🥋5 silent battles many Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches go through and how tackle them.

Bali, Indonesia. © Marcin Konkel . All rights reserved.

I've lived through all of them. You are not alone. This is what made a difference for me ✌🏼

🫵🏼 Disclaimer:

The intention of this essay is not to victimise the roles.

It's to name some of the things many are going through and search for answers on how to take ownership and do the best job we can.

On LinkedIn I see people commenting how the market is broken and SMs/ACs are doing shitty jobs. I don’t think that helps.

What helps is supporting them with kind and constructive feedback, showing different perspectives and educating the organisations on what skills are needed to help the teams.

I did that with Igor Szwedzinski with an 'Agile HR' meetup that we run for more than a year ( with 600+ members) to help HR create better and more intentional offers for SMs/ACs.

If you're hiring for the above roles, check my thread on traits to look for:

Marcin Konkel 🚢 @m_konkel

Anyone interested in recruiting Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches should read this 🔬 I believe that the years of experience (seniority) in the role do not matter, yet experience matters. Same thing? I recruited change agents for a few companies, and these are my thoughts.

#1 Lack of appreciation 🙏🏽

Our work can be less tangible than PO or a developer thus, try to:

• Measure your work and transparently show it to others.

• Solve problems that hurt, don't go just searching for any problems to fix.

• Appreciate yourself 👇🏼

• Ask yourself on Friday each week:

  • What did I achieve this week?

  • What value did I deliver to others?

• Appreciate others' work, share kudos.

#2 Hate 😤

Strong emotions are not about you but the other person. That said:

• Listen to what they are really saying and understand the real "why"; ask about the intention.

• Listen to what people need and help them achieve that, remove impediments.

• Do your best work that you can be proud off.

• Don't forget that you're there for them, not only for yourself.

• If it's toxic or you've had enough - change the team or quit. Take care of your mental health as you can't change others - they need to decide to make a change.

#3 Lack of support 🤝

I was hired without any support from the org. It sucked. What to do:

• Be vocal and to the point on what support you need.

• If nobody introduced you to the org - introduce yourself and why you are there.

• Check expectations with your sponsor.

• Build a community (formal or informal) of like-minded people.

• Don't take up jobs where people who hire you don't want to get their hands dirty and support the change that was their decision in the first place.

#4 Loneliness 👤

Nothing can substitute a person in the same role and company you work with hand-in-hand. That said:

• Look for outside mentoring or a partner to discuss things with.

• Learn from other positions in the org based on what skills you want to develop.

• Attend community meetings, workshops, webinars.

• Use coaching or other forms of support.

#5 Impostor syndrome 🫥

This problem concerns everyone. Few thoughts:

• Know what you don't know. Don't fake it - people will notice. Learn it.

• Note down what you want to learn next.

• Embrace your strengths, level up weaknesses to a good enough level (if needed).

• Make an impact.

• Be kind to yourself.