Scripture-based Agile Coaching – Working Enthusiastically

I believe in God. I believe in the gift of salvation given to me through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe God has a purpose for me in my work. He has equipped me with the abilities and skills to do well in my role as an Agile Coach. Still, I find myself struggling daily to keep on working enthusiastically.

Being an Agile Coach is a thankless job. You will not do well as a coach if what you seek is recognition. Our work is the background to the success and accomplishments of the team which is the foreground on spotlight. It is a challenge to quantify and qualify the work being done by a coach. Most of the time the work of the coach is “hidden”.

I have the same struggle with writing on this blog. I can only guess at the impact I am having by sharing my thoughts here on my blog.

The Bible offers numerous verses for motivation so you can keep on working enthusiastically. Here’s one of them:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

Colossians 3:23 (NIV)

I take heart that at the end of it all, as long as I do my best to use the talents, skills and gifts that God has given me, I will receive the greatest recognition of all time. I will hear God say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Scripture-based Agile Coaching: Staying Out Of Arguments

A few years into my professional career, I was a Software Developer back then, I was a hot-tempered fool who easily got into arguments. I was proud of my accomplishments and I felt that I always had the right thing to say. I felt that I always had something to contribute, something important to say.

Fortunately, through the years and through many humbling experiences, I have gained wisdom and self-control. Many Bible verses have helped me learn and relearn this lesson of having more restraint and not getting into pointless arguments. This verse is one I have read recently:

Any fool can start arguments; the honorable thing is to stay out of them.

Proverbs 20:3

One main reason I easily got into arguments, is because I was in a hurry to express my point of view. I hastily assume that I understand what I am hearing and quickly form my response. And most of the time I ended up having the wrong understanding and being a fool. To grow out of this behavior I have taken to heart one of the habits of effective people as defined by Steven Covey: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood.”

This change helped me grow to become a better Agile Coach. I can form healthy working relationships with my colleagues. These relationships are based on trust, respect, and honesty, and not on position nor power. I have found my influence growing, allowing me to do my best to help people do their best.

Scripture-based Agile Coaching – Kind Words

As an Agile Coach, my success at work hinges on the relationships I establish with my colleagues. As a Christian, I have found many verses in the book of Proverbs that guide me as I work on growing my work relationships. Here is one of those verses:

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

Over the years, I have made many mistakes in the way I express myself at work. One main reason for these mistakes is, I did not take enough time to think about what I want to say. And so I try to learn and discover better ways of communicating with my workmates. More and more I find myself asking questions on how I can say something better, before speaking out. Here are some of the questions I ask myself:

• How can I say this in a gentler, kinder way?
• Do I have a good understanding of the context?
• How is the person (sometimes, the team) I am talking to feeling right now?
• Have I sorted out my own feelings? Do I have a good handle on my emotions?
• What words can I use to better express myself?
• Can I control my tone and speak in a gentle manner?
• Do I have to say anything at all? What value can I contribute if I speak my mind?
• What is my goal for speaking out? Will it help the person (team)?

One of the key responsibilities of Agile Coaches is giving feedback. And it becomes a real challenge when you discuss something that did not go well. Spending more time on preparing for conversations like this really helps.

My wife recently reflected on this verse as well, when she was dealing with a customer service issue. My boss recently shared an article with me about a study which shows that team collaboration can suffer greatly from one person being insensitive. So I have been thinking about this verse. Keeping this in mind helped me in being a better Agile Coach.

Random Agile Thoughts – Asking Powerful Questions

A key skill that is critical to the success of an Agile Coach is the skill of asking powerful questions. I have written about powerful questions before, in this post. Sometimes the coach can become very good in asking questions that the skill becomes a double-edged sword. Sometimes useful, sometimes dangerous.

One common feedback I get from team members I work with is that I am really good in asking questions that bring out valuable discussions for the team.

The risk here is that the team may become dependent on me asking questions they want to get asked. This could block them from practicing their leadership and critical thinking. They could just wait on me to ask the questions that they want to get asked.

The challenge for the Agile Coach is straddling that thin line between the responsibility to ask the team powerful questions and giving the team space and opportunities to grow by not asking and letting them ask the questions themselves. I think it is every coach’s dream that the team will become so good that it doesn’t need a coach.

