Agile Coaching for Scrum Masters

By Antonio Montes Orozco

When a Scrum Master decides to become certified, they must learn by heart that this role refers both to become a Mentor ("teacher") and a Coach ("motivator"). In this work, Antonio Montes Orozco, author of "Scrum for Non-Techies" and "The Work Stress Cycle", once again shows his amazing synthesis capacity to explain, in 100 pages, what a Scrum Master needs to know about Agile Coaching. This work contains multiple examples that make it an essential guide for any Scrum Master who wants to delve into the world of Coaching. It is also highly recommended for all those leaders who want to learn how to hold productive conversations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Antonio Montes Orozco
• Release date: Dec 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393513452

Antonio Montes Orozco

A la hora de presentarme, creo que lo mejor es empezar por el principio. Me formé como ingeniero de telecomunicaciones y he trabajado como administrador de sistemas y programador en C++. En 2006 conocí la metodología Scrum y me he especializado en este campo, trabajando como profesional por cuenta ajena y como consultor independiente. En 2014 me certifiqué como Scrum Manager y en 2015 como practicante de Agile por el prestigioso Project Management Institute. Con el tiempo me he ido formando como coach, tanto en mi área de especialización como a un nivel más general. En 2020, obtuve el Máster «Coaching & Mentoring Fundamentals for Agile», por la Escuela Europea de Coaching de España; además, he sido certificado como coach por la prestigiosa International Coaching Foundation. Al mismo tiempo, soy escritor. Un escritor peculiar, que no se ciñe a un género concreto, sino que publica aquello que considera que puede ayudar a otras personas. Por eso he publicado dos libros dirigidos a las personas interesadas en la metodología Scrum, tanto a nivel básico («Scrum para No Informáticos») como avanzado («Agile Coaching para Scrum Masters»). También he publicado un libro de ficción sobre el estrés laboral, basado en mi propia experiencia profesional («El Ciclo del Estrés Laboral»). Pero no me he conformado con escribir libros dirigidos a profesionales. También he publicado uno dirigido a cualquier persona interesada en el sentido profundo de su vida. Se titula «Madurando Tu Fe Católica». En 2016 volví a la Fe Católica y he sentido la inquietud y la necesidad de compartir mi camino espiritual con otras personas. El resultado ha sido este libro. Lo escribí pensando en las personas que, como yo mismo, hemos sido educadas en la Fe Católica pero luego la abandonamos. Como adultos, necesitamos un mapa para reencontrarnos con ella. Pero el libro también ayudará a cualquier persona que sienta la inquietud de encontrar el sentido profundo de su vida.

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Table of Contents

Introduction...... .........................

Definitions and Previous Principles............

Trust.....................................

Listening..................................

The Ladder of Inference.....................

Nonviolent Communication...................

Feedback..................................

Observer OSAR Model.......................

Methodologies to Generate Action Plans........

Questions..................................

The Change of Beliefs.......................

Examples of Coaching Sessions...............

How to Be a Coach........................

Conclusion.................................

Special Thanks.............................

About the Author...........................

Credits....................................

Introduction

In the Agile Scrum framework, the role of Scrum Master is the team leader, who must have a deep understanding of Scrum to be able to teach it to the team, acting as a mentor for it. In addition, they must have a series of conversational skills typical of Coaching, in order to motivate the team and lead it to high performance. Therefore, the Scrum Master is both a mentor (teacher) and a coach (motivator).

In this book I explain the conversational skills that every Scrum Master needs to have to become a great motivator for change in the team they lead.

I hope that, with these new tools, you will lead your team to high performance.

To get the most out of this book, you need to know the Agile philosophy and, specifically, the Scrum framework. If not, I recommend reading my first book, Scrum for Non-Techies.

Dedicated to:

Alejandro Polo and Fernando Vargas, for the constant support they’ve given to me

Definitions and Previous Principles

WITHOUT INVOLVEMENT THERE IS NO COMMITMENT

This is the key principle around which all ‘Agilism’ (which is how I define the Agile movement) and the entire philosophy of Coaching revolves. This key principle teaches us that, for the individual to commit to an action, they must participate in the decision that leads to undertaking that action. Its creator is Stephen Covey, author of the famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The immediate consequence of this principle is that hierarchical orders generate low-quality actions, since the subordinates who undertake them are not committed. If we want high-quality actions undertaken from the commitment, it is necessary to let the subordinate participate in the decision-making process.

The second consequence of this principle is that change cannot be born from a piece of advice given to us, but from our own reflection. This is the key to Coaching. The coach doesn’t intend to give advice, but to make us reflect so that we realize what we need. Only through full involvement in the decision to undertake an action will we commit to carry it out. In short: the motivation for our action must lie in our own reflection.

DEFINITION OF COACH AND COACHING

After introducing Stephen Covey's principle and clarifying what motivates us to act, we can now define what it is that is so fashionable, the thing that we call Coaching.

One of the institutions that regulates the Coach profession is the ICF (International Coach Federation). This institution defines Coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Therefore, a coach is not a counselor, but an inspirer and motivator who accompanies us in our reflections to reach our full potential.

From this definition we can begin to realize what qualities are necessary to motivate someone without counseling. The first thing is knowing how to listen. This is difficult because, dear reader, in our societies we are not taught to listen. When someone speaks to us, we are constantly applying our filters and beliefs, issuing judgments and opinions, or we are looking forward to intervening to show off our wisdom, so we are wanting our interlocutor to finish so that we can speak. Many discussions with our partner or with coworkers have their origin in this ignorance that we don’t know how to listen properly.

We already know that the coach is an expert listener, but how are they going to make us reflect? How do they make us realize our possibilities? All this is achieved through questions. The purpose of a Powerful Question is to put our entire brain in the right disposition to make a choice and commit to an action.

Listening and answering the questions that the coach asks us will lead us to realize our needs and to look for a plan of action. Therefore, the third skill that the coach must have is to know methodologies to generate action plans and carry them out. There we will see the GROW methodology, and another simpler one that I have named FCA.

To open our hearts to the questions that the coach asks us, we must have great trust. This brings us to the last, great skill that the coach must possess, and that is to be trustworthy.

In short, the coach is a person in whom we fully trust, and who offers themself to us body and soul to listen to us, understands us, empathizes with us and, through ‘Powerful Questions’, help us become aware of ourselves in order to commit ourselves to concrete improvement actions. To help us undertake these improvement actions, the coach is an expert in methodologies to generate action plans and carry them out.

Now that we are clear about what a coach is, we can already distinguish what qualities they will have and which they won’t. A coach will be a facilitator, a leader, a companion, a belief detector, and a person who, above all, generates trust. On the other hand, a coach is not a psychologist, nor a consultant, nor a confessor, nor the protagonist of the conversation.

THE LANGUAGE

Coaching includes the following three postulates about language:

- Humans are linguistic beings. That is, they express their ideas through words.

- The fallacy of descriptive language. Language not only describes but creates reality. This leads us to be extremely careful with it, since we can eliminate the possibility of improvement by using victimizing language. In this

Reviews for Agile Coaching for Scrum Masters

[Michael G · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Painful to read such a “softie” author. More a lesson in psychology than Agile coaching

[Milagros Apruzzese · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve enjoyed the book a lot. It is the ideal complement to the first, "Scrum for Non-Techies", since the Coaching part is never explained in the Scrum books. I find the book very surprising, because you realize that knowing how to listen is something tremendously difficult. The examples make everything very clear to me, and by coming in the form of dialogues, they have hooked me. In addition, it is very easy to read and very quickly. After reading it, I want to become a coach. Highly recommended, really.