By Monika Muddamshetty
October 23, 2025
For years, organizations have chased agility through frameworks, roadmaps, scaling models, and restructured hierarchy, often with noble intent—but mixed results. Organizations that have navigated through change know this: true agility doesn’t come from frameworks, it comes from people. And its people, through leadership, who bring agility to life.
Leadership doesn’t wait for perfect conditions; it shows up in the grey zone—the space where clarity fades and courage take over. It’s where there are no perfect answers, only better questions. Agile leaders learn to hold space for uncertainty, invite participation, and make decisions with intent and integrity.
But once leaders begin to navigate uncertainty, a deeper challenge emerges—keeping the spark alive. Not just through plans and processes, but also through the energy they bring into the room.
From Leading Work to Leading Energy
Traditional leadership focused on tasks, plans, and outcomes, whereas Agile leadership focuses on energy, alignment, and flow.
The most effective Agile leaders ask not just, “What are we delivering?” But also, “What energy are we creating as we deliver?“
Success doesn’t falter just because of bad sprints or messy plans. It falters when trust fades, when fear replaces curiosity, and when leaders focus only on delivery instead of learning and alignment.
Leading the energy means sensing when people are drifting, when fatigue is hidden behind “I’m fine” and when tension needs dialogue, not another status update.
Agile leadership is emotional work that must be done with intent and purpose. It isn’t always about speed. Sometimes, it’s about knowing when to slow down and listen.
The Courage to Slow Down
We live in a world addicted to speed where ‘faster’ means better, and ‘busier’ signals importance. But agility isn’t about moving fast or looking important. It’s about moving with intention.
Slowing down isn’t a weakness. It’s wisdom. It’s the pause before reaction, the reflection before decision, the conversation before assumption.
When leaders dare to pause—to listen deeply and model stillness in retrospectives, coaching moments, or difficult conversations, they create psychological safety. That space for reflection is where innovation and connection begin to take root.
Sometimes, slowing down is a leader’s most powerful move to move forward in the right direction.
The Inner Work of Agility
Agile leadership is about redefining control. It involves shifting from directing people, to designing systems where people can thrive, systems that encourage feedback, celebrate learning, and enable shared ownership. When command gives way to connection, innovation becomes collective, accountability flows naturally, and leadership becomes contagious.
Yet, in the rush to drive change, Agile leaders often overlook the most critical factor—themselves.
When leaders are depleted, disconnected, or running on autopilot, it silently cascades through the organisation, because culture mirrors the state of its leadership. No system can thrive sustainably when the leader behind it is running on empty.
Tending to oneself isn’t self-indulgence, it’s self-leadership. To sustain progress, leaders must be well-mentally, physically, emotionally, and energetically. Otherwise, burnout, resistance, and cynicism may take root over time.
This inner work lays the foundation for everything that follows. When leaders are grounded and self-aware, teams feel safe, systems stay adaptive, and transformation thrives. That’s where the real work begins—not in the sprint, but within the leader. Because when we lead from within, the outer impact becomes inevitable.
Lead as Only You Can
No transformation can sustain itself without inner transformation.
The most powerful shift begins when you drop the mask, acknowledge how you are, and allow yourself to feel what’s real. Only then can you chart a path toward who you are becoming. That’s the first step towards a better, braver and more grounded version of yourself.
Every leader’s path is personal, shaped by lived experience. Frameworks and best practices may guide and offer direction, but transformation is fuelled by the leader – through your presence, vulnerability, courage, and the energy you bring.
As an Agile leader, you must prioritise yourself. Make time and space to reflect, adapt, evolve, grow and find your rhythm. Not just to keep up with what’s needed of you, but to truly unlock your full potential. To lead as only you can.
This also means weeding out what no longer serves: the habits that drain you, the patterns that cloud judgment, and the fears that quietly shape your decisions. Agile leaders must not only nurture what’s growing but also remove what’s getting in the way.
This inner work isn’t a one-time thing. It’s like a garden that needs regular tending. What’s detrimental must be gently weeded out. Because when leaders stay well, the garden of change keeps blooming and thriving, season after season.
Monika Muddamshetty will be presenting From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Inner Work of Agile Leaders at International Project Management Day 2025! Learn more about her presentation here.
Founder, ElevateM
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monikamuddamshetty/
https://elevatem.weebly.com
Monika Muddamshetty is a visionary leader and transformation strategist with nearly two decades at the intersection of people, process, and purpose. An engineer by education, she built her career in Agile, Project management, Program and PMO leadership, along with process reengineering and automation — leading global teams across IT, Telecom, Lottery and Gaming to deliver large scale transformations with sustained business impact.
As the founder of ElevateM, Monika provides high impact training, consulting, and speaking — equipping leaders and students to execute with clarity, communicate with impact, and elevate outcomes. She is the author of “Lead As Only You Can,” a practical guide to authentic leadership that invites readers to unlearn, un-become, and unlock the leader within — beyond roles and designations.
Her leadership experience includes serving as Director – Agile PMO at IGT, Board Member of PMI Pearl City Chapter, and member of the PMI South Asia Champion Advisory Committee. A longstanding global PMI volunteer, she continues to advance the project management profession across regions. She is also a PMI Authorized Training Instructor (PMP and ACP). Guided by the philosophy, “Drive the change you want to see around you,” Monika champions practical, people centered change that creates lasting impact.
Read Monika’s Book, Lead As Only You Can: Unwritten & Unarmoured, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FJ7K9KSD
