Well, what can I say, it has been a rollercoaster ride so far and unlike any certification I have taken in the past, this has been full on. It really makes me appreciate just how coveted the CTC is and hats off to the people who have already gained their certification as I know how much work is involved and how hard it is to achieve this. Unlike a one to three day course, this is a journey of self reflection and my comfort zone has definitely been pushed to the limit.
Having been a Scrum Master for nearly fifteen years before taking the big step into coaching I had taken pride in the fact that apart from my CSM in 2008, I had been relatively self taught with the help of some really knowledgable people and friends who I collaborated with through work to gain experience and boost my skill set. With coaching being a large part of the Scrum Master role and having made the transition to coach around five years with a lot of success in this new role, to hear that I needed proper coach training in order to obtain this certification was horrifying. This was the start of my mindset shift. One I didn’t realise that I needed.
I signed up for a path to CTC course with Lucia Baldelli and learned with some great people along the way. It gave me a great insight into what was expected of CTC’s and the application process and hearing the thought processes and experiences of others in my cohort was extremely valuable. Once I had completed the pathway it was pointed out that a Coaching Certification would be beneficial for the application process as there will be a coaching conversation in your introductory call with a reviewer. As I had been coaching for a few years at this point, I found it weird that you would need a Coaching Certification in order to get another Coaching Certification and I felt I was already good enough. Luckily Lucia knows when to be pointed and I took that as a hint that it would be beneficial for me so I signed up for her ICF-ACC course. I entered the process with an open mind and after the first session my mind was blown, this is what I was missing!
I realised that I had fallen into the consulting stance in a few of my engagements. People had looked to me as an “expert” and had come seeking answers and I knew that I had to lift myself out of that scenario as it wasn’t helping me or my clients or teams. The first few practice coaching sessions were uncomfortable as I switched from listening to answer to a deeper listening, listening to understand and process what the person was telling me to unlock what I can only describe as curiosity, questioning to get a deeper understanding to help unlock the clients thought process to usher them to solve their own problems. A world away from what I was used to.
Using the skills I had learned during the course really opened my mind to a new strand of coaching and it made things really interesting again although, whether my clients or teams who now experienced my new approach rather than be given the answers to their problems would agree, is another question! That was my mindset shift, I had been fairly fixed in my belief that I knew what what good coaching was but the professional coaching side really opened up another world and an improved toolset for working with individuals and teams and it came at the most opportune moment.
During this time my role in my day job changed. I moved to a massive Agile Transformation that was combining Scrum and Scaled Agile (SAFe). This gave me the opportunity to work with Senior Leaders in the transformation and also Leaders in the business too which put my newly learned skills to the test and has broadened my horizons to now look at the CEC certification too.
One area I didn’t want to overlook was community engagement and giving back to the community. I usually attend a lot of meet ups to learn from the community and have helped with small scale organisation at a couple of local meet ups and events but I knew that this would not be enough to meet the certification requirements. One opportunity arose to be part of the Global Scrum Gathering Denver review group where a group of Agilists come together to review the talks that people would like to present at the Global Gathering. It was a great experience, great to collaborate with some really knowledgable people and also get an insight into what makes a popular presentation. This has led to me volunteering for the Lisbon, Portland, Amsterdam and New Orleans Global Scrum Gatherings too, it has become quite addictive and a great way to give back to the community.
When I sat down to write this post I didn’t really think it would be this long! I feel pretty confident at the moment to sit my initial interview with one of the review members and will compose another blog post to let you know how that goes. I am looking forward to it. I hope this will be helpful for people hoping to sit the CTC / CEC going forward.
Daily Scrum 