Lessons Learnt - 10 new rituals

Agile coaching is a journey and self transformation is an integral part of it...

What's new in it? we all know this. We all in some form or shape have been part of this from last 2 decades. But, i know one thing that is unique about it - " MY JOURNEY IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS" & I will be sharing it in set of few lessons or topics (alomost 12) I experienced in this journey. I will use this as main and cut it in sub-sections. Target is to atleast write half of it by #EOY2021 or Q12022... ( Edited - Q4 2022 is when i am finally ending this thread and starting new)

So, let's start with - what is unique in agile coaching journey - "Its YOU! yes, of course you" ; you are the most amazing and best experience you can bring to be the best Agile Coach!!!

Your life is a treasure & you are so much more than you know!! Exploring -Who we are helps us to run this journey well

Lesson 1 : 10 rituals i found helpful in this journey

1. We all know learning is going to be never ending be it self or through mentors/trainings etc. But what i realized after few years is segregating reading, viewing, talking , listening casually as separate routine and spending dedicated time to LEARN ON SPECIFIC TOPIC in depth as true learning that i can use. taking notes or creating content. We can remember all our experiences and learnings so we should wisely document & share it
2. Developing Grit. Focusing on improving some specific skill and keep on enhancing them, you can change plans, planning, objectives but don't loose on Goals and Purpose you have chosen for yourself.
3. Your role should be aligned to your value, principles and you should feel for the purpose. Coaching can't be done as side role - its a very different role & you need to polish your skills.
4. To perform the role of coach you need courage and ability to take risks, many times you need to change projects, switch programs/clients and jobs to learn new things, practice your skills and face new challenges.
5. Coaches should focus on creating impact and value for others, many times we don't get glory but that is true servant leadership mindset of a coach. we should focus to enhance performance of others or teams
6. You should spend a lot of your time with like minded people and coaches. We should surround ourselves with coaches who will challenge us and help us to learn new things
7. We all know that coaches help others to BE THEIR BEST VERSION but for that we as a coach should also have some unique techniques & we should identify that what's our differentiator - some prefer People & culture , others as OKR, Product transformation, Technical mastery, Framework enablement etc etc...
8. Don't burn yourself in over expectations and commitments. There will always be high and low curves even as a coach role. Focus in your journey on the milestones/goals and not to tight on timelines. Smart work might pay you more than hard work.
9. Agile coaching is a marathon that you will run in sprints. Have clear goals, set your cadence but clarity & informed decisions will help you to achieve your vision. Its not a random journey or as complex as Life....
10. Find a mentor, choose your role models and your immediate motivators who inspires you on this coaching industry. Be aware of industry trends and keep going.....

Lesson 2 - Agile Coaching & why i decided to pick this role

Now i have around 17 years of experience, but when did i decide that i can perform this role... I was introduced to agile around 2010 but the role of coach and its significance i understood few years later when I got a chance to work with some brilliant coaches & the impact they made on my ways of working and mindset. My journey is true SU-HA-RI model where currently I am experimenting my RI stage...

I am #agileholic means I fell in love with 12 principles, agile manifesto, emotions, ways of working so much that being an agile coach came as natural progression when i got a chance to work with few. First aspect I learnt in depth ( trained, mentored & coached) on Why Agile & how this way of working and can truly transform you. I took training of PMI-ACP, CSPO, SAFe Agilist, I got mentorship on the questions that why I should work in this way and not my existing way and most important I read few books. Still my favorite to begin with are:

a lot has been said and explained by Scrum, retrospective etc. and I almost practiced with 10 different teams in different stages of the product life cycle (Innovation, @MVP, @Scale) that helped me to understand when to choose SCRUM and where I can mix some models.

Let me share what were the top 5 challenges i faced in my first role as agile coach and how i overcome them

1. Lack of Emotional Intelligence & jumping on implementing SCRUM
2. Not having a clarity between when to train & when to mentor
3. Transformation roadmap - how this journey will look like
4. Transformation is not T20 its a Test Match - Patience & persistence will help you
5. Measurement - measure what matters the most but do help team to start measuring what the outputs or outcomes are expected

But why the journey continued?

The journey from Test Lead, Product Lead, Product Owner, SM and Coach, took a turn when I realized the combination between my passion and purpose. We all understand at one point of time in our professional journey we need a miracle to keep going & I found it with one of my high performance team in 2015. I will share that experience separately but at that time decided to work along with teams and leaders rather than working ahead... I have chosen this path - as

• I am able to connect with people, empathize with them, understand them & was able to gather courage in enabling them every possible way
• I understand technology, have lived it, played different roles, & always ready to learn new things
• Realized Failures are important and integral part of our journey, mantra is keep going
• I worked on small Programs, Product (max 1K) but then i realized to be better coach I have to work in Scaling , different framework - where i started working with HCL and have worked with Large Solution Trains, Portfolio of 10K, Organizations with multiple Portfolios, across globe, culture to understand real transformation(s).
• connected trainings and workshops to see how i can improve my coaching skills, techniques and enhance my tool-kit

Creating high performance teams

Performance of teams is directly proportional to the customer value getting generated and how innovative the product team is. Now in year 2022, the key to growth is to allow room for innovation to happen. A safe where product teams can try things, have a solid bond with customers and know the needs, the teams measure success based on customer satisfaction and not just solution build. Culture of pressure in a business will crush innovation.

& as i Promised now I am working on L4 ..... (Edited - Completed L4 on May 31st)

Working on P2P (Project to Product) may be in will be list of articles..

My List of all time favorite books- Many of them i have read 3-4 times. Still i don't understand many aspects

Lesson 3 : How SAFe Implementations and SPC certification helped me

Lesson 4 : My failure & success story of Spotify Model Implementation

Lesson 5 : What is step toward choosing a path for being a Coach?

Lesson 6 : How can we measure if we are creating impact as a coach?

Lesson 7 : My Toolbox as a Coach?

Lesson 8 : Surprise! Christmas Gift : OKR- My learning, experience & growth journey

Lesson 9 : Self Branding as a Coach

Lesson 10: Project to Product way of working - A journey or Target

Lesson 11 : When will I pick up ICF- PCC and why I have decided to learn the skill of professional coaching

Lesson 12 : My journey of Agile Coaching Dojo - Why, What and How?