Becoming an Agile Coach w/ Tim Wise

September 28, 2017

Dave Prior

Reading: Becoming an Agile Coach w/ Tim Wise

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We received a question from someone who’s been working as a Scrum Master for awhile and is considering moving into coaching. They just weren’t sure how to tell if it was the correct next step and had a lot of questions about what the job involved, what skills were needed, etc.

In this week’s podcast, Tim Wise and Dave Prior discuss the role of an Agile coach, what it involves, the day to day work, what skills are needed and—if you’re in that role—some important things to watch out for.

Show Notes

0:08 Interview Begins
00:25 How Tim ended up working in Agile Coaching
03:32 What skills do you need to be an Agile Coach
06:12 What is the job of a coach – at the team and enterprise level?
09:08 What you need to move from being a ScrumMaster (coaching one team) to being a coach of multiple teams
12:33 Is it better to work as a consultant, moving from team to team and seeing lots of ways of making Agile work (and not) or is it better to stick with one team and get them to a high performing state?
14:30 What areas Tim had to focus on to become effective at providing coaching for multiple teams
16:11 Mentoring, school or hard knocks, or surrounding yourself with brilliant people?
18:53 Be wary of “EXPERTS”
19:28 Moving past imposter syndrome
22:05 Knockaround Guys… 500 fights to consider yourself a legitimate tough guy
23:32 Will coaching camp or certification make you a good coach?
26:07 Always be the student
27:57 Understanding your own coaching shortcomings… and how they may somtimes be strengths
31:00 Practice the skills you need to take risks and be vulnerable
32:00 Avoiding the addiction to pontificating after the team fails
35:15 What does a coach do all day
39:20 How the day breaks down if you are doing team level coaching
40:04 Working with the Executives and using Social Engineering for good
41:41 Two additional skills to work on
43:12 Understanding your own capacity
45:55 How much selling is an Agile Coach required/expected to do
48:28 Building the desire for change
51:54 What does Tim with he had been told about coaching before he got started down the path
53:11 You never know when the seeds will germinate
55:30 Keeping it fresh for yourself
56:38 Getting in touch with Tim
56:57 Scrum Atlanta User Group events
57:41 Interview Ends – Knockaround Guys