Abstract:Instead of talking about the value that Agile coaching can bring to an organization, today we will look at the path that Agile coaching has taken and perhaps some of the value it can provide.

Everyone says this is the time of Vuca, change and uncertainty. Then Agile can better cope with changes and uncertainties, focus on customer value, fast iterative feedback, continuous improvement, and keep people enthusiastic and engaged in work. This is also the reason why Agile has been prevalent in IT for the past two decades. This trend is gradually expanding into the transformation of traditional enterprises, such as automobile manufacturing, FMCG, finance, etc., and IT is unstoppable.

One role that has played a huge role in these enterprise agile transitions is the Agile Coach. It is said that in a domestic IT industry salary survey this year, agile coaches ranked the top. Instead of talking about the value that Agile coaching can bring to an organization, today we will look at the path that Agile coaching has taken and perhaps some of the value it can provide.

2020 is a critical year for my Agile journey. I became a team coach in Scrum Alliance, then the fourth in the country, and was Certified Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Certified Product Owner (CSPO). This is a huge affirmation and milestone for me, and it also supports me to continue on this difficult path.

Before transitioning to Agile coaching, I worked as a team manager in a large foreign company and felt pretty good about everything. But there is also anxiety about career development and not knowing where they are going next. When I spent a lot of energy on optimizing the team process and improving the quality, I accidentally came across agile and applied for a try in the team. This was in 2012, and it was the beginning of my experience with Agile. Learning while trying, transforming an entire line of business into an agile one, and doing it for five years. Until 2017, due to my solid experience in Agile transition and passion for Agile, I had the opportunity to be an Agile coach in the Asia Pacific region of the company. By chance, I met the CST teacher at the Global Agile Conference and started the participation of the agile community. In that international conference, I got to know a lot of famous agile coaches, listened to a lot of experience sharing and discussion, and received a lot of inspiration. Since then, the process of becoming a professional Agile coach has officially begun.

8 essential skills for an agile coach

1. Experience of team-level agile coach

Solid team-level Agile coaching experience, contact with teams of different types, backgrounds and maturity, and give guidance and leadership to different teams. The accumulated experience of dozens of teams can greatly enhance professional skills to deal with different situations. This is the part that I really got involved in and accumulated myself. I am not sure if there is a shortcut, but this part of the accumulation will be used in the future coaching work.

Agile leadership

What is the hardest part of the Agile transition? I think it’s leadership. If the leader is supportive and driven by a strong will, then there is a good foundation for transformation. So what skills do Agile coaches need? Good communication skills, the ability to manage up, influence, and coach, can get the boss to support and have a certain amount of patience to work together towards the goal.

3. Guiding skills

For junior Agile coaches, I think the need for coaching skills is higher than the need for professional coaching skills. Coaching skills can be used in a variety of situations, notably in meetings to increase productivity and motivation. If you master the mind method, you can also use it in dialogue. I have learned to guide at least ten years of time, at the beginning is to check some information and books, while learning to use, has felt very effective. Later, I studied under Pepe Nummi, the first president of the Finnish Guidance Association, who was both honest and humble, which helped me to improve my guidance skills a lot, and also obtained the certification of Pepe’s guidance courses in China.

4. Training skills

This really took a lot of work after I switched to coaching. I have done team training before, but I have not done professional training for two consecutive days. After speaking for the first time, I felt my throat was full of smoke, and the whole person was super tired. There were also some unsatisfactory points in the content. The other partner helped to record all the lessons and then review and re-adjust them based on the feedback so that all the Agile related courses could be delivered in high quality. I also learned some vocal skills, combined with some guiding techniques in the course, the effect is getting better and better.

5. Professional coaches

The position is Agile Coach, so there is a coach in it. The most common one is the athletic coach, so why can a football team win? The players are one thing, but they also need a good coach. Coaches can give professional guidance, share experience, formulate tactics, relieve and encourage emotions… Most importantly, coaching focuses on results and the future, which is very different from counseling.

In terms of professional coaching, I did not choose the professional courses of International Coach Federation ICF at the very beginning. Instead, I chose to learn from Mr. Vernon Stinebaker, whose teacher is PCC. Under the guidance of my teacher, I systematically studied the Path to Coaching program of Scrum Alliance, and the teacher also gave me one-on-one guidance for a long time. I also added Coaches Rising, an international organization that Coaches Coaches like Jennifer Coaches Rising, author of The Evolution of Leadership Consciousness. After a lot of practice, he has basically reached the professional coaching level of ACC and successfully passed the assessment of Scrum Alliance in this respect. So this year, I choose to participate in the professional coaching system learning, can continue to improve in this respect.

6. Self-awareness

In the last two or three years, I’ve found myself more sensitive because of professional coaching. When something happens, or there are some ideas in your mind, you can look at the logic of your thinking, your focus, why do you have such emotions or ideas? Could this be wrong? What is their starting point? Even if I disagree, can I sincerely thank you and accept? How can you change your language to create a better collaborative space? This awareness is evident not only in the workplace but also in the personal life. In the past, you might get angry when you say something, but now you can detect a pattern, so you can effectively manage and improve it. It also opens up the possibility of the evolution of self-awareness, detecting patterns of the self, breaking old patterns and building new ones. The process is long, but the transformation is inevitable.

7. Keep learning

Every agile person is full of upward force, whether in thought or action. There has been constant learning, classes, meetings, sharing and so on. Of course I am no exception. Every year I continue to improve myself, and this year I have invested a lot in professional coaching and leadership.

8. Involvement from the Agile community

What is obvious to me is the investment in building an agile community. Not only do we organize various national Agile conventions, but we also have small sharing sessions. This year, a weekly coaching clinic was organized in the hope of providing practical experience to agile practitioners. Most of my time outside of work, other than studying, is in community building. This has certainly given me endless feedback, as well as support and recognition from my community partners. I always say that the community gives me strength, so I am grateful to the community too! It might have something to do with my personality as an extrovert who needs feedback and energy from their environment. To build a good community together is what each of us should do, because the community is the soil that will enable us to develop healthily for a long time.

Is it enough to be a good coach? This is just the beginning. There is still a lot to learn. Such as innovation, performance systems, large-scale agile implementation, traditional domain transformation, organizational evolution…

The last

When I gradually improve my ability and make solid progress in every step, I am sure to provide more value to the organization and make the organization recognize this value. Coaching is a profession that needs to be accumulated, but it is also a profession that will last forever. A lot of things can be replaced by artificial intelligence, but dealing with people is probably the last bastion to be conquered. Come on together!

May we all have the right to make our own choices – that’s what I’ve been looking for, the right to make my own choices! Wish each of our partners can live out the self, the fire in the heart, the light in the eyes!

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