Realising the Benefits
Coaching provides many benefits for teams and organisations. Agile coaches actively facilitate continuous improvement by empowering teams to organise themselves and fully own their work. They guide teams and organisations to adopt agile values and principles. An experienced agile coach brings skills in servant leadership, asking powerful questions, and effecting change to help transform ways of working. With their support, teams are able to unlock greater speed, quality, alignment and the ability to adapt to change.
Building Your Skills as an Agile Coach
Get Certified
Perhaps you have already started your journey, by training in foundational agile frameworks like Scrum and Kanban. Maybe you are a Scrum Master, looking to build your people skills. Consider training to become certified by the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile). Gain these certifications by taking courses on the Agile Team Coaching track, such as the ICP, Team Foundations: Unlocking High Performance. This covers the fundamentals you’ll need to coach teams.
Specialise with further Certifications
Once you have basic agile knowledge, take your expertise to the next level with ICAgile’s coach-focused certifications. The Certified Agile Team Facilitator Training Course (ICP-ATF) and Certified Agile Team Coach Training Course (ICP-ACC) provide critical skills for both facilitating and coaching.
Pursue Next-Level Accreditation
Want more? Continue learning with our Certified Advanced Agile Team Coach Cohort (ICE-AC). This comprehensive program is designed to help you enhance your skills, broaden your perspectives, and strengthen your knowledge of enterprise coaching, agility, change strategy, and leadership all in service to guide organisations to be more purposeful and value-driven. Graduates earn the industry-recognised ICE-AC certification.
Get Hands-On Coaching Experience
While taking courses, also seek out real-world coaching opportunities. Volunteer through nonprofits, coach teams within your company or offer services as an independent coach. There is no teacher-like practical experience when it comes to developing coaching abilities.
Find an Agile Mentor
A mentor provides invaluable guidance as you step into your role. Reach out to experienced coaches who may agree to be your mentor. Shadow them, discuss scenarios, ask for feedback and learn from their extensive experience. Mentorship is key for fully rounding out your skillset.
Continuously Improve Your Skills
For those who choose it, every day can be a school day, so commit to lifelong learning. Attend conferences and Meetups, read books and articles, listen to podcasts, and join communities of practice. Reflect on your experiences and ask for feedback. Keep your approach fresh by constantly working to refine your coaching toolkit.
Embody the Agile Mindset
To coach others, you must first embody the behaviours yourself. Adopt a servant leadership style. Develop intuition, emotional intelligence and trust-building capabilities. Demonstrate curiosity, empathy and flexibility in each interaction. Do the inner work to expand your mindset along with your skills. Read more about the Agile Mindset.
Following this path will help you become more effective, enabling you to provide lasting positive effects. Focus on hands-on practice, specialist accreditation and continual growth. Now you’re ready to go!
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