Coaching at the Very Beginning

• The coaching intervention at the beginning of the teams first sprint together sets the tone for much of what follows
• Coaching intervention as the team start-up, teaching the team about the agile framework to be used
• Teaching them about the vision of the project and the work ahead.

Coaching in the Middle

• In the middle of the sprint, coaching at the whole team level quites down.
• As a simple, lightweight  conversation between team members, a midsprint check yields renewed ideas and plans about how they are going to get the rest of the work done.
• Since agile coaches protect the teams' ability to focus by leaving them alone to work - midsprint is the perfect time for individual coaching
• When someone does something particularly helpful or powerful, talk to them about it in front of the rest of the team.

Coaching at the End

• The end signals a natural time for the team to look back at how they've worked together and decide what to do to make the next sprint even better.
• The retrospective - during this intervention, facilitate the teams conversation so that they come up with a few things they agree to change in the next sprint
• Generate a list of improvements
• Learn how best to learn from one another.

Coaching at the Release Level

• Coach individuals and teams at the same time.

Coaching Tone

• No matter whether you are coaching at the whole team or individual level, set your coaching tone to these frequencies
• Love
• Compassionate
• Uncompromising
• You don’t ever have to say these words - love, compassion - for them to know that they are valued and supported.
• Coaching helps each person get to that next level of professional growth that makes their work relevant to their whole life.
• True saying in coaching - a friend loves you the way you are - a coach loves you too much to let you stay that way.
• Love them too much to let them stay that way.
• You know what an excellent agilist looks like, talks like, and acts like.
• Teams whose definition of agile has been twisted around dysfunction of the people in and around the team and the organization itself
• As their coach - I hold out a clear picture of what agile done well looks like, and I do not ever compromise that vision.

Coaching People One-On-One

• There comes a time to work with people one on one.
• Four pieces of groundwork to set in place
• Meet them a half step ahead
• Guarantee safety
• Partner with managers
• Create a positive regard

Meet The a Half Step Ahead

• The basic principal in coaching states - that we meet our coaching clients 'where they are' - not where we are or where we thing they should be or where we know they have the ability to go - but where they are, right now.
• To detect where they are - listen to them.
• Listen to their beliefs about how the working world works and should work.

Guarantee Safety

• Agile coaches uphold an environment of experimentation and risk taking because we know that only such a place will brilliance emerge.
• Coach them to work together to resolve problems within the team.

Partner with Managers

• Positive intentions revolve around your desire to help each person reach their full potential.
• Each team members manager affects the whole team overtly and covertly.
• Overtly, the managers performance review expectations drive certain behaviors
• If the manager does not support agile, its hard for the team member to invest fully in the team.
• Basically you need to know how the team will be rewarded so you can see whether it supports or thwarts working in a shared commitment environment.
• Manager realized how detrimental the message would be to his main goal - which was to get more and better products from the agile teams.
• Partnering with managers can often be helpful and essential.
• In a sense some intense coaching coming up soon with a team member- let the team members manager in on the action.
• The behavior that gets in the way of an agile team is the very behavior the manager has been telling a direct report they should improve for some time.
• Agile gives managers great help in that regard. Because an agile demands full participation.

Create Positive Regard

• You don’t have to like people you coach - but you do have to help them.
• They know when you view them as a problem to solve rather than as a human being with hopes, dreams, desires.
• Stay out of the box and see people as people rather than as problems.
• As you prepare to coach someone - check yourself.
• A truly compassionate attitude towards others does not change even if they behave negatively.
• Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations but rather on needs of the other.
• Feel genuine compassion for where this person is in life and work.
• You are ready to be uncompromising in your knowledge of what it means to be a good agile team member and to help a person move towards that vision.

How you Coach People One-On-One

• Starting the Coaching Conversation
• Its almost certain that the coachee will not be accustomed to real conversation in the workplace. So they will likely be uncomfortable at first.
• As soon as you start coaching a team, open the one-on-one conversations immediately when there's nothing wrong and there's every chance for a wide ranging open dialog.
• Remember your job - to help each team member take the next step in their agile journey.
• Watch for the Arc of the Conversation.
• Look for the arc of the conversation
• Conversation Beginning.
• Someone started the conversation -
• Usually its venting on the coachee part
• Be aware of when the real reason the coachee has started to talk begins
• Conversation Middle.
• This happens because the coach asks powerful questions that invite introspection
• Note something the coach purposefully avoids during the conversation - problem solving
• Conversation End
• Once the coachee has chosen the action to take, the coach supports the coachee by setting up accountability for that action.
• As you repeatedly coach someone, without forcing, move from soft accountability to explicit accountabilities.
• Remain on the same peer level with the coachee
• Keep it positive and moving forward
• The person is more important than the formula.
• Subject Matter Expertise Coaching
• All of these people may have far more subject matter expertise in their specific area than you have.
• Coaching From a Distance
• When you coach at a distance - you will not witness the events as they unfold on the team firsthand.
• Know your Limits
• Your main job as agile coach revolves around enabling people to use agile well
• Reinforcing practices or helping someone see how agile solves something they struggle with
• Means getting into how people feel about their work or their role on team
• Expect that as you coach people will start to open up to you - work and life.
• Offer expertise about agile - don’t offer your expert opinion on their life

Coaching Product Owners

• Working with product owners means teaching them their role and then showing them how to work agile to their best advantage.
• Need to focus on business value and not on managing the next move of every team member.
• They will need to learn to trust the team.
• Show the product owner new ways for agile to benefit their company and their careers.
• To be able to coach product owners - you need a common language.
• Once they understand their role - then you start coaching them
• You must address anything that affects the teams ability to deliver and improve.
• Focus on team improvement - team health rather than personal opinion or politics
• Coaching the product owner - three categories
• Running their business
• Being product owner for the team
• Getting good at the product owner role.