Agile Coaching

Why Is Agile Marketing the Talk of The Town for Start-ups?

by Krishna Chodipilli | Dec 9, 2020 | Agile Coaching

5 REASONS WHY STARTUPS NEED TO EMBRACE ‘DESIGN THINKING, LEAN MINDSET AND AGILE’ – AGILE MARKETING

Startups are created from actions borne from an idea and can encounter challenges and uncertainties that can seldom be mapped or predicted. Have you been through this journey yourself or know someone who has? Do you think Agile Marketing is the way forward? The essence of the survivability of a startup and its endurance is up to its maturity. This depends on a host of factors which need to be factored in right at the stage of the inception of the enterprise, and this vital function is facilitated by following the simple engineering practices Example – Scrum or Kanban or Agile Marketing or.

HERE ARE FIVE REASONS WHY STARTUPS NEED TO EMBRACE AGILE MARKETING

Reason #1: Understanding Customer Needs

Agile Marketing is all about the mindset. It considers human interactions as a prime driver for the conduct of business. This people-centric approach creates avenues for understanding customer needs and wants. Using empathy mapping techniques (Design Thinking), strategies are constructed which include customer-centric requirements during the design phase of the product or service. Keeping the customer as the focal point in all facets of the business is the essence.

Reason #2: Map your ‘Persona’s futuristic state’

It is essential to have a compelling ‘North Star’ for your project and map your persona’s futuristic state. This gives you the direction towards which all actions get generated. Affixing a clearly defined value, success criteria to the business and how the same needs to be evolved into actionable outcomes is one of the key benefits of using Agile. The Agile Marketing mindset enables the in-depth articulation of the value of the goods or services offered, in a designed timeline. It also clearly defines measurable outputs

Reason #3: Responding to Change

Unlike the waterfall technique, one of the Agile principles emphasises on ‘iterative process’. The processes are lightweight and flexible where one can listen, learn and course-correct depending on the value delivered from each Sprint (time-boxed). Creating space for additions and subtractions in the workflow at pre-designated checkpoints allows for value addition and process modification, which are critical realities in a startup ecosystem.

Reason#4: Measure what matters

Having a Lean mindset helps in assigning clear, specific and considered metrics of measurements for each process output and it’s corresponding value outcomes. Does one need to ask themselves if these metrics matter? Agile, to a large extent, facilitates objectivity in all process-driven actions. The room for subjectivity is kept at a minimal. The availability of tangible performance indicators enables the business to set measure which matters for the organisation. Similarly, since success can be measured, the startup is constantly present to its position in the designated trajectory.

Reason#5: Open Communication

A startup operates in a highly nebulous and opaque business environment. Since perceptions are still not cemented into the declared culture, there will be communication bottlenecks and challenges. Using Agile practices (Standups, Retrospective), in its inherent design, creates multiple communication channels across the full spectrum of human expression. It allows for migration of thoughts, generation of ideas, fully self-expressed opinions and moderated candour. These simple Agile practices facilitate unhindered communication flow on all three dimensions of human interface in an organisation structure ie, vertical, horizontal and diagonal. It also identifies and opens up communication bottlenecks and creates access avenues and echoes chambers, aspects which are supercritical in maintaining the health of the startup.

Agile Marketing is all about the human element, embracing a lean mindset and being customer-centric (design thinking). I am Colonel Ranjeev K Babu, VSM served Indian Army in various roles and currently helping single person startup’s to multinationals, globally. Startups and Organisations whom Leadership Tribe is helping are growing so fast, they are looking for new talent, people who can move Mountains.

ALLOW ME TO SUMMARISE MY LEARNINGS AND OBSERVATIONS

Compelling North Star

One should be able to answer why the organisation/project exists in the first place.

Innovative Minds

Create psychological safe environments where people can experiment without fear of persecution.

Business Courage

Take risks and embrace failure. Yes! things might go wrong, retrospectively adapt and champion change.

The Sense of Urgency

Ability to adapt, move fast and always stay alert.

Have Fun

If you are not enjoying what you are doing then one needs to revisit the North Star.

