Agile Development

Key Characteristics Of A Great Agile Coach

In my opinion, too often, people define coaching inappropriately. They use it to mean consulting or mentoring. But that isn't quite right.
Great agile coach should have deep inner qualities that other leaders just don’t have. 
Real coaching requires some key skills that so-called teachers or mentors are lacking.
Here are some characteristics that every great Agile coach should have: 

Interviewing skills:
Asking questions that require more than just a yes or no answer can get you a wealth of information. Ask simple questions that don’t direct the conversation too much, and then see where the mind of the person with whom you’re speaking goes. That will give you great insight.

Courage:
There’s nothing wrong with asking how someone feels. Find out their real emotions by asking them to tell you what they think. No one is requiring you to keep your conversation on a shallow, entirely rational basis.

Patience:
When you ask a question, wait for the answer. There’s nothing wrong with leaving a gap in the conversation if the other person won’t speak. The silence allows the person to formulate their thoughts -- and requires them to say something.

Intense focus:
Almost like meditation, intense focus is the ability to bring your brain’s immense resources together into a cohesive thought process that produces greater wisdom and intelligence than you ever thought possible. Focus requires practice, and it gets easier as you listen closely and without judgment.

Inner stillness:
You can’t listen to others if you’re busy listening to an incessant voice in your head. Only once you find some stillness within yourself, you can offer confidence-boosting insight to others.

Nonjudgmental:
It’s easy to bounce everything someone says to you against your ideas of right and wrong and then decide whether they’re making the correct decisions. But the best coaches don’t judge quickly or harshly. Instead, they listen carefully and offer advice for moving forward, not criticism for past actions.

Intuition:
Intuition is one of the greatest human assets, and we all have it. Use it to its greatest effect by following it. Go ahead and ask the questions you think you should ask, for example. When you think something is true, it very well may be.

I'm sure there are many more skills you can think of – but for me, the above differentiate the great from the good!