So, you’re a coach now…

My thoughts, a month in.

Chris Davies
Sep 2, 2018 · 6 min read

Helping people is part of my nature. Well, at least it was until the corporate world swallowed me up 7 or 8 years ago and taught me to put myself before others.

‘When we’re kind to another person, it doesn’t matter if we’re seen or acknowledged. What’s important is our willingness to be kind.’

The Backstory

Around 18 months ago, an opportunity came along to become a Scrum Master. This is where I began to rediscover my natural traits of compassion and kindness. Since then, I’ve worked with a few teams and some awesome people who all had something in common – they wanted to find meaning in their work.

If you haven’t heard of the role of a Scrum Master before, you’re not alone. So, if I was to try to summarise it in a sentence, I’d say that the person performing this role uses an empirical framework to do all they can to help a team perform at their highest level. This is generally in the context of a team that develops software using the Scrum framework but the underlying principles are the same as any coach – they try to help people become better, both individually and collectively.

You can find a more comprehensive description of the Scrum Master role here: https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-scrum-master

Fast forward to June this year. Again, working as a Scrum Master, a now fellow coach and friend took me aside and told me that I’d make an awesome coach (his words!) and he pushed me to apply for a Squad Coach role. I say pushed because at the time, I didn’t have the self belief or confidence in myself nor did I feel that I was qualified to be a coach (and I still don’t!). Anyway, I was lucky enough to be successful in my application.

Where I work, a Squad Coach is a bit of a hybrid between an experienced Scrum Master and an Agile Coach with ~2–4 years experience – the two are often interchangeable in this world of agility. Whilst it’s not an industry recognised role, a Squad Coach works closely with business, technical and multi disciplinary squads (teams) but not exclusively, they also work with individuals and contribute to a growing agile community.

It’s probably worth adding that the company I work for is <12 months in to a huge change (transformation) to what we call ‘new ways of working’. This not so new way of working incorporates agile values and principles but it does not prescribe a specific framework, such as Scrum. It is a leader driven transformation but the absence of good leadership is sometimes evident.


A Month In

I didn’t tell many people that I’d been successful or even applied for a coaching role, mainly because I felt like a bit of an imposter but also because I didn’t feel the need to. This approach actually led to some interesting conversations with people who I’ve known and worked with indirectly for a long time.

“Coaches just go around having coffee with people then turn up to ceremonies and ask open questions.”

“They don’t have to deliver anything – I wish I had that job.”

They’re just a couple of snippets but I was certainly intrigued to hear people’s perspectives and I’m sure many other coaches have caught wind of similar comments at a point in time. Personally, I was interested in why people felt that way and what I could learn and share as an aspiring coach to help improve relationships.

So anyway, here I am, just over a month into my offical coaching career (if you go by title or role description). How’s it been? Amazing, emotional, tiring, scary, exciting, confusing, confronting… you get the picture. If I was to summarise it in a word, that word would be ‘Profound’.

You’re probably asking why (if you’re still reading!) so I’ll do my best to summarise that shortly. In the meantime, I thought I’d list a few things that became crystal clear over the past month. I use the phrase crystal clear because I’d be lying if I was to say that these things only came to me in the past month, they’re thoughts and feelings that have crossed or circulated my mind at some point but only in the past month or so have they resonated and become reality – you could call them my principles as they’re something I try to embody in every interaction.


My Personal Principles

Treat people as human beings, not as cogs in a machine or numbers on a spreadsheet. Sounds obvious right? The sad part is that everyday I hear people refer to one another as FTE (full time equivalent), resources or even a numerical job grade (the lower the number, the higher you sit in the corporate structure). The sooner we move to a place of understanding where we truly see our colleagues as people who have hearts & minds, the better. People have their own thoughts and feelings, real or perceived, and their own emotions which impact how they feel and how they behave in every interaction. Rather than jump to conclusions and label others, I pledge to explore why and support people with whatever they may have going on.


Listen without judgement, it is so powerful – seriously! This ties into the above paragraph as it’s about being compassionate and freeing up space for people to share, learn and grow. Rather than go to a meeting with the intention of leading someone to an outcome or telling them what you think they should do, try listening. Free up the space for them to talk openly and honestly about how they feel – in the context of their work or personal life (if you’re comfortable with the latter). I haven’t started doing this because I want to be good at something, I’ve stopped not doing it because I don’t feel like I need to be a certain type of person anymore.


Surround yourself with amazing people. Sounds obvious but in my experience, it isn’t always so easy. That said, it doesn’t have to be at work or via formal mentoring, it can be through any walk of life. I’ve been so lucky to find a home in a coaching group (or cluster as we call them at work) where I’m both supported and challenged. Our little dysfunctional, yet super practical family of 7 has people from all corners of the world who bring amazing diversity of thought in a respectful, honest way. They motivate me every day and encourage me to be brave, courageous and ultimately, take life a little less seriously. Be around people who encourage you to be yourself and don’t be afraid to tell them how much you value them.


Be yourself, you’re good enough. The corporate world has a way of focusing on improving perceived weaknesses rather than focusing on peoples strengths. It also dictates that to be successful you have to use certain words aka corporate jargon, dress a certain way or even be seen to be the most knowledgable person in the room. This, in turn, stifles knowledge sharing and creates unhealthy competition. If you survive or even grow in this environment, the chances are you’ve done it by learning to behave in a certain way, maybe an unnatural way. You’ll probably find yourself unfulfilled or even unhappy if you do this for too long. Personally, I became anxious, super critical and to be honest, a pretty unlikable person from behaving like this. I never want to see that person in the mirror again, I’d rather earn less money and have less status than become caught up in being someone I’m not. And no, I didn’t take a pay rise or a higher graded role to be a coach.


I could keep going as there’s a lot of subjects in my mind, such as implicit corporate hierarchy but I’ll quickly get back to the earlier question of why the first month has been profound. It’s because I’m changing as a person – to a better one, I hope.

I don’t pretend for a second that this change is purely down to a month in a coaching role, it’s a combination of many things, such as experiences in my personal life like confronting personal demons over time, learning how to be present and not chasing thoughts and feelings aka mindfulness/meditation, and a host of other things that perhaps I’ll talk about in future blogs. I’m determined to continue this journey and I look forward to sharing my progress with those who are interested.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. I wanted to write for a long time but I’ve always been too anxious and I lacked self belief but, putting that aside, I’ll only grow by getting things out there, including myself, so hopefully the next one will be more engaging! Again, thanks for reading.

Chris Davies

Written by

Circulating the thoughts and feelings of a curious mind whilst attempting to take life a little less seriously.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade