A common belief is that the difference between coaching and managing is simply asking questions rather than giving orders. I used to believe this. Instead of making decisions for my teams and telling them what to do I would ask them questions and get them to derive their own solutions. I thought that meant I was coaching. But the more I got into coaching the more I really wanted to make sure I was doing it right and being effective. So, over the past two years, I have invested in myself and in my craft. I have learned everything I can about professional coaching and gotten mentoring by master coaches.
What I learned through the experience is that coaching is A LOT more than just asking questions. In fact, through this experience, I learned that professional coaching skills (and a ton of techniques and coaching models) can mean the difference between being adequate or being excellent for a scrum master, agile coach, or agile manager.
Now, I’m on a mission and a journey to mentor scrum masters in learning coaching skills and show them how to apply them in real-world scenarios with agile teams. As an agile coach, I have the unique opportunity to develop scrum masters in a way that I have never seen done before and I’m excited and humbled to get this opportunity to invest in the careers of a great group of people.
If you are interested in upping your coaching game then read what it takes to become an ICF accredited coach and join one of our professional coaching cohorts. Looking forward to seeing you soon!
