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So you want to be an Agile Coach, huh? This week on the podcast, return guest, Christy Erbeck, is going to tell you everything you need to know if you\u2019re looking to be a coach!

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In case you haven\u2019t caught Christy on a previous episode, she is a Principal Transformation Consultant at AgileThought and a Certified Dare to Lead\u2122 Facilitator. She has over 25 years of experience in domestic and international consulting, training and coaching, and working in both software development and non-product-focused environments, including manufacturing (discrete and process), distribution, and sales and marketing.

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Christy and Dan discuss what a coach is, what it takes to be a coach, how to become a coach, how to know when you are a coach, the differences between a coach and a trainer, as well as some coaching anti-patterns!

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Key Takeaways

What is a coach?

It is a passion and mindset

As a coach, it is your duty to bring out the best in your team \u2014 you\u2019re there to see what others cannot see

Someone who delivers value to your clients by creating and improving Agile processes within a team

What does it take to be a coach?

The ability to hold space for others to discuss tough subjects

A strong combination of hard and soft skills are required

Hard skills would be your ability to think strategically and tactically; clearly communicate up, down, and across the organization; your ability to tell the truth (even when it\u2019s the last thing people want to hear); and to have real-world experience where you were not the coach

Soft skills would be a healthy sense of self, strong personal boundaries, the ability to empathize with others, a playful spirit, and natural curiosity

You should have had the proper training (for example: through CoachU or Lyssa Atkin\u2019s SolutionsIQ)

Another important soft skill for a coach is to be the \u2018wind behind their wings\u2019 by releasing your ego and allowing the person you are coaching to be front stage

How to become a coach:

A new Scrum Master can experiment with coaching their team and should be there long enough to build a depth of experience \u2014 both good and bad to build a library of experience from

A coach should see multiple success and failure patterns

It\u2019s important to have a strong foundation of your strengths and weaknesses, know how you\u2019re going to respond to different situations, know what might trigger you in a setting, and to do \u2018your work\u2019 before coaching others to do \u2018their work\u2019

It\u2019s important to not assume everyone else has the same success and failure patterns and experiences as you

When you\u2019re walking into a new team as a coach you should always have a beginner\u2019s mind (i.e. the perspective of being fully present in the moment and not projecting on historical experiences)

Anti-patterns of coaching:

Sending in a coach only when a team needs the help

When a manager is considered a coach of an employee (which sets both parties up for failure and is a conflict of interest)

Coaches that do not see their coachees as equals

Difference between a coach and a trainer:

A training stance would be that you are the expert in the given topic and those you are teaching are novices

Trainers impart knowledge to the trainees in a way that they can apply and grow from it

A trainer\u2019s primary skill is to teach

In a coaching stance, you are there to help coachees uncover what they need to learn in order to become their best selves

A coach\u2019s stance is not to be an expert in the person they teach; the person they teach should be the expert of themselves (a coach is just helping a person create space to allow them to follow and blossom)

How do you know when you are a coach? What should you continue to do?

As a coach, you should seek continuous improvement and adopt a lifelong learning mindset

You should continue to improve upon your hard and soft skills

If you want to be a coach, get a coach!

Understand that this is a journey

Ultimately, you will know when you\u2019re ready to become a coach

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Mentioned in this Episode:

Christy Erbeck

Agile Coaches\u2019 Corner Ep. 68: \u201cFixing Your Scrum with Ryan Ripley\u201d

Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems, by Ryan Ripley
and Todd Miller

Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition, by Lyssa Atkins

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, by Peter Block

Becky Hartman #BecauseHuman
CoachU

SolutionsIQ

Agile 2020

Bren\xe9 Brown

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