Agile Coaching and Overworked Leaders

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A manager requests 30 minutes to talk with me—is 9 am tomorrow ok? His email was sent just after 9 pm. He goes ahead and sends a calendar invite for 9 am. I’m not sure what we’ll be discussing.

Another manager and I have been going back and forth in emails about challenges her team is facing. Her calendar is booked solid, and her emails are often sent after 7pm. Our calendars sync up five days later to talk in a call, so we’re making do with emails until then.

A third manager and her team lead reply to an email I sent recapping our earlier discussion points and next steps. Their emails were sent between 10-11pm.

The organization is juggling many important initiatives. Delivery seems slows, and status meetings are frequent. Based on their calendars and email timestamps, leaders are working long hours and even on the weekends trying to keep up with everything going on. It sounds like their teams are working extra hours too.
It’s a tough spot to be in as a leader. Their time is consumed by their teams, stakeholders, peers, boss… and endless emails. “Agile” is not the organization’s goal right now. Talking with an Agile Coach seems low priority.

It’s easy for an Agile Coach to say that there’s too much work in progress. That prioritization is needed to stop some work and say “not yet” to starting more. Embrace the constraints. Leaders may agree with these ideas in theory. But organizational pressure to reduce costs and fear of layoffs loom in the back of their minds. These fears make it easier to write off reducing WIP as a theoretical concept that won’t work in this situation. Fear invited itself to the dance, and Agile Coaches need to figure out what to do with it.

The Agile Coach’s first challenge with overworked leaders is be getting time with them.
Overworked leaders are not likely to reach out for help unless they have a good relationship with an Agile Coach or recognize what they can provide. Yet, if asked, a leader might be interested in hearing ideas on how to do the following:

  • Enhance product delivery flow

  • Ensure team performance

  • Identify waste/bottlenecks and remove them

  • Innovate product ideas

  • Enable visibility of product outcomes and ability to shift priorities

  • Lower defects and increase productivity of teams

  • Increase customer satisfaction with products

  • Navigate change better and increase resilience

  • Increase trust and reduce destructive conflict

  • Improve accountability

Those outcomes listed speak to results that an Agile Coach can help achieve across teams and organizationally. Agile Coaches may see opportunities to improve delivery that others cannot see for themselves; we can help the leaders know what to focus on. That list doesn’t even touch on the personal benefits a leader may receive from partnering with an Agile Coach, like reduced stress and ability to develop and apply their strengths.

In order to connect with these overworked leaders, we need to find out what outcomes (business and personal) matter to them now and focus our efforts on those goals. They need quick wins to build their trust in you and allow them to take a step back from the whirlwind of work. My Nitty-Gritty Practices of Agile Coaching workshop helps Agile Coaches recognize what practices to focus on in order to achieve particular outcomes (I find the Agile Fluency™ Model to be another helpful resource for this).

There’s a human element to connecting with leaders that I also find important. Sometimes as Agile Coaches we let people know it’s ok to not be ok and offer to be a trusted ear. Change can be painful at a personal level. Recently I’ve offered workshops on change models to talk about what leaders and teams may be experiencing around change and provide language to express it. Showing empathy in our communications as Agile Coaches can go a long way in enabling leaders to work with us more effectively through change.

Allison Pollard

Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture. Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences. Allison is co-owner of Helping Improve LLC.

http://www.allisonpollard.com
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