I hope this random agile thought helps you to be more Agile. 😊

Scripture-based Agile Coaching – Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak

I am a Christian. I believe in God. I believe God sent Jesus to save us from death for our sins, and give us the gift of eternal life. I believe in the Bible and I study it. I have found that there are a lot of Bible verses that speak to me when I think about my work as an Agile Coach. Here is one of them:

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

James 1:19 New Living Translation

A great Agile Coach should be a very good listener. Through the years I have found myself listening more and speaking less. I do my best to get a good understanding of situations I encounter by listening intently to what others have to say. I make sure to do this first before I speak. This gives me time to carefully think about what I am going to say.

This has been a quite a struggle for me. I am an expressive person with an extroverted personality. I can also be very impatient. In my earlier days as a Scrum Master, I was too eager to speak my mind. I dominated discussions and did not leave space for my colleagues to contribute. I made mistakes, a lot. I have embarrassed myself a number of times because of poorly thought out speech.

In time, I have learned to restrain myself. I improved my self-control and learned to be comfortable with silence in meetings, conversations or discussions. I valued listening more and more. One of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is “Seek first to understand and then be understood.” I always keep this in mind along with this verse from the Book of James. This helped me in becoming a better Agile Coach.

Continuous Improvement with Iron Man

I love Iron Man in the MCU! His armors are awesome and his character development is superb. He started out as an egotistic and self-centered billionaire/playboy and became a hero who sacrificed his life to save the universe from Thanos. 🤩 As an Agile Coach, Tony Stark’s continuous improvement and evolution deeply resonates with me. You can see that with every new armor version, Iron Man becomes better, based on what he has learned and experienced. If that doesn’t scream kaizen, I don’t know what will!

The world may have seemed to stop during this Covid-19 pandemic with everyone staying at home and streets being empty, but continuous improvement and learning did not. And rightfully so. I think it became even more important, so we can evolve and adapt. In this post, I want to share key learnings I valued during this time of the pandemic.

Focus

Agile and Lean puts emphasis in the value of focusing on the most important thing to work on for the product. Stephen Covey defined the habit of putting first things first as one of the 7 habits of highly effective people. This is one of the values that helped me adjust to the effects of the pandemic. It was easy to feel overwhelmed, and countless of times I had to stop, take a deep breath, and focus. The guiding principle is to do the most important tasks first and accept that you will let go of other activities. You will not be able to do everything you want, but you ensure you are able to do what is important at any given time. When you feel you are veering away from your target, you stop, be still, and then refocus.

Part of being focused is knowing not to take on too many tasks, responsibilities, or activities. It is ok to say “no”, and there are a lot of good, respectful, and kind ways to say it. One key thing is you don’t want to be defensive about it, just be open and say what you have on your plate and what is important to you. Trust that people will understand, especially your family, friends, and even your bosses and colleagues at work. They know you and have trust in you too.

You Work with Humans

Even though Tony Stark comes off as being arrogant and narcissistic, I think he has great compassion for others. He takes care of his teammates, providing them with armor, tools, tech that helps protect them. He provided the team with the Avengers Tower and Avengers facility in Upstate New York. He mentored Spider-Man and deeply cared for him. He had good relationships with his employees – Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts.

One of the Agile values defined in the Agile Manifesto is: “People and interactions over processes and tools.” For me, one application of this value is having compassion for the people you work with. I greatly appreciate the support I got from my boss when I had to adjust my working schedule to help my kids with school-at-home. My peers appreciated the times I caught up with them to see how they were doing and how they were coping with the effects of the pandemic. They were happy to have someone show concern for them. As an Agile Coach, this is one of the services I offer to people I work with. As someone working with an Agile Coach, I think this is one thing you can expect from your coach.

God says in Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another…”. This Bible verse speaks to me more and more each day during this pandemic.

Attitude of Gratitude

Modern society doesn’t promote being content with what you have. It is easy to get lost in acquiring new things, getting more and more of what you want. You are blasted with ads of products claiming to be better than the products you currently have. Advancements in technology, always a double-edged sword, can easily make you want to get the latest, the best so far. With the restrictions, lockdowns, and quarantines, the things we thought we could not live without, became less important.

