One of the most important aspects of management—and one of the most active areas of management research—is leadership. Effective leadership is one of the key drivers of business and project success. But how does leadership work in agile software development, which emphasizes self-management and self-organization and marginalizes traditional leadership roles? To find out, this study examines agile leadership from the perspective of thirteen professionals who identify as agile leaders in different roles at ten different software development companies of varying sizes. Data from semi-structured interviews reveals that leadership is dynamically shared among team members, engenders a sense of belonging to the team, involves balancing competing organizational cultures (e.g. balancing the new agile culture with the old milestone-driven culture). In other words, agile leadership is a property of a team, not a role, and the effectiveness depends on agile team members’ identifying with the team, accepting responsibility, and sensitivity to cultural conflict.