I received a LinkedIn message from an agile consulting firm asking if I’d be interested in an opportunity. They had two levels of agile coaching opportunities available.
Which were:
Agile Coach with compensation up to $70/hour
Sr. Agile Coach with compensation up to $80/hour
I sat back and I sighed. I’ve never charged rates this low for any coaching I’ve done…ever. I’ve got somewhere between 15-20 years of agile coaching experience from team level to project/program level to enterprise level including leadership coaching.
When I looked at the specification for these roles, the Sr. Agile Coach role had Enterprise level coaching requirements at my level. But from my perspective, the compensation was at a level that would not fairly compensate qualified agile coaches, nor even Scrum Masters.
In other words, they wanted Filet Mignon at Burger King prices. (with all due respect to BK)
Even Sadder
But what makes me even sadder is that there are people “agile coaches” in the world who will happily work for these rates.
Why?
Largely because they’re agile coaches in name only. They gain a bit of experience and then immediately call themselves an “Agile Coach”. For these folks, the compensation makes a whole lot of sense.
However, they’re leading with paper experience and bravado and not real experience. It’s a game of smoke and mirrors and the clients are the ones that lose in that game.
They are commoditizing agile coaching and driving down compensation rates for all of us. And the rate compression also minimizes the value of real-world experience and skill.
And, Even Sadder
And what makes me even sadder Is the impact this has on the client. This firm will be marking up those rates to more competitive market rates, trying to squeeze as much juice from the client lemon as possible.
At the same time, they are driving down compensation for the coaches (the people). Which attracts less and less qualified coaches.
In the end, I think the client gets an inexperienced, hungry coach who doesn’t have the skills that the client is ultimately paying for. And the organization providing the coaches makes a tidy sum that encourages the game to continue.
It’s a shell game if you will that commoditizes the craft of agile coaching. One that creates a Lose-Win-Lose relationship. The only winner being the firm that’s brokering the under-qualified coaches.
Now if your an individual agile coach or a coaching practice/firm, you have a choice. Which way will you go?
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.
Another example
This link / LinkedIn discussion from Ram Srinivasan REALLY compliments this discussion. Check out all of the comments and reactions too. Well worth a read!
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6547515869948329984