discuss your goals and challenges
- Confirm whether this course is a fit
- Recommend a customized leadership focus
- Identify the best audience for your organization
Got a Question?
What happens when you contact us?
- We’ll get back to you within a day.
- Answer your training questions and discuss any custom needs.
- Recommend the best agile training path for your teams and goals.
- Want to talk to someone? Schedule a call.