Let’s start with
a question. What are the things that one has to consider for building a
successful team?
Most people will think of Right Skillset.
Skillset X
Skillset Y
Skillset Z
Is that enough
for a Successful Team?
While Right Skillsets are needed, the reality is if
you ask a group of people to share their experience in a Successful Team, and
find out a pattern from all the stories it would be
Collective Purpose/Goal
Open Communication within and outside
Collaboration
Continuous Improvement or Learning
Let’s relate this to Coaching and explain some of the
benefits of certified agile coach training.
Few excerpts
from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). ICF adheres to a form of
coaching that
honours the client as the expert in their life or
work
believes that every client is creative, resourceful,
and whole
Now, let’s relate to Agile Team coaching — One of
the modalities for team development.
In the team coaching context, the term “client”
represents the team, rather than an individual.
So, going by the context, a team coach should stand
on the belief that.
The team has all the skills to do the job at
hand — Be it simple problems or complex problems. But it becomes much more
necessary for complex problems — More unknowns than knowns.
The Coach shall facilitate an activity for people to
form teams on their own.
Now with one
tenet for a successful team is accounted for, let’s focus on the coach’s process
for a Successful team.
The coach should have the right mindset — Being
open, staying curious always and being mindful that it is everything about the
team.
The coach should have a proper entry into the team,
establishing a partnership with the team members to ensure how team development
accountabilities will be shared among the coach and the team.
The coach helps the team to identify a common
purpose that motivates people to glue themselves as one team. Coach challenges
to ensure the team is in line with the organisation’s priorities.
The coach fosters an environment where individuals
can express their views, perceptions, suggestions transparently among
themselves—at the same time, acknowledging the collective needs.
The coach encourages effective communication within
themselves to build connections to accommodate each other’s strengths and
weaknesses. And effective communication outside of the team to build support
outside of the team proactively.
The coach acts as a mirror to help teams visualise
the critical connections and relationship challenges. Moreover, this will allow
teams to identify the need for effective collaboration to overcome the
relationship challenges pulling the team backwards.
The coach fosters an environment for experimental
learning. This will teach the mindset of seeing the failure as learning thus
helping the team be optimistic.
To do the above,
the coach may use appropriate modalities based on situations — Team Training,
Team Mentoring, Team Facilitation, Team Coaching and Team Consulting. I call
this as Agile Coaching Competencies
Resource: https://tryscrum.com/2021/02/18/coaching-agile-teams/