CREATE A REVOLUTION AND MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

Leadership Tribe has created a program for ‘Agile Marketing’, lessons harvested whilst working with various SME’s, organisations globally and of course with some awesome Agile Marketing Coaches. Do you want to be part of the new learning experience for free? Just reach out to us directly at [email protected]

Types of Coaching Assignments

by Krishna Chodipilli | Dec 9, 2020 | Agile Coaching

Coaching assignments can vary depending on the engagement. To have a common understanding, can we all agree that a Coach has to ask the correct questions and the Mentor has to give the correct advice? From this what stems out is the feeling that Mentor has to have in-depth knowledge on the business, whereas the coach need not have and will extract the information from the person being coached by asking the correct questions and get the individual to commit to a plan and follow through the plan.

Coaching assignment could be of two kinds,

1. An individual feels he needs help and seeks the help of a coach
2. An organization feels a need for change and seeks the help of a coach.

The first one is typically Executive Coaching and the latter assignments are the ones which get classified into Agile Coaching, Transformation coaching, scale-up coaching. The big difference between the two assignments is that in the first one the individual is deciding for himself and in the latter, the decision-maker is deciding for others.

Let us now explore more on the second type of coaching assignments. It is safe to assume that the organization is some sort of stagnation or a negative spiral. You will not find many companies to engage coaches while they are doing well to further improve themselves. In the sports arena, the coaches are a constant companion irrespective of the lean season/busy season. But it is not the same in the case of Business Organizations. This happens because; in sports, results are immediately known and the basic objective of sporting is to win. In business, this may not the case always. Now let us look at the business organization, here the results of coaching efforts are known over a long period of times and the results are attributable to multiple dimensions of the business environment. The discussion in this article pertains to coaching assignment where the organization seeking the help of a coach to overcome certain felt/perceived deficiencies/drawbacks/improvement areas.

Now let us look at what are the red flags you need to look out for when you get such assignments. It is also important to be aware of these red flags, reasons/rations behind these red flags and knowledge to overcome these red flags. I firmly believe that one should not rush into coaching assignments, although the organization could be looking for an early start to get quick results or our eagerness to grab the opportunity before some else takes it. We will deliberate on 4 aspects,

1. Get skin deep into the assignment
2. Organization routines/habit
3. Mindset
4. How patterns influence

Get Skin deep into all aspects related to your coaching assignment

When you ask a coach, you will get to understand that the individual to be coached is not very co-operative or enthusiastic. Reasons behind this could be,

1. The organization did not make the individual feel that he is the chosen one because the organization feels that he is their best bet. On the contrary, most of the time, the individual or the team feels very low when they are selected.
2. The Individual and the team feel that they know their business the best. If you are a young coach, they will form an opinion that you have no experience. If you are an elderly coach (with some grey hair), the individual or the team will feel that you do not have experience in their area.

So what should you do as a coach to overcome the above situation?

1. Do not rush into the assignment very fast: There is a popular saying ‘skin in the game’. When some one’s skin is in the game, the other members start trusting the individual. It is this trust that helps the individual to integrate into the team, understand the team, understand the requirement and deliver the best.

As a coach, you need not have your skin in the game, but you need to understand that you need to get into the skin. This will mean that you need to take time to understand the coaching assignment, understand their business, understand the business environment, and understand the competition – their strengths & their weaknesses and how the company you are going work with stacks against them.

1. You will need to get the leadership team of the company to project this assignment as the most important assignment the company is embarking. The individual or the team is selected is based on who can lead the change and rest of teams will also be following the suit soon.

Now let us look at the benefits you achieve in accomplishing the above,

• The individual or the team looks forward to taking up the assignment as they are going lead the change and not that have a been selected as they have a problem.
• When you exhibit a superior understanding of the organization the teams starts trusting you the way the team trusts someone whose skin is in the game. To further strengthen this feeling you could even make them aware that some part of the consulting fees to the success of the assignment.

Understanding the organization Routine and finding ways to change the routine

Let us briefly look at the habit loop. Every individual has a set of habits. These habits are stored at neurological tissue known as the basal ganglia. Basal Ganglia is one of the earlier most portions of the human brain evolution. These habits residing at basal ganglia are difficult to be removed/deleted from the memory, do not need the support of human memory and very needs little or no support from prefrontal cortex the logical thinking portion of the brain. These habits can act independently on their own. The important aspects we need to understand are,

• A strong motivational factor can only make changes in the habit
• Rewards can make changes inhabit

Now let us look from an organizational perspective, Organizations also have evolved their un-written habits over some time. When you take up a coaching assignment you don’t need to be told about it because it is not a written or established procedure. These habits are very difficult for you to understand as they are hidden and come to the surface only when there is a cue.

