• Agile Coach

The 9 questions every Agile Coach should ask themselves. And often does too little.

What is the difference between coach and an Agile Coach?

They both coach, both have the intention of making the other better, but where is the real difference? The Agile Coach’s toolbox of coaching techniques is largely similar to that of any other business coach.

You also use conversation techniques, you are sometimes a teacher, sometimes a facilitator or a mentor. So what makes the guidance of the Agile Coach really Agile Coaching? That’s in the Agile and Lean expertise on the one hand and especially in the intention on the other. He coaches on a number of specific elements. Such as:

• increasing empirical capacity of a team and organization,
• validating customer value,
• On self-organization and ownership,
• On prioritization and focus and
• Getting a rhythm and heartbeat in the organization.

So the Agile Coach you yourself have very clear focuses on which you coach. These are broadly described in the goals above, but provide clear direction in achieving an ultimate Agile Mindset.

It is that intention of the Agile Coach that makes the difference from other forms of coaching. And the ultimate thing the Agile Coach can achieve with a team/organization is that the Agile Coach is redundant. So that the teams completely independently deliver customer value and organize themselves and continuously improve. An Agile Coach and an Agile team do not reach that point overnight. In three areas this is intensive:

Within the team. Is the team able to make the best use of each other’s talents and resolve conflicts constructively with each other? This involves coaching a team to become self-organizing and high performing, as is often the case in scrum master training.

Coaching the team’s environment. Is the team given the space to perform their best? The team must be able to live and move in an ecosystem that encourages them and gives them the space to perform.

Customer relevance. Are we still adding the highest value? The focus should not just be within the team and organization, but should instead be about relevance to customers.

A good Agile coach guides the team in these 3 areas. This requires a lot from the person behind the coach.

The self-insight of the Agile Coach

A good Agile Coach lives through the Agile and Lean principles to the core. The Agile Coach has a very clear vision of what Agile stands for and lives and acts accordingly.

With everyone calling themselves Agile Coach all the time, it is wise to take a critical look at yourself. To separate the wheat from the chaff. Put yourself under the microscope.

“A good Agile Coach lives through all the Agile values himself and applies them. So nothing for the stage, but practice what you preach!”

A good Agile Coach knows himself through and through and knows what he is very good at and what he still needs to work on. He knows his ‘red’ (and green) buttons and knows here with the so-called ‘self-management’ what he can do with them. Our handy Canvas helps you increase your self-insight. In 9 steps you bring focus to who you are as an Agile Coach.

Take an hour and fill in all the areas for yourself:

• What is your vision of Agile? And what does Agile mean to you? Why is Agile important to you?
• Who are you as a coach? What are your values, qualities? And what is your mission statement?
• What is your Moonshot? And what is your ambition?
• What makes you persuasive? What experience do you bring with you?
• Who do you want to be a coach for? I which organizations? For which teams? And who don’t you want to be there for?
• With what are you making an impact? And with what trait do you increase your impact? With what actions?
• What will you do less of or even quit? And what are you doing now that contributes nothing to your role as a coach?
• What are you actually doing much too little or not yet? And what should you actually do?
• How do you put yourself in motion? What will you continue to develop in? How will you keep yourself sharp? What will be your first steps (your own development backlog) that you want to have achieved within 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 quarter?

Your development is also an ongoing process

Of course, you don’t complete these steps once and then you’re done. You develop yourself and adjust your plan as needed. A quarterly refinement of your own is not so crazy. Everything starts with the first steps. So what will be your impactful steps in this year? What does your plan look like? What will you conquer the new year with?

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