Today we complete the re-read of Extraordinary Badass. Tomorrow we will release our interview with Bob Galen, the primary author.
Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching is my new go-to coaching reference. It will be the book I recommend to anyone playing a coaching role in an agile environment. As we know a wide variety of organizational roles such as team leads, Scrum Masters, managers, and of course agile coaches coach. Coaching is dynamic and complex. What would you expect? There are people involved. Bob and his co-authors provide the tools to help a coach go from meh to badass.
From my read and re-read of Extraordinary Badass, I would extract four core themes that tie the book together:
- Grow Your Capabilities Or Stagnate
- Plan And Retrospect
- Death By Questions Is Not Agile Coaching
- Coach Know Thyself
While all the themes are intertwined, the “Coach Know Thyself” was the one that spoke to me the loudest during my re-read of the book.
The first of the central themes is that anyone who coaches needs to understand and continue to grow their capabilities. The Agile Coaching Growth Wheel is a tool to evaluate and guide growth. Like coaches, the model is still evolving and growing as Bob noted in our conversation on SPaMCAST. Frameworks are useful but they are even more useful with advice on how to consider them and then use them. Badass provides that guidance. From a coaching perspective, Bob has included several ideas for using the Growth Wheel in your coaching practice.
Planning and retrospecting as part of the coaching arc is the second theme. When I read Badass the first time, the amount of work all of the authors were suggesting coaches spend preparing and then retrospecting on coaching sessions nearly scared me off. I remember thinking “no *#$% way does that make sense”. Then I tried it. I now notice the difference in quality when circumstances prevent me from doing the proper prep and wrap-up work. Winging coaching is a path to mediocrity or worse.
Asking questions to help people learn and introspect is important. Asking questions, the classic professional coaching approach is only a slice of stances required to be a badass agile coach. An agile coach with only one stance to provide value will fail more often than they succeed.
“Coach Know Thyself” is the single most important theme in this entire book. A coach without self-knowledge will have a tough time with introspection and retrospection. In simplest terms, a coach without self-knowledge can’t grow in any effective manner. A coach that isn’t growing can’t be a badass agile coach.
The chapter on diversity by Rhiannon Galen-Personick is very powerful. Her discussion on privilege brought the concept home to me in a way no one has done before. The impact of privilege on my decisions as a coach is never far from the front of my mind now. I am now better at seeing the world and making decisions.
My copy of Extraordinary Badass Agile Coaching is the Kindle version. If it were the paper version it would join the 8 books currently on my “useful” shelf. I need to buy a paper copy.
Next week we begin the re-read of The Team Topologies. We will tackle the front matter and the logistics of the re-read. Buy a copy and read along – https://amzn.to/3nfaYpT
Buy a copy and upgrade your coaching skills – Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond
Previous Installments:
Week 19: Sharpening Your Badass Saw – http://bit.ly/3JQCXEY
Week 18: Setting Up a Badass Agile Coaching Community of Practice – http://bit.ly/3JyPT27
Week 17: Dojo Practices – http://bit.ly/3FlftW7
Week 16: Badass Agile Coach’s Guide to Starting Your Day – http://bit.ly/3Y4Kcgy
Week 15: Situational Awareness as a Badass Agile Coach – http://bit.ly/3KnoJMv
