What does an Agile Coach do?
You may have wondered: What exactly does an Agile Coach do? How are they different from scrum masters? Is the Agile Coach the boss of agilists in a company? Should I be glad I got promoted to Agile Manager? What do I need to be a good Agile Coach? This post should help you answer these and many more questions.
According to the Agile Coach Manifesto, Agile Coaching: Is collaborating with people, teams, and organizations in a creative and stimulating journey based on trust, openness, and flexibility, using Professional Coaching, Mentoring, Facilitation, Training, Agile & Growth Mindset, Agile Values and Agile Principles, to help them “Be” and “Do” Agile in the best possible way.
In addition, describes the role with this Manifesto:
About Value
We know that our priority in accompaniment is that people, teams, and organizations increase value continuously and iteratively, getting better and better.
About Judgement
We do not issue it. We always respect fears, biases, and paradigms. About Psychological Safety We create and maintain safe places for experimentation that allow adaptability, flexibility, and trust.
About Empathy
We get closer to truly understanding people, teams, and organizations from their frames of reference. About Servant Leadership We are ready at all times to serve. With the humility required, from the genuine interest in helping others grow in their Being Agile and Doing Agile.
About Emotional Intelligence
We are people in constant growth, willing to grow continuously.
About the Positive Look
We believe in people, their experiences, skills, paths, experiences, and that they are always doing the best they can, so we encourage them always to believe and grow. We also look for spaces to celebrate gains, losses, and learning.
About the Presence
We strengthen relationships with our coachees at all times. We are always looking for an alliance of mutual growth to form significant links.
About Transparency
We are open, transparent, and vulnerable. Honest with ourselves and with the rest, we find ourselves always learning from our successes and our mistakes.
About Curiosity
We also believe in the beautiful opportunity of approaching every situation with wonder and an open mind. This curiosity positions us as constant travelers on the agility path contemplated by Being and Doing Agile.
About the scope of our accompaniment
If an issue escapes our hands, abilities, or skills, we must recognize it with transparency.
Therefore an Agile Coach is a person who helps people, teams, and organizations to be and do Agile in the best possible way. In other words, it is a chameleon that allows you to be flexible and adaptable at all times. That’s it. And that is enough.
For this, you must work in different roles, changing (like a chameleon) hats, depending on the situation: Coach, Mentor, Facilitator, and Trainer.
- As a Coach, you help the coachee explore a problem and find a solution, following their path.
- As a Mentor, you give advice and share experiences that help on a specific topic. You provide knowledge for people, teams, or organizations and show your expertise in these issues in the best possible way; Doing it and recognizing that it is a constant path, therefore and in humility, you continue learning.
- As a Facilitator, you help teams identify objectives and achievements without breaking neutrality and inclusion.
- As a Trainer, you help others learn Agile topics that they do not know or require reinforcement with an expert adult education approach.
The Agile Coach is a servant leader who serves the goals of people, teams, and the organization, never his agenda, helping others to reach their flexible and adaptable maximum potential. The Agile Coach is a communication agent that enables communication among all and accompanies change as a positive catalyst, and promotes continuous improvement through reflection with a systemic and holistic approach.
An Agile Coach must have a high level of emotional intelligence. He must understand his emotions as he accompanies change to others.
They must be able to share and exemplify collaborative and helpful leadership behaviors. They definitely must actively listen carefully and ask open-ended questions without judgment when facilitating conversations with their teams. This is totally in line with the business objectives related to what we are increasing as teams. You don’t have to understand all the details, but you need to understand enough of the business and organization to ask the questions that enable “wow” moments at the correct times.
And what is not an Agile Coach?
An Agile Coach is NOT a manager, nor does he have a hierarchy. He doesn’t care about supposedly moving up to a more pompous role that shows more title or power. Most people and companies I’ve talked to over the last 12 years are under the impression that an Agile Coach is a Senior Scrum Master. We must help companies understand that the Facilitator, Agile Coach, Enterprise Agile Coach, or Head of Agile has no hierarchy. Stop calling yourself an Agility Manager, Head of Agile, or Agility Leader. You don’t lead people. You accompany them.
An Agile Coach is NOT a consultant who sells silver bullets or magic recipes. Many (but not all) coaches have experience across multiple frameworks or practices and believe this is enough to be an Agile Coach. Experience bias is one of our main enemies; remember that consulting ceases to serve when you understand that a person, team, or organization is a living organism, unlike any other.
An Agile Coach does NOT step in to tell people what to do. We help people, teams, and organizations with our four hats (Coach, Mentor, Facilitator, and Trainer) to discover better ways to work flexibly and adaptable. This involves mimicking teams or organizations’ values and understanding that we are part of the team. You will be working directly with individuals, and understanding this is critical to creating a reflection. So asking powerful questions, facilitating difficult conversations, or accompanying conflicts will be your day-to-day work. Therefore, however you mentor, you should let the mentee decide whether to take your experience or options.
What do you think?
An Agile Coach is a servant leader with different hats. This post seeks that both companies looking for one, or people looking for this path understand what they are getting into. And to finish, remember that The Agile Coach Manifesto receives continuous feedback from the community and is in a Constant Beta state, flexible and adaptable like Agility itself. If you are looking to improve your Agile Coaching, it is worth checking out, and if you agree, you can become a signer for free.