Expressing gratitude for the things I have and appreciating them more are actions that are helping me cope with the challenges of the pandemic. It takes my mind away from things I worry about and focuses it instead on things I should be thankful for. This attitude of gratitude brings much needed positivity. As an Agile Coach, I make it a point to celebrate success and wins with the team. Even a simple “thank you” to show appreciation can go a long way in promoting a positive attitude and strengthening of relationships.

Work in Harmony

When Iron Man first met Thor in the MCU, he learned that Thor’s lightning can power up his armor. In Endgame, we saw how Iron Man used this knowledge when he made the Nano Lightning Refocuser and asked Thor to hit him with lightning so that he can use the energy to blast Thanos. It’s always a treat to see in the movies how the Avengers come together as a team and combine their powers to be stronger.

This past year I have constantly reflected on how respect, trust, and patience are very important for collaboration. Respect your teammates and colleagues: their effort, contributions, insights, skills and experience. Trust them that they will do their best. Be patient when things don’t go as planned or your expectations are not met. The pandemic added numerous challenges and difficulties to the way we work together and in addition had great effects to our lives outside of work. Finding harmony with my colleagues was one critical thing that helped me this past year.

Part of the Journey is the End

I don’t see the end of this pandemic yet, but I do know that it will end and then there will be other challenges in our journey through life. It is my hope that I can learn and adapt like Iron Man. Even in the end, you can see how he prepared his Mark 85 armor to take on enough of the power of the Infinity Stones. That was not part of the plan, but he was ready, he designed his last armor in the MCU with that capability.

I hope these learnings may be of some help to you. Let’s make sure to open ourselves to even more learnings this 2021.

Keeping Yourself Motivated

On some days, I jump straight out of bed filled with energy and enthusiasm to greet the day and I am excited to get things done. On some days, it seems I just want to lie down on my bed and I feel sluggish and I dread starting my day at work.  How my day will turn out is greatly affected by my motivation to do my work.

Over the years that I have worked from home, I have found that intrinsic motivation plays a more crucial role than extrinsic motivation in keeping yourself motivated.  Intrinsic motivation comes from within yourself while extrinsic motivation comes from outside yourself, external sources. When you are working from home, it is easy to get distracted and be lazy. If you are not motivated to do your job, you will find yourself squandering your time on binge watching all day, getting obsessed with cleaning the house and doing chores, playing video games, and falling down into the abyss of other time-sucking activities you can do.  The flexibility in how you manage your time when working remotely is a double-edged sword, so to speak.

I want to share what I have learned to be the most effective intrinsic motivators for me.

Love what you do

We’ve heard it a lot of times: “you have to love what you do”.  It’s cliche.  It’s easier said than done.  It’s also very true.  I think that loving what you do at work is your most important motivation.  Of course getting paid is right at the top as well, but money gets spent, you run out of it.  If you are passionate about what you do, and you are able to do it everyday, that gives you happiness, energy, excitement, and all the reasons to push you to continue doing your job.  So it is very important to love your work.  It is a real challenge and it might take you a good number of years in your life.  It might take a lot of searching and trying out different jobs.

Don’t stop learning

When I think about the years I was in college, I realize that I was mostly motivated by my eagerness to learn.  The classes I excelled at were about the subjects I was very interested in.  The pursuit of learning and mastery is a great motivator.  When I started to work, at first I was keeping myself busy with applying what I have learned from college.  The daily grind became repetitive.  I felt bored and demotivated.  It was partly because, at that time, I was figuring out what I love doing, but mostly it was because I stopped learning.  So it became clear to me that I should be continuously improving.  I reignited my passion for learning, I read books, pursued training courses and certifications, read blogs, sought out mentors, etc.  This is one of the things which keep me motivated, the drive to continuously improve and gain mastery over the skills I use to do my work.

Take a break

It might seem counter-intuitive that one of the things you can do to keep yourself motivated is to take a break and rest, but I think it is very important.  Even our bodies need a good night’s sleep after a hard day’s work.  For me taking a break is not just about slacking off and doing things which doesn’t move you forward to your goals, I think there is more to it.  Pausing to take a rest gives you a chance to reflect on where you are currently and look back to review your accomplishments.  Celebrating what you have been able to achieve will surely motivate you to keep moving forward.

