Agile Coach: The Power Of Influence

Since the beginning of civilization, the power of influence has been considered an essential skill to conquer followers, territories, and objectives. In modern society, this skill remains an important strategy, especially in scenarios involving complex businesses and diverse methods and thoughts. In the digital innovation journey, the Agile Coache leads development squads that drive scale-ups and promote Agile Transformation in organizations.

Its mission is to influence the team’s work and inspire a mindset of constant improvement, capable of resulting in frequent and valuable deliveries and highly desirable products. However, exerting influence among groups of experienced and qualified professionals is not an easy task. Moreover, to positively impact the behavior of a product team, there are a series of skills and specific characteristics that must support the Agile Coach’s management and leadership model. 

Therefore, in the following article, we will explore some of them. We spoke with Raphael Rodrigues, Agile Coach at SoftDesign, to understand the role of this professional in the development of digital solutions. 

The Evolution of The Agile Coach

The role of the Agile Coach is constantly changing. In the past, its performance was based on frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban, for example, people worked with a greater focus on the functioning of the team, helping everyone to understand the phases and status of development. The objective was to propose evolutionary changes through a process of thinking and improvement, capable of increasing the delivery of value.  

However, with the maturation of the processes, it was realized that limiting the Agile Coach’s performance only to the product team was not enough, because people are part of an organization. It was concluded that this role needed to transcend the Discovery and Delivery process. When Agile Coaches stopped working only on development teams, their collaborations began to help reduce noise within companies. One of the results is the execution of tasks in an agile and less expensive way. However, when we talk about Agility in the business world (Business Agility), this role is more focused on strategy, guiding people to share information through micro-interactions.

Wanna Be Agile?

Having the power to influence others is not necessarily everyone’s gift. With that in mind, Agile Coaches must have specific skills. According to Raphael Rodrigues, resilience is perhaps the main one. “To play this role, it is necessary to be a resilient person, since we do not directly execute the actions, but we influence the team to complete them. In addition, it is necessary to encourage the search for problem-solving through individual and group conversations”.

Horizontal management and leadership are also key characteristics.

“Good Agile Coaches have great communication skills. After all, knowing how to communicate well is essential to guide teams, and this leads us to empathy, something crucial to understand one’s work process. At SoftDesign, we operate with Management 3.0, a movement that renounces command/control to make room for the trust and autonomy of employees”. 

Another important skill is facilitation. Agile Coaches are responsible for facilitating conversations, ceremonies, schedules, and group dynamics. “Our day-to-day is based on processes and people, and these are constantly changing. Our journey is continuous, that is, there is no actual end due to the current business model. Therefore, Agile Coaches must be attentive people and very focused on improving things around them”, highlights Rodrigues.

Influencing Product Teams

In a diverse world, influencing product teams can be quite a challenge. Each company has a culture and a set of people with the most varied characteristics. Therefore, getting the best out of each one involves a lot of strategy and dedication. “In my daily life, I need to be connected to what is happening, to what people are talking about, and, above all, to what they are not communicating. For this, we hold one-on-one (1:1) meetings, and facilitate meetings to generate interactions and create agreements”.

In addition, Agility involves management practices oriented to business objectives. To execute them, it is necessary to give everyone a voice, as this is the only way to develop products that simplify users’ lives. “In interactions, we get in touch with people with the most different levels of maturity, experience, and age group. In the end, what keeps us engaged is the purpose of the work and the challenge of winning something together. When we unite different perspectives and experiences, the result is a plural development process. Without diversity, the ability to solve problems is reduced”, he highlights.

Agile Coaches encourage, guide, and help generate paths and options. In summary, Agile does not oblige us to follow a single direction until the end of the development of a digital product or service, on the contrary, it creates milestones for us to navigate, allowing moments of analysis that allow us to measure whether choices are resulting in desirable results. Therefore, to boost team performance, Agile Coaches seek to create awareness between what the group has committed to deliver, and what is actually being delivered. “We look for results, and we help people to do what needs to be done within the agreed time frame. We reduce conflicts to achieve goals through more fluid processes, clearing obstacles”, emphasizes Raphael.

Agility Is Not Just Speed

When using Agile, companies seek feedback as quickly as possible, respecting the nature of what is being developed. After all, everything has a maturation time. This is complex, as we are unique people, that is, each of us has our own task execution time, based on an individual creative process. 

So the key question is: how do we get the best out of each one without getting lost in the process, and without taking longer than expected? Through ceremonies. In a diverse and knowledge-filled environment, replicating processes can be a great challenge, since getting the best out of the group is something that can be achieved with conversation, rhythm, and follow-up. 

With this in mind, Agile Coaches analyze project boards daily to diagnose stages and possible obstacles. Based on this analysis, they interfere and help improve processes, or even assist in completing activities.

“I help connect people and solve problems. In ceremonies, we make it easy for everyone to put themselves in a state of awareness, so we can influence the team to make good decisions”. 

Ideally, each Agile Coach should work on a maximum of three projects, interacting with 15 to 20 people. That way, the Agile Coach can connect and follow up properly. “Expanding these numbers results in a superficial process, and this impacts the essence of Agility. We are knowledge workers: therefore, when we don’t have time to reflect and create, we are not able to innovate. If the schedule is full and we are just completing tasks, the teams become burdensome. After all, the value of our work lies in the ability to think and be creative”, concludes Rodrigues. 

Let’s accelerate the evolution of your business?

If your team is just completing tasks, then it’s time to wake up and put Agile to work. In addition, if problems and bugs are reducing the rhythm of deliveries, to the point that people are unable to reflect and propose solutions, our Agile Consulting can be an important ally.  

To accelerate the adoption of a culture based on Agile Methods, we work with a customized mentorship according to your needs. During the consulting process, we transfer our knowledge in Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps to your team. The objective is to increase transparency and dialogue between people, to generate more frequent and valuable deliveries. Watch the video below and learn more about this service:

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