As we reach the half year point I thought it best to give a progress update as a few people have been in touch regarding the CEC and CTC Journeys and I didn’t want to leave things in the balance.
Having spent a lot of time and focus on the Scrum Alliance CEC/CTC journeys, finally getting my part 1 application over the line has been a massive weight lifted. There are some technicalities I need to work out there but I am awaiting feedback, hopefully I will have some news on this soon.
I haven’t written a progress update before and it feels a little weird that there is progress. Usually I have prioritised something for work, some learning or talked myself out of being good enough to reach these certifications and put them on the back burner again but last week was a massive week and it has given me some extra fuel to write this post!
I actually came to a realisation this week. I have been a coach for a while now and have seen the coaching role evolve, especially Agile Coaching. I have trained Scrum Masters, Coaches, Teams and Individuals in Agile ways of working but I was conscious that I didn’t have any formal education in coaching and I wasn’t certified. Now, we can get into the ins and outs of certifications at another time but to the outside world I probably would have been viewed differently in the expertise stakes and that didn’t sit right with me. An opportunity arose to join a cohort of great people on a coaching course and I jumped at the chance!
This wasn’t your usual 3 day course where everything is rammed in and you are given a badge on your way out, bamboozled by what you have just learned and how you can use it. I spent the past 8 weeks on a Saturday evening being taught by Karen Bruns at Monarch Coaching where I learned loads and had a week of reflection, experimenting and innovating before the next session arrived. This really suited my learning style and was a massive bonus for me! The experience and story telling of Karen and my cohort really helped the learning stick and the final presentation really pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me a lot about myself (and my attention to detail :D). I would whole heartedly recommend Karen and her courses as she has a wealth of knowledge and practical experience to share. I walked away with a few more tools, a few more tricks and knowledge and my first Agile coaching Certification!
Further to this, I have been working with Lucia Baldelli on my professional coaching certification (ICF-ACC) over the past 2 years. This has been a great pathway and I have documented how this has helped me as a person and a coach in past blogs. With the CEC/CTC application out of the way I was able to prioritise this again. Lucia has been fantastic and invited me along to resit the mentor sessions for ACC again for extra practice and this week I passed my ACC recording alongside a few people from the cohort too! Exciting times and just the small matter of a 3 hour exam to sit to get another coaching certification! I best get studying!
A friend and mentor asked me this week, what do you see yourself using these certifications for? It was a great question and the answer is at the beginning of this post… The evolution of the coaching role. You see, 5 years ago Agile Coaches were usually brought in to work at team level. We would be mostly in the teach and coach space as that was what was required. You would be lucky if leadership was in scope. Now, the role has grown, the expectations have grown. We work across and down the organisation from leadership, strategy, funding all the way down to the individual and having that professional coaching toolset / mindset has really helped me move forward. The days of spouting theory at people and hoping it will stick are gone. Partnering, listening, guiding, supporting and teaching have become the new norm in my experience and my approach has evolved over the years with my new learnings.
Anyway, I have gone on for too long! This was supposed to be a quick update :D. Hopefully I will have more to update on soon.
Daily Scrum 