Have faith

I believe in God.  I believe that God gave me the skills I have to fulfill a purpose here on earth.  When I get lost in a sea of doubts, when I am filled with questions about what I am doing and where I am going, this belief provides a guiding light.  I find this verse from the Bible to be a powerful motivator:

Galatians 6:9 – “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

I think we all need something to believe in, to keep us motivated in using our skills to do our work.  This faith will keep pushing us forward, especially through failure and setbacks.

Keep moving forward

When working remotely or working from home, it is mostly up to you to keep yourself motivated.  Aside from what I have shared,  I’m sure there are more ways and techniques you can use to keep yourself motivated.  Find what works best for you and make sure to adapt to changes.

Building Connections

I have worked with people I haven’t met personally. I have just seen their pictures on our online HR tool or Skype. I have only talked to them during online meetings. One key thing which enables me to work well with them is I have made an effort to establish a growing personal relationship with them. You can not be a coach to someone who you don’t have a personal connection with.

Make the Effort to Know the Person

How well do you know the people you are working with? This is an important question to answer. Making an effort to know your teammates is vital in being able to work well with them. For one thing, having discussions with people you know is easier than having it with strangers. When you know the person you are talking to well enough, you are able to effectively communicate with him or her. You know what to say and what not to say. You know how to start a conversation and how to approach a sensitive topic.

So how do you do this when working with a remote team? Here are some of the activities I do:

• During daily standup meetings, I encourage having small talk. When working from home you don’t have the chance to engage in “watercooler conversations” or “pantry discussions”. I have found that spending a few minutes during the standup meeting to have casual conversations is helpful in getting to know teammates.
• I have regular 1 on 1 meetings with individuals.  Nothing beats a good heart to heart talk with someone.  Haha! Seriously though, it is very good to engage in having one-to-one conversations with your teammates. It doesn’t have to be formal but it is good if you have an interesting topic prepared for discussion. As an Agile Coach, usual topics I discuss with individuals include: questions about our Lean Agile Process and use of Kanban, continuous improvement activities done by individuals, and of course latest news about Star Wars.
• I have random chats and calls with people. Just like how you would visit a teammate’s cubicle in the office to have a nice casual chat, I start a random chat or a call with someone. I take this opportunity to know more about the person. What common interests do we have? What does he or she think about a certain news? What are the places we have visited? Knowing bits of trivia about the person helps your relationship with them grow.

We be jammin’ mon

After you get to know more about a person, you get to “jam” with them easily. Starting conversations become natural. Navigating sensitive topics becomes less difficult. Asking hard questions becomes not that hard (no pun intended). This is the next level of growth after you get to know more about the people you are working with.

You must have empathy with your teammates. It is good to be able to understand their feelings and also be able to share those feelings with them. One of the habits of highly effective individuals as per Stephen Covey is: “Seek to understand first, then to be understood.” This is an essential habit to form so that you can form great working relationships.

You and me, one on one

I think this is really important so I will repeat myself. Having regular one on one conversations with a person helps a lot in growing your relationship.

As a coach I want to be a sounding board for everyone, someone who can listen to their concerns. The one on one meetings with people give me the opportunity to reach out and listen to them. I also make sure to prepare good topics to discuss so time spent on the meetings turns out to be valuable. I start the conversation by inviting a teammate. This is completely voluntary. I don’t make them feel that they’ll get into trouble if they don’t talk to me. If they prefer to set a scheduled meeting then we go that route. Being mindful of schedules and workload of teams is a must. You can have better discussions if your teammate can focus on the talk rather than having other matters being a distraction.

Repeat

I believe there is always something new to learn about a person. I think growing a good working relationship with a teammate is a never-ending activity. You have to continuously make the effort to maintain the personal connection.

How about you, what do you do to build connections with people you are working with?

Han: “Together again, huh?”
Luke: “Wouldn’t miss it.”
Han: “How we doing?”
Luke: “Same as always.”
Han: “That bad, huh?”
– Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, Star Wars Episode 6 – Return of the Jedi