About 10 years ago I was an agile coach at a client organization and I was also acting as a Scrum Master for two teams.
I remember a director coming up to me and asking me, as the Scrum Master of a team with folks who reported to him, how was a specific engineer performing. He explained that he had concerns that the engineer wasn’t pulling his weight and he wanted some specifics to confront him with.
I remember my reaction viscerally to this day…
I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach;
I even felt a little weakness in my knees;
I struggled with what to say, knowing that the engineer he was talking about was indeed struggling;
I didn’t know if this was part of my role as a Scrum Master or not;
I wondered how he would take it if I declined to give him feedback;
I worried about the impact my feedback would have on the engineer…
It was a horrible experience because I wasn’t sure what to do. If I gave him the feedback, it would certainly compromise my role within the team. I guessed that it would get out and that I’d never really be trusted again.
AND, I was a part of the Scrum Team, wasn’t I? It would be like becoming a “snitch”. And nobody likes a snitch.
But if I didn’t give him the feedback, would it put me at risk?
In the end, I respectfully declined. I said that he’d have to observe the team in our sprint to sort out how everyone was performing. To my surprise, he accepted that reply. But I left feeling incredibly vulnerable and physically shaking.
Coaching Ethics
This situation, while incredibly uncomfortable at the time, inspired me to do two things:
It made me investigate more deeply the role and responsibility of the Scrum Master. I used the Scrum Guide as a guide and explore what was in bounds for the role and what wasn’t. Specifically, I needed to understand my role with respect to providing team performance feedback. And,
It made me develop a set of coaching ethics (when I was a Scrum Master and/or agile coach) that would guide me in the future. It made me think much more deeply around my personal guidelines for these roles, what I would do, and what I wouldn’t.
Several of the ethics guidelines that I’ve lived by ever since then include:
As a coach, I will always endeavor to meet my clients “where they are”, as opposed to where I want them to be. That being said, I will push them hard.
As a coach, I will not take over-ownership of the client’s actions, ownership, or ultimate results. Yes, we’re partners, but in the end, they have to be the owners of their actions and behaviors.
As a coach, I will not become a party to evaluating the performance levels (or agile readiness / evolution) of the client’s employees, including the client themselves.
Wrapping Up
I’ve had this same situation happen to me many times since. As a coach, particularly an external coach, I get asked about the organizational (and individual) performance all of the time. Particularly around how are team members handling the “change to Agile”?
I’ve learned to effectively dodge it by explaining early on in our coaching relationship that I’m not there to evaluate performance…period! That’s the client leadership team’s job. Heck, I’m not there to evaluate the leadership team’s performance either.
Instead, I’m here to help them on their journey. To help them achieve Business Agility both organizationally and individually.
One key to this, and it’s a secret that many misses, is to stop worrying about individual performance. Move from individuals to evaluating your teams instead. Setting expectations at a team level. And leading from a position of team outcomes.
Oh, and if you hadn’t already guessed, this article’s photo is from a Bill Murray film entitled What About Bob? If you haven’t seen it, I might recommend it to you…
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.