As a coach, you need to be aware of the Habits of Individuals and established routines in the organization. You need to watch out to get a hand on these habits and routines. Next, we need to understand what can make these habits and routines to change.

In the case of an individual, strong motivation can make the change. We should not be thinking of tweaking reward as we generally do in everyday life as a way of changing the habit. A reward can only temporarily alter the behaviour. Example the dog behaves better due to a stick or a biscuit. Kids start eating food when you show a cartoon film.

In the case of an organization, it is important to understand making changes in keystone habits. You need to accomplish a small win which will then set in motion forces which will result in many more small wins. These series of wins will change the well-established routines in an organization.

As a coach, you need to constantly look for understanding the individual’s habit, the team’s routine, a strong motivation which can change a habit and small wins which can set in motion a serried of subsequent wins.

Many successful leaders have realized that the best results are possible when the organizations going through a crisis and you make use of this opportunity to usher in the change. It is also true that many successful leaders have induced small dosages of crisis artificially.

Understanding the organization – Fixed Mindset/ Growth Mindset

Individuals have grown to have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset want to make sure they want to succeed. People with a fixed mindset believe that their proficiencies are carved in stone and they have the urge to keep proving it to themselves and everyone around very often. It is also equally true that the individual with a fixed mindset does neither want to fail nor he wants others to feel that he has failed. They strongly look for success or failure in everything they do. They will be the first to embrace if they feel that they can succeed and also will be the first to abandon when they feel that they are going to fail. These are the individuals who excel in their comfort zone and resist any change.

Now let us look at an individual who has a growth mindset. This individual is best defined as someone who understands his strengths and weakness clearly. These set of individuals look at learning all the time. They look at failure as an opportunity to learn and they have the mindset to endure the short-term discomfit to achieve a change which will benefit in the long term.

As a coach, you need to understand the individual you are coaching falls into which category. You will have to devise your coaching strategy based on the mindset of the individual.

Now let us turn our focus to the organization’s mindset. Organizations can also have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. These mindsets in an organization are typically top-down driven. Typically the fixed mindset organizations are obsessed with the worship of talent. They would want to recruit the one who appears to have the best talent. These individuals with high talent tend to develop a fixed mindset if already not have one because they want to prove that they are the best in the organization. An organization where the leader takes all the credit for the success and blames the team for all the failure is a typical organization with a fixed mindset. These organizations have a huge resistance to any kind of change

On the contrary in an organization with a growth mindset will recruit people who can learn and these individuals may not be the top rank holders. One can also recognize that these organizations always look to giving recognition to the individual who is lower down in the hierarchy. In such organizations, they are constantly trying to improve, they look for people who squarely look at their mistakes/deficiencies and are constantly asking/acquiring the skills that the company will require in the future.

If you were to get an assignment in the growth mindset, the chances of a successful coaching assignment are very high. In case you get to work with a fixed organization mindset you need to work with the leadership team and managers to apprise them of the mindset and have them switch to a growth mindset. I believe that this will be very long drawn and as a coach, one should have the ability to endure and perseverance to convert the organization mindset. If you can make this change, the success of the coaching assignment is very high. In case you are unable to make this change, the success of the coaching assignment is very low.

Patterns

Now let us briefly look at the human evolution. From the nomadic times, the human brain has evolved through patterns. The pattern started establishing when early humans started looking at the availability of food based on the footmarks of the animals. The same was also used to determine when they are going to confront a dangerous animal. The pattern further got established when humans started settling down and growing food. The recognition of the rain pattern was responsible for establishing farming. Gazing of the sun to determine the time, gazing off the stars to establish the season and travel route maps further strengthened the patterns in our mind.

Though the human brain has evolved over some time and the Prefrontal Corte can logically think and act in the right direction, the human being even today sub-consciously looks at patterns while making a decision. The pattern recognition is situated at the earlier most evolved portion of the brain. This portion of the brain overlooks the logical reasoning of the Prefrontal Corte while taking many decisions. Many researchers go on to prove that our brain is not completely evolved to handle modern-day complexity.

We need to look at how to use this to the advantage while taking up coaching assignments. We have heard many a time the humans have a herd mentality, humans follow the successful individuals & try to emulate them, implement what was successful elsewhere. The coach has to use this to his advantage while engaging in a coaching assignment. In the course of your coaching assignment, you should look for successes which could act like a lamppost or a lighthouse. This instigates the patterns within an individual’s brain to follow a similar pattern. This will lead to individuals and teams being attracted towards the successful project with least resistance.

