AGILE COACHING

Today’s rapidly changing, complex business environment requires organizations to move away from rigid and limiting processes to more agile and adaptive processes that will help improve their business performance. It is upon the premise of this need that Agile Coaching was developed.

So, what exactly is Agile Coaching? 

Agile Coaching is fast becoming one of the most relevant human resources management skills for leaders in the workplace. Ordinarily, coaching utilizes unique and proven tools and processes that offer desired results. And these tools and methodologies are used as guides for all types of coaching. 

However, with Agile Coaching, the emphasis is not primarily on a set of processes. The key is being able to become flexible in your approach and to work around various tools and methodologies to achieve the desired outcome. For instance, when with regular coaching, you undeviatingly maintain a specific route in working with your coachees to achieve the desired outcome, with Agile, you have the flexibility to observe what is working and what is not, and to switch methodologies on the spot, e.g switching from coaching to therapy and vice versa as required within the business environment. 

The effectiveness of Agile Coaching lies in being able to switch swiftly to build rapport and mirror our coachees and use various coaching techniques. Agile is fast becoming more accepted and it is changing the way we approach work, problems, getting together with teams and collaborating.

Agile starts with the mindset of not waiting until there is an identified need for coaching but wearing one's coaching hat regularly.  

The greatest value of Agile is that it eliminates the need for micro-managing and it instead creates an atmosphere for building trust while doing our job within the business environment.

As Coaches, one of our key responsibilities is to help people separate incidents from fundamentals and help them design their path to desired outcomes. With the growth mindset, helping people change the way they think and approach problems. Its approach is in sprints.

The Benefit of Agile Coaching

Without dispute, the most notable benefit of Agile is that it helps coaches to quickly identify solutions and therefore eliminate problems very quickly.

Agile is able to do this because of its flexibility feature that enables coaches to switch between tools for effective results. With Agile practice, you can learn and do quickly.

A Brief Word on Scrum 

Scrum is one of the frameworks of Agile. It helps to create teams that are transparent and retrospective. It’s also a set of behaviors and processes that commit you to those behaviours.

How Does One Become An Agile Coach?

The starting point is to have the right mindset. To become an Agile Coach, you have to become adaptive in your thinking. Because Agile involves the deployment of several tools and methodologies, it's critical to be constantly learning and even more critical to stay curious.

The hallmark qualities of an Agile Coach are:

Continuous learning, Creativity, Innovation, and Learning by Doing.

 These qualities help one to build agility in coaching. 

The Need For Agile in Today's Workplace   

One only needs to see the sheer power of Agile in action to appreciate the need for it in all workplaces.

Sadly, too many HR professionals don’t seem to be paying much attention to Agile.

For instance, some industries have been talking a lot about Digital Transformation but it appears as if they haven’t distilled enough to see that the Agile Methodology is a big competence imperative.

The value of Agile's principles and manifesto is the preeminence of individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

It’s a huge learning area that we need to project in managing our firm's transformation agenda- an inside out transformation. And in pursuing this agenda, Knowledge Management is our number one lever.

As long as today's business landscape remains unpredictable, characterized by spontaneous changes, competitive climes, and a VUCA environment, adaptability remains and Agile will always be King!

CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS FROM HR GEM COACHES;

? ‘Lara Yeku

? Ayodeji Oyewumi

? Toyin Ismail