As an intercultural and agile coach I cooperate with many international companies which follow a primary goal to empower their employees and create innovative solutions for their customers.
Meeting their leaders, scrum masters and team members we usually start with the question who an agile coach is?
As an agile coach I do not provide definitions or eloquent sentences to describe my mission. I encourage my clients to find their own answers related to their goals and daily professional activities.
Let me share the ideas my clients mentioned as their answers to the questions “Who is an agile coach? and “What’s the mission of an agile coach?”
- “Agile coaches are evangelist of agile methodology who develop agile teams to ensure effective outcomes for companies and customers.”
- “Agile coaches and teams should be unified in their efforts to build great products for customers. To reach a common goal, agile coaches pose questions and challenge team members in their thinking and perceptions.”
- “An agile coach accompanies teams on their way to grasp change and adapt their ways of collaboration. Team members are facilitated by agile coaches to take over new responsibilities and be more accountable understanding their cultural background values and behaviors.”
I see my mission in encouraging team members and their leaders to embrace agile approaches and equip them with knowledge and tools to develop their own agile mindset. I fully understand that to get everyone on board means to question changes with teams and management representatives and let them discover the true benefits related to their projects and business performance.
The most powerful inspiration should come from our head where we build our strategies based on previous experience and cultural programming. Therefore, at first I listen and try to understand and only then I talk about the benefits agile approaches generate.
Eva Gaborikova
Read also: How To Develop Cultural Agility Of Leaders, Scrum Teams And Virtual Teams
Eva Gaborikova
Eva has been a cross-cultural consultant and ICF certified coach for more than 15 years, supporting leaders, managers, multicultural teams and expat families. Working with international companies, teams and different cultures, she inspires her clients to look for practical strategies how to turn cross-cultural challenges and differences into their benefits. In 2016 and 2018 she was awarded “GREAT Award” in New York in competition with trainers, coaches and consultants from USA, Europe and Asia.
