I had breakfast with my friend and colleague Leon Sabarsky the other morning, and we discussed the common evolutionary paths for many agile coaches.
We came up with two primary directions if you will—
One is focused on moving from a background in software product development and then adding or emerging your Agile Coaching skills.
Indicators of this direction include—
I’ve developed software and products (Developer)
I’ve tested those products (Tester)
I’ve developed release pipelines (DevOps)
I’ve developed architectures and requirements (Architect, Business Analyst)
I’ve worked with software product customers and stakeholders (Business Domani)
I’ve led a variety of product development teams (Leadership-Management)
All focused on IT, Technology, Software Products, and Business Agility.
I’ll boil this down to—
You acquired real-world, in the trenches, software domain chops and then you began to coach. While you may have gaps in your Guiding Learning, Facilitation, and Coaching competencies (see Agile Coaching Growth Wheel - ACGW), you have a basic understanding and connection to the technical, business, and problem domains in which you are coaching.
The other direction is that you have a more diversified, non-technical background, for example—
In non-profits
In finance or accounting
In teaching
In nursing
In general management
In facilitation
In social work, therapy
In construction
In project management
In sales, etc.
And you selected Professional Coaching as a career focus. Then you noticed that Agile Coaching (Scrum Mastery, Agile Coaching at various levels—teams, product, organizations) is a thing and you were inspired to move in that direction to become an “Agile Coach.”
I’ll boil this case down to—
You don’t have the domain chops! Of course, you have skills and experience in other areas, but no direct experience in software product development. In other words, not doing the work. This gap is non-trivial and will directly impact the quality of your coaching. For example, your Advising, Lean/Agile, Transforming, Serving, and Leading skills from the ACGW perspective will be your weakest links, at least in the beginning.
It requires hard work on both sides, but…
If you’ve got a technology background as an Agile Coach, you still have a lot of work to do. For example, strengthening your facilitation and coaching skills. Perhaps sharpening your consultative mindset and certainly your communication skills.
That said, you’ve got an excellent baseline of skills that will connect to those you are coaching, and this journey is so much easier.
The journey is a lot harder for those who don’t have the domain skills because it can take years to acquire them. So, what do they do in the interim?
Largely stay in the professional coaching and facilitation stances, which allows them to “get by” with little/no domain knowledge. But the important part here is to—
Admit what you don’t know, stay humble, and work on your self-mastery and self-awareness to understand your strengths and weaknesses clearly.
Pair and collaborate with as many folks as possible to gain the domain skills you’re missing. This will take time and require patience, resilience, and doggedness.
Broaden your self-awareness and stay in your lane as you increase your skills (lane). Importantly, be willing to admit when you need help or when another coach would be a better situational fit.
In short, Buckle Up, Buttercup, and get ready to “Bust you’re A** Learning” because this journey is the harder of the two directions.
Wrapping Up
Self-awareness is key in both journey directions. But I would argue that the non-domain experience journey is so much harder and fraught with more risk, for example—
Risk of not showing your value,
Risk of not knowing what you’re talking about,
Risk of controlling your ego and hubris,
Risk of not being able to adopt the stances that your clients need,
Risk of not being self-aware of your gaps and the urgency you need to apply to your learning.
So, to answer the question in the title—Agile Coaches: Does the direction of your journey matter?
The answer is—Yes.
Both directions are challenging, but professional coaches who want to BE well-rounded Agile Coaches, better buckle up for a wild ride of longer-term, patient, and deeper domain learning.
Stay agile, my friends,
Bob.
As a follow-up to the article, you might find my Agile Coaching journey useful as an example. You can read about it here.