• Agile Transformation

If you want to accelerate you have to go full speed ahead

I ride the boards to splinters. In front of me, Teun Mulder’s wheels take the inside bend and Theo Bos pounds the pedals. Together we grab the silver medal in the team sprint at the 2005 World Track Cycling Championships. The success of years of investment in top sport. “But is there also a downside to that medal?”, a participant at one of our training sessions asked me the other day. I can tell you: yes, there is.

Sounds like I’m being pessimistic. Far from it. I was able to do what made me happiest of all until I was 32 years old: ride my bike hard. And that too in a top sports environment. From a young age I have lived for the pedals, always wondering how I could go even faster, how I could increase my lead. And so not entirely without success. Until I stepped off the saddle in 2016 and chose Agile Transformation Coaching full time.

Off the saddle, on the line

‘Yes Tim, now you really need to start working,’ I think at that moment. You could say my working life didn’t start until I was 32. Because in all those years when others are busy with training, careers and jobs, I’m on my bike. Where my Scrum Academy colleagues spend years gaining experience in coaching, organizational development or entrepreneurship, I’m in the strength room. To be honest: then, as a grown man, to have to instinctively start from scratch again creates tension. Fortunately, I know competitive tension and know, right then, “Now I have to get going!

Coaching is top sport

To stick with cycling terminology, it was time to close the gap. But which way? Fortunately, the answer came from within. Because already during my sports career I became increasingly interested in coaching and often thought about how I would approach something as a coach. Why is this team not performing well and why is the other team performing well? What conditions are really important for an individual to accelerate? Questions that I still deal with today as an Agile Coach.

Initial impetus

With my interest in coaching and the urge to redevelop myself, I find myself in a Scrum Academy training room in 2016. With Agile Transformation expert Gert-Jan as my trainer. The seed has been planted. Eagerly, I absorb the material and enter the conversation with my later colleague after the training. Soon I feel: this is the moment to accelerate and to catch the wind at my back. So I follow training after training. To register for more in-depth training the following year. I complete training courses, join experienced trainers and coaches in the profession. Immerse myself in their cases. Read tons of books. Get all the papers. So that eventually I can work as a coach myself and take on more complex challenges every year. And I keep on doing that.

In the lead

Okay, now to say that I’m riding all the way to the front today might be an exaggeration. I still want and can still learn more, keep accelerating. But at least it feels like I’ve caught up. And I am now very aware of the fact that my qualities and insights, gained in top sport, add a lot to, for example, the Transformation Coaching for companies. that I provide. I feel fit in my role as a coach, but am certainly not resting on my laurels. I am still going full steam ahead! My colleagues also notice this during our annual Scrum Academy cycling weekend.

I am curious:

At what moments do you feel the energy to really go full steam ahead with yourself or your team? Let me know. Then maybe I can help you accelerate, get ahead, get in the lead. That’s what I like to do as a coach. But beware: I remain a top athlete who likes to make meters, so know what you are getting into.

PS You might also find this interesting? I wrote another blog on how to deal with headwinds from the organization when you want to go full steam ahead.