A coach should develop mastery over the above psychoanalytical aspects, which in turn will help in ensuring that the success of the coaching assignment.

Author: JP Shivakumaraswamy is a multifaceted personality wearing multiple hats in the field of industry, commerce, finance, and environmental conversation. An accomplished business leader and a voracious reader, his passion lies in generating continuous improvement and high performance in individuals and teams. Lately, he has taken a foray into the world of coaching and has been selflessly contributing to its cause.

Coaching Skills

by Krishna Chodipilli | Dec 9, 2020 | Agile Coaching

Individual and Group Coaching

Chip and Dan Heath in their Book Switch beautifully narrate the elephant and the Mahout. I am trying to build on this concept to explain a few important coaching concepts. This article intends to highlight the types of coaching skills concerning Individual and Group Coaching.

Individual Coaching

Every human being has two facets,

• The emotions
• The logical decision making

Chip and Dan Heath compare the emotions to an Elephant and the Logical making & the willpower to the Mahout. India is home to elephants, I decided to delve little deeper to understand the relationship between an elephant and the Mahout. The relationship, between an elephant and the mahout, starts very early in life and they remain bonded to each other throughout their lives. The most common tools used by mahouts are chains and the Goad Ankusha.

Now let us look at human beings. Human beings are born with emotions and logical thinking. They both grow together within us. The logical thinking matures between 18 and 25 years and develops into a character which wants to control the emotions. On the other hand, the emotion does not mature, but continues to grow and as time passes it starts becoming rigid. A mahout controlling the emotion is similar to the Prefrontal cortex controlling the emotion. Mahout compared to the elephant is small in size and our logic delivered from prefrontal cortex is very small in front of the emotions. I hope you understand the magnitude of the problem.

Prefrontal cortex and the mahout play a very similar role of controlling the emotions and the elephant respectively. They both can exercise their command using the tools like Ankush and logical reasoning. We need to understand that they will be successful in controlling to a greater extent. However, we need to understand that if the elephant decided not to listen to the Mahout, in a matter of few seconds the mahout will lose total control of the elephant. Similarly, when the emotion takes control, it will become extremely difficult for the logic emitting from prefrontal cortex to extend any control of the human being. If you can close your eyes and visualize how a mahout tries to control the elephant with his Ankush and when the elephant does not listen to the command, mahout increases the intensity of the punishment with the Ankush. As the intensity increases the elephant becomes more stubborn and beyond a point can just throw the mahout and run wild. That is exactly what happens when the prefrontal cortex exerts pressure on the emotions. The emotions can throw all the logic to wind and will start doing what it feels right. This will probably give you the answer as to why we do so many things which are not logical.

Let us now look at some examples in our own daily lives. Logic says smoking is good, emotion throws the logic to air. Exercising and exposing our body to early morning sun is all very important and the logic is saying it but we curl and stay in bed because the emotion dominates.

Let us now look at the typical coaching assignment. Coaching is largely limited to getting the individual to logically understand issues more clearly, bring out the possible solutions, draw up a timeline and follow it through to ensure that the one being coached adheres to the timeline and completes the task. The next step would be to ensure that this is internalized by the individual so that it stays with him/her. Logical thinking is like a rubber band. To start with let us assume it to be in a triangle shape. Coaching can covert the logical thinking and the rubber band into a square or a trapezium. When this happens you are building additional tension in the rubber band in other words on the emotion. The rubber band and the emotions are waiting for the first opportunity to get back to the triangle shape. When that happens there will be vibrations in the rubber band in other words, emotional disturbances in the human being and they both eventually settle back to their comfort zone or the original state they were in.

Thus in most cases, coaching does not succeed in the first instance or fails over some time despite seeing initial success. This brings to an important point what the coach should do to ensure that the coaching succeeds. The following steps can ensure that coaching assignments can be successful.

• Coach has to clearly understand the logical reasons
• Coach has to clearly understand the emotional rationale behind those logical reasons

As a coach, if you able to clearly understand the above two aspects the next set of steps could be easy.

Step 1: Motivate the emotion: What looks like a mental block is the exhaustion of the emotion. No matter what the mahout tries, the elephant does exactly what it wants to do and similarly, emotions in a human being will do what it wants to do when there is exhaustion. This exhaustion starts when an individual is assigned for coaching. As his emotions are working against the whole idea of coaching as it feels it is insulted. Even in those cases where an individual seeks coaching, the emotion could be strained to start with and can potentially reach a stage of exhaustion.

