While we’re on the topic of Agile, though, it’s best not to forget its eXtreme Programming roots.
For me scrum optimises for a very narrow perspective of software development which did not align well with long term and sustainable software engineering and ownership. If i was far less than generous I'd say scrum is design for children rather than responsible adults.
For success as a leader i should be focusing on building and fostering a team than does not need the self imposed constraints of scrum but are rather conscientious and vested enough to build and deliver what the company needs and the team can maintain.
Developers have always complained about being micromanaged or being given business objectives that don't make sense or about changing requirements or some such. But non-technical managers at the same time typically complain that their developers are prima donnas and that their team produces unpredictable and non-repeatable results.
If you understand KPI's, you understand scrum. Scrum exposes the development process to managers and in theory is supposed to give them a better idea of what the team is doing, what they're having problems with, and what the consequences of their management directives are. If that leads to better management of the team, scrum is a success.
Done poorly it may create a wealth of problems. The cadence may create undue sense of urgency that may lead to unhealthy levels of stress or to depression and desensitization of missing work targets. Nonsense competition may arise due to points and velocities.
It's super in Operations.. not super in Development.
Sprints make no sense at all. If you can do it you can do it. Stay at it and go on a spectrum of pumping consistent results to once in a blue moon creating something special. Sprint adds nothing to that other than a phrase to use in a conference call to hide ineffective working practices. I have Sprinted on a 35 hour working week, I have also worked normally on a 35 hour working week. Results are similar aside from stress others show where Sprint = Haste, and Haste != Speed or Quality.