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Comment by MrGilbert

5 days ago

Agile Coach / Scrum Master chiming in - I switched from an engineering position to this more people-centric role, and completely agree with you.

What I find fascinating about this is how predictable people become once you know the different personalities and their nuances. It helps tremendously to also be interested in getting to know people. And yes, you will encounter people that are disruptive. Usually, and I can only speak for my environment, the team itself is quite good at handling that. I just need to give them room and provide a setting where they can talk about the issues at hand on a constructive base.

That's why I love my job, and it may sound weird - but I'm the guy who can ask all the obvious questions that come to mind and others don't dare to ask. I love that I can build myself a toolbox to use in different (and difficult) situations. And I love to see my team succeed on the one hand, and learn from failure on the other.

21 comments

MrGilbert

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wavesbelow  2 days ago

> What I find fascinating about this is how predictable people become once you know the different personalities and their nuances.

curious - is there a way to learn this other than from experience?

  • MrGilbert  2 days ago

    I haven't discovered it yet. Of course, there are certain studies and models like 16 personalities, DISC, etc. But you cannot pinpoint people to these categories easily. It's a spectrum, I guess.

jamesfinlayson  5 days ago

> how predictable people become once you know the different personalities and their nuances

I will never cease to be amazed at managers who don't do this. I've seen enough managers who pick fights with the wrong subordinates then have to scramble to replace key staff when they leave.

MrGilbert  5 days ago

Curious to know why my comment received a downvote / downvotes.

  • poisonborz  5 days ago

    I didn't, but guess: a lot of happy-babbly words without much substance or stark opinion. What's the summary? "I love this job, there are challenges, but I can master it well". Well..ok, thanks?

  • dogleash  5 days ago

    I didn't downvote, but you started out sharing credentials that aren't management and then recounted standard platitudes about collaboration and some personal experience with zero transferable utility. And you posted that in response to a comment saying how difficult topics necessary to succeeding as a manager don't happen often on the internet. I understand why people would evaluate your contribution as detracting from the conversation at hand and downvote.

  • kortilla  5 days ago

    Being an agile coach isn’t management

    • azangru  5 days ago

      The author of the article writes:

      > You’re not the player, you’re the coach. Sometimes that means strategy and big-picture thinking. Sometimes it means shielding your team from dumb shit. Sometimes it means buying someone coffee and saying, “You’re not crazy. This is hard.”

      Guess what good agile coaches or scrum masters are expected to do :-)

      2 replies →

    • whstl  5 days ago

      Off topic, but:

      It's interesting how everyone thinks they're "managers" in "agile" teams.

      Scrum Masters, Product Owners. I've even had Designers and QAs trying to make decisions on behalf of the team.

      6 replies →