As a coach, you should look at motivating the emotion and prepare it for accepting the changes.

Step 2: Clearly explain the situation and lay down a clear path: It becomes extremely important for the coach to make the emotion and the prefrontal cortex to be aware of the environment. The coach should take time to understand each of the emotional and the logical issues and clear them. This way you are clearing the bushes and the thorns in the path. This will ensure that the elephant sees the path and is sure of not being hurt while traveling in the new path and the mahout will be able to steer the elephant in that direction. When the coach brings in clarity to the emotion, clears all the doubts, the next step of working teeth logic to travel in a new direction becomes easy.

If this approach fails then the coach should adopt one of the following aspects

• Highlight the pitfalls ahead and how it is going to impact the individual being coached. The coach is making aware of the crisis the individual can get into if he fails to take action now.
• Generate such a strong craving that emotion moves from its stated position to accept the directions of the prefrontal cortex.

Step 3: Coach the rider: Now that you as a coach have established a good rapport with the elephant and the mahout, you should give complete clarity on the topic/issue to the prefrontal cortex. Once the prefrontal cortex and the emotions have got the clarity the coach will start directing both emotion and the logic to move in the desired direction.

Group Coaching

ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH PEOPLE, PROCESS, PRODUCT AND ENVIRONMENT

Now let us look at the organizational context where you may need to coach more than one individual. I foresee two scenarios in an organizational coaching assignment

Follow the leader:

In this situation, the coaches responsibility will be to identify as to who is that one person who is regarded as the role model, the team would like to follow in the organization. If you are successful in identifying this one individual, you have won half the battle. The other half is to establish a good working relationship and making sure that the individual looks forward to being coached. You will need to adopt some of the aspects explained in the individuals coaching skills and all other skills which have been taught to you in the last few days. You will need to work with this one individual and demonstrate the achievements to the rest of the individuals who need to be coached. However, we need to understand this approach is best suited where the head of the organization leads by example. The world is fast changing from this kind of leadership to organizations which are headed by individuals who are facilitative leaders.

Mahatma Gandhi is probably the greatest example and we can find many such heroes both in our personal lives and in the organizations

A mix of fixed and growth mindset individuals:

In the second type of organization, the leader will create a facilitative environment for the team members to perform. The leader would want to make sure that the organization continually refines its strategies, continually enhances customer satisfaction/value creation and builds a team who will challenge themselves and grow continually. In my view, in the years ahead of the facilitative leadership model, metamorphose into subordinate leadership. Let us now look at such organizations wherein you need to undertake a coaching assignment. Important characteristics of such companies

• Subordinate or facilitative leadership
• The organization will prefer an individual with a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset
• The organization recognizes the individual who adds maximum value to the client and not the individual who is a leader/manager
• Organizations prefer teams win over individual exemplary performance
• The team of growth mindset individuals is like a bunch of tamed elephants who will create their path to achieve the goal collectively. This will be very contrasting to the winning horse.
• Dominant number of individuals with a growth mindset

This is an ideal situation. Each organization is very unique and they differ from each other. It is in these situations the Coach’s skills will be tested and this also demonstrates the capabilities of the coach.

Organizations in transition will always have two categories of individuals. The growth and the fixed mindset ratio and their relative position in the hierarchy determine the complexity in the coaching assignment. Now let us go back to understand these individuals by comparing them to the tamed and wild elephants. The growth mindset can be categorized as tamed elephants and the fixed mindsets are typically the ones who could be compared to the wild elephants. These are the individuals you need to be worried about because they can trample you, they can pull the entire exercise in a different direction than the one you were planning. These individuals are characterized by

• These individuals are running their kingdoms/fiefdoms within the organization.
• When the organizations want to make structural changes, they will run wild/astray.
• They enjoy their freedom and want to do what they think what is the best.
• They potentially can derail the entire organization or the change process.

Now let us look at an assignment wherein you as a coach is assigned with the responsibility of organizational transformation through process and people. What would be the process you will adapt to make sure that the assignment is successful.

Keeping the above aspects in mind, the coach’s primary responsibility will be to identify the tamed elephants and wild elephants. Since several thousand years, humans have evolved multiple processes of luring the wild elephant and one of them is (Khedda). The elephant gets tamed when the Emotion/will is broken. The taming process involves two tamed elephants flanking on either side of the wild element and squeezing till the emotion/will is broken.

• Identify the early adopters (tamed elephants). You will need to seek this information from the organization leadership. These individuals are the ones with the Growth Mindset
• Identify those individuals who are difficult to transition (wild elephants), These individuals typically have a fixed mindset. The book Mindset has elaborate strategies outlined to change the mindsets.
• Undertake an initial briefing session to all the concerned outlining the goals and the process.
• Work with the leadership team to identify what success looks like.
• Identify the right work, form teams and measure what matters.
• Continually work with the rest of them to move them one step at a time while the
• POC teams are making quantum strides
• Celebrations of success in front of the leadership team are an important aspect of breaking the will of the fixed mindset individuals. Care has to be taken to ensure that you are constantly talking and understanding with the tough ones.
• Once you build confidence that these individuals with growth mindset have internalized the changes, you can now look at getting the individuals with a fixed mindset to become part of the transition.
• You will get one fixed mindset individual to work with few growth mindset individuals so that he/she does not stray or lead the entire pack in the wrong direction.
• Your entire focus during this period will be on the fixed mindset individual. You will have to adopt all the techniques outlined in the individual coaching skills to make sure that this individual turns around.
• Being a fixed mindset individual by nature, he/she would to prove and demonstrate their success. This will be the most powerful demonstration of the success you can ever think.
• Being a fixed mindset they would want to prove it again and again. This will make your transition assignment much easier to accomplish.
• Celebrating small successes with fixed mindset individuals are a great way of motivating.

Author: JP Shivakumaraswamy is a multifaceted personality wearing multiple hats in the field of industry, commerce, finance, and environmental conversation. An accomplished business leader and a voracious reader, his passion lies in generating continuous improvement and high performance in individuals and teams. Lately, he has taken a foray into the world of coaching and has been selflessly contributing to its cause

How a Scrum Ceremony Unlocks Hidden Human Potential

by Krishna Chodipilli | Dec 9, 2020 | Agile Coaching, Scrum Training

Scrum suggests 3 roles (The team, ScrumMaster, and product owner), four ceremonies (the sprint planning meeting, Daily Scrum, sprint review meeting, and sprint retrospective meeting), and three artifacts (the product increment, product backlog, and sprint backlog).

A ceremony has three primary elements in it. Firstly, it is a recurring activity that is periodic in its existence. Secondly, it demands a certain form in conduct and protocol, and third, it needs to be time boxed to be effective in its implementation. Finally, the unspoken – practices change behaviour or Do they?

A daily Scrum fulfills all three of the above and hence merits being labelled as a ceremony. A ceremony with certain ritualistic norms that are religiously adhered to. Since rituals are sequenced activities and help in improved conduct, the daily Scrum meeting becomes an important component in the value generation of the overall Agile implementation process. Having said this, are such meets merely regimented and sequenced actions that need to be followed and enacted? Does it only serve the intended purpose for which it was designed or does it have an inherent value addition to team dynamics and human interaction as well? If we dig a little deep and we can uncover the following.

• It is not a reason to assemble, but also a reason to celebrate

• It is just not a ritual, but also an opportunity to be expressive

• It is not a mere ceremony, but an avenue to strengthen relationships

• It is not a place to be seen, but also be heard and appreciated

• It is not a place to submit, but an opportunity to create possibilities

• It is not about quick decisions but also arriving at a considered choice for action

• It is not a space to compete but a reason to collaborate

Ceremonies are the bedrock for systemic actions to exist within a structure for effectiveness and are human-centric actions. Daily Scrum ceremonies, therefore, involve human interactions and behaviors. They are not just platforms to improve communication amongst team members, removal of impediments to development, highlight and promote quick decision-making, and improving the team’s participation levels but also serve to uncover human potential and aspirations. They are reasons to celebrate progress, assist and empathize with challenges, build rapport, enhance familiarity and deliver a choice for action. By uncovering the human element in a daily Drum Meetup, one can unleash possibilities of creativity, freedom and self-expression between the team members. This manifests not only in expanded efficiency in the workspace but also instils intrinsic involvement and clear sense of purpose and intent.

