Chapter 5 begins Part 2 of Coaching Agile Teams. During my initial read of this book, I found Part 2 the most immediately useful. During this re-read, I reflect less on techniques to engage people and teams and more on engagements that I have had and where my remit and my behavior took me off track. Understanding where things have gone wrong is a step to changing my behavior. Don’t 12-step programs all need you to admit that you have a problem before you can progress? As a human being, the only way to improve is to reflect on your behavior and thoughts; unfortunately, it is a skill that is rarely taught and even more seldom practiced. To be a good agile coach, or in the author’s words, a coach-mentor, introspection has to be a well-honed practice. The first time I read this part of the Coaching Agile Team, I did not understand the ramification of getting this practice even slightly wrong.

One of the topics the Author surfaces is the distinction between professional coaches and agile coaches. Unlike other types of more structured coaching, agile coaching must mix the coach’s agenda with the coachee’s agenda. An agile coach must work to influence a coachee to use agile well even when that conflicts with the coach’s agenda. This dual-focus requires the agile coach to leverage both coaching and mentoring. Coaching is using conversation and interactions to help a person or team see new perspectives. Mentoring is transferring knowledge and experience when needed. The melding of these techniques is why Woody Zuill, Allan Kelly, and I discussed (SPaMCAST 612) using the word guide instead of coach. Finding the line between coaching and mentoring is an active pursuit. I find myself following the pattern described in the book, mostly. As I have become more confident in my skills, I mix coaching and mentoring a little differently than described in the book. I generally begin with a coaching first approach but mix mentoring and training early in the team’s development cycle. Mid-development cycle, I refocus on individuals (like the cycle in the book). What I have learned is that coaching often needs bolstering with mentoring. This requires reading the team and individual involved and using approaches as needed. As a team closes in on completing their development cycle a coaching-first is best for reviews and retrospectives. Learning when to and not to shy away from mentoring has been a learning experience. Teaching can often stray toward feeling directive which shifts responsibility for performance to the coach rather than the coachee. I have seen this happen most often with Scrum Masters who take on the role of team leader rather than staying firm in the coach role. When this happens the team does not grow which can lead the Scrum Master to double down on doing. This is a coaching death spiral.

One final thought on this chapter is the need for a coach to switch between coaching the team and a wide range of individuals. A coach needs to shift between interacting with the team to achieve the result of being more agile and individuals to help achieve the same result. The idea that the goal is to achieve better agility is important. This means that as teams and individuals do their work they need to be able to make informed decisions and then learn from the consequences. The coach, in this circumstance, will need to help ease learning – the coach needs to help the involved parties introspect safely. Coaches that have become program managers, project managers, or team leads often cannot let teams make mistakes which shuts down a very powerful path of learning. 

This week’s experiment is actually going to be an investigation of the concept of an outward mindset. Lyssa mentioned the book Leadership and Self-Deception from The Arbinger Institute in this Chapter. Also this week, Jeff Perry, SPaMCAST 716, talked about the Outward Mindset also from The Arbinger Institute. Both books focus on how we deceive ourselves about our true motives. As coaches, how we learn to pierce our own and see others as people with their own sets of needs and desires is crucial to helping people and teams grow. 

Remember to buy a copy of  Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins (SPaMCAST Amazon affiliate line https://amzn.to/38G0ZD3) and read along!

Previous Installments

Week 1: Logistics and Introduction – https://bit.ly/3A1aNTe 

Week 2: Will I Be A Good Coach – https://bit.ly/3nzDAHg 

Week 3: Expect High Performance – https://bit.ly/3Rl4fFf 

Week 4: Master Yourself – https://bit.ly/3zL8t2n 

Week 5: Let Your Style Change – https://bit.ly/3Q8zHWa