AFH 039: How Do You Become An Agile Coach? [PODCAST]

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Diane Zajac-Woodie (@AgileSquirrel), Zach Bonaker (@zachbonaker), and Amitai Schlair (@schmonz) joined me (@ryanripley) to discuss their paths to becoming agile coaches.

[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]Zach Bonaker Presenting ‘The Deception of Training’ at Scrum Day San Diego 2016[/featured-image]

Diane is the owner and principal consultant at Green Jeans Consulting. She is active in the agile community not only as a speaker – Agile 2015, SDEC 2015, AgileDC 2015 – but also as a program chair for Agile 2016. Diane is passionate about the role of the Business Analyst (BA) on agile projects and shares her insights on her blog.

Zach is a self-described “benevolent trouble-maker” and seeks to foster servant leadership that cultivates growth, learning, and discovery. He is a systems thinker who shares his thoughts on his blog – Agile Out Loud. Zach is great at pushing agile thinking forward and has authored many popular posts on next generation agile theories and practices.

Amitai is a software development coach, speaker, legacy code wrestler, non-award-winning musician, award winning bad poet, and the creator of the Agile in 3 Minutes podcast. He blogs at schmonz.com and is a frequent guest on Agile for Humans. Amitai has published many of his agile observations and musings in his new book – Agile in 3 Minutes on Lean Pub.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• There are many paths to becoming an agile coach
• Coaches need coaching too
• Who we follow on Twitter for agile coaching inspiration
• Our favorite books and resources on agile coaching
• Some of the internal thoughts that we focus on when coaching agile teams

[Tweet “If you improve the life of one person, you will have succeeded wildly. –@gdinwiddie”]

Links from the show:

• Some of the agile coaches we follow on Twitter: @gdinwiddie @estherderby @docondev @donaldegray @geepawhill @dianaofportland
• How to Get Hired as a Coach
• How to Get Decent at Coaching
• How to Develop Humans
• Agile in 3 Minutes – Influence

[callout]Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins is *the* book that all of us referenced throughout the podcast. This book gives agile coaches the insights they need to adopt this new mind-set and to guide teams to extraordinary performance in a re-energized work environment. You’ll gain a deep view into the role of the agile coach, discover what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to adapt powerful skills from many allied disciplines, including the fields of professional coaching and mentoring.

Click here to purchase on Amazon.[/callout]

[reminder]What challenges have you faced as an Agile Coach? How did you overcome them?[/reminder]

Want to hear another podcast about the role of an Agile Coach? — Listen to my conversation with Zach and Amitai on episode 13. We discuss when a team needs an agile coach, when it’s time for the agile coach to move on to other teams and organizations, and how coercion is the enemy of influence.

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