Three Mistakes I Made as a First Time Scrum Master
I was lucky to get the chance to try my hand as a scrum master for the first time this year. I have worked in Agile for a good few years, and have picked up some sprints when holidays happened, but this was my first chance to really take up the mantle myself.
And I made a lot of mistakes. Some bigger than others, some I still cringe at inside when I think of them in those few moments before sleep that all your embarrassing moments seem to find their way into.
I’m proud of the job I did, I learned a lot and my team and I faced a lot of challenges. But I still made mistakes, so now I shall share them so hopefully you can learn from my pain!
Listen to your Team
Especially if you are coming into an established team, they are the experts. Listen to them. Not just ‘official’ listening, like where their blockers are but also what they need from you. Every team needs something different from their Scrum master, every team has different challenges, characters and skillsets.
So assuming that after passing your PSM1 you are entirely qualified to do everything they need is a. egotistical in the extreme and b. not actually going to help them or you.
I was once told I needed to look at how I coached the team because it came off as ‘school-marm’-y. Now that is not something anyone wants to hear. But I didn’t know how else to coach.
My mistake was not letting my team teach me what they needed because I was too focused on trying to coach and mentor them on what I thought they needed.
So next time I’ll listen more carefully and with maybe a tiny bit more humility.
Book learning isn’t actually much of your role
Imagine my shock and surprise when I started my role and I realised that knowing Agile and Scrum and having all the right qualifications was only maybe relevant about 30% of the time.
I can recite Scrum.org verbatim, but I know very little about how to support my team when they are going through a restructuring consultation or have a sick child.
And that is part of the role. You are there to help your team be the best they can be, sometimes that’s thinking up new and exciting retros, sometimes that’s removing blockers, sometimes that’s giving up your desk so your team can sit together. Or bringing the doughnuts to a planning meeting to keep people’s energy up. Doughnuts are never mentioned in the Scrum Guide. Trust me, I looked.
And then there is the time they don’t need anything from you Right This Second. Where you are without fires to fight or ceremonies to attend. What do you do with this time?
That was hard to adapt to, and the best advice I was given was to read.
At the time it felt a ridiculously decadent thing to be allowed to do. Reading? Whilst I was supposed to be working? What madness was this?
But the more I gave myself permission to sit and read articles and books on agile, and coaching, and general software development the more use I was to my team. When we needed to pivot from scrum to kanban I was ready with the knowledge. When there was talk about implementing some form of Agile at Scale I had already looked into the options.
My mistake was thinking I needed to be busy to be doing my job well. I now try to set an hour a day aside to read and learn. So that I can do my job well.
Its ok to need support yourself
I know this sounds obvious but I really struggled at times because I felt I needed to be there for my team even to my own detriment.
At one point I was ill and came in that morning anyway, knowing I would need to be sent home because the team would be getting some bad news I needed to be there to support them.
Surprise! I did not, and should have stayed in bed and got healthy so I could give the team the best me they needed when they were facing challenges, not the snotty, sleep deprived me they got.
I had colleagues around me in similar positions who would have been able to help me learn those things. But I didn’t ask for the help they could give.
My mistake was not leaning on the support network I had in my team and my department because I was too focused on Needing To Support others.
So next time I’ll remember to ask for help. Because I need it too.
So those are my three biggest mistakes.
Next time I’m sure I’ll make other ones, but hopefully I won’t make the same ones twice.
