When writing the EBAC book, my (our) perspective was largely from the position of the “universal” agile coach. One where the approaches, tactics, skills, and strategies were essentially the same no matter your place in the organization.
But there are many aspects of agile coaching where the subtleties of your place significantly influence your approaches. None is probably more varied and nuanced then whether you’re coaching as an internal (employee, full-time, FTE, role-based) coach versus an external (contractor, consultant, full or part-time, outside the organizational hierarchy) coach.
I think the differences are so compelling that I wanted to share the following table with you to sensitize you to some of the differences in perspective and approach.
While there may be differences, I want you to minimize the internal gyrations you go through to do your job. In essence, I still want you to be you as a coach. But, depending on your organizational positioning, I thought it would be useful to highlight some of these subtle and not-so-subtle differences.