At LeadershipTribe we are aware of the hidden potential that exists in a daily Scrum meet. While we accept the need for a ceremony and adhering to the ritual, we also pay attention to uncovering hidden aspirations and wants and releasing human potential to its fullest. In unlocking hidden potential in each member, does the true manifestation of the Scrum process get realized? At LeadershipTribe, we approach the conduct of a Daily Scrum to meet not as a set of self-serving activities but a very potent medium for leadership to generate self-sustaining members. Come and join us or connect with us to know more about why and how we go about achieving this essential value of a Scrum ceremony.

Coaching for Leadership Development

by Krishna Chodipilli | Dec 9, 2020 | Agile Coaching

The world is evolving rapidly today and presenting greater challenges than ever to business leaders, underlining the necessity to provide strong but flexible leadership to help the business to navigate challenges. Leaders not only need to be outstanding individuals but also need to develop specific competencies that enable the business to succeed. This is where coaching for leadership development comes into play to facilitate individual growth and strengthen leadership skills, transform the performance of top management and drive organisational achievement.

Coaching is a Process

Coaching is not about giving instructions or attending a lesson in a classroom, instead, it is a customised process to help the coachee to achieve a specific purpose in a defined period. Coaching for executives often takes the form of a conversation and is conducted on a one-to-one basis.

Leadership development through coaching is a journey that helps the business leaders to improve self-awareness and personal impact, build one’s capability to transform leadership and team culture to achieve an organisation’s goals. Rather than proposing a solution or a way to tackle challenges, the coach works in partnership with the leaders to motivate, challenge and inspire them to explore and utilise their full potential and generate solutions from within.

A well-established coaching program should start with a scenario analysis with an appreciation of the targeted objectives. The coach needs to discuss the assessment results with the leader to confirm goals for the coaching program and work with the executive to define the action plan and the success factors. The coach should meet the executive at regular intervals to track progress against goals and course correct where necessary, and the engagement will carry on throughout and beyond the program to ensure learnings are fully translated into practice and sustained for future success.

Benefits and Applications of Coaching

As a development tool, coaching helps to shape and strengthen leadership competencies. It enables executives to improve their self-awareness, empathy, listening and interpersonal skills, which facilitates better communication and improves the team’s overall performance. It also helps to widen executives’ leadership styles, build resilient and productive relationships and instil a collaborative team culture at work. Furthermore, leadership coaching offers an insightful analysis of the company’s challenges and inspires problem-solving with new viewpoints and strategies. Also, reports show that organisations who invest in coaching for their leaders often experience a significant return on investment.

Coaching for leadership development is a critical development strategy, it empowers executives to adopt organisational transformation swiftly and competently and enables organisations to embrace and thrive in changes. Leadership coaching is best applied to engage and retain valued leaders, warrant alignment with the organisation’s overall strategy, prepare prospective candidates for the succession of leadership roles, and onboard an executive to a new role or adjust to a new culture. Coaching provides a ‘safe’ environment and a personal experience where the coach provides external help for the leaders to achieve their objectives.

The Right Coach

Coaching for leadership development is a relationship focussed process, for maximum impact and optimised results, there must be strong alignment between the coach and the coachee. It is important that the coachee is motivated and committed to the coaching program, and the right coach is selected.

A good leadership coach should demonstrate relevant experience and an evidence-based approach in developing performance and measuring successful outcomes, show a genuine interest in the coachee and take time to understand the coachee’s organisational dynamics and business challenges. The coach should be able to raise probing questions to validate and challenge the coachee’s performance. He/she should be collaborative, motivational, energetic and inspiring, and a good fit with the executive’s style.

When the ‘chemistry’ is right between the coach and coachee and both parties work together, coaching can deliver extraordinary outcomes, uplifting behavioural competencies that drive business results and improving job satisfaction, engagement and work relationships.

Conclusion

Leadership coaching is an important strategy to foster the capabilities and effectiveness of executives and secure the future of their organisation. It is not an instructional course but a collaborative process to equip leaders with the relevant skills, approach and influence needed for successful execution. The fit between the coach and coachee is pertinent to the success of the coaching engagement, the right coach helps to establish trust and collaboration and warrant the overall achievement of the coaching program.

In a constantly evolving business environment, coaching offers a unique opportunity for organisations to develop robust leadership and resiliency to adapt quickly. Our extensive range of coaching solutions offers leaders the opportunity to explore their leadership styles and gain new insight into successful leadership to ensure their interventions are high-impact. Get in touch today to discuss how we help senior leaders to achieve greater levels of efficiency and effectiveness.