Scrum Coaching Practice: A Guide to Effective Agile Leadership
Coaching Scrum is coaching cultural shift. The effectiveness of frameworks like Scrum live and die on the underlying beliefs inherent in the individuals on the floor, those that practice the practice, live and breathe the values and work to a common philosophy.
"The art of coaching is the art of assisting discovery." – Bill Gates
Agility in today's software market, through agile methods and practices is no longer a competitive advantage, is essential. Many major organisations such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Spotify choose Scrum (or modified variants). According to the 15th State of Agile Report (2021), 66% of agile teams reported using Scrum, and another 15% used Scrum variants(like ScrumBan or Scrum with SAFe).
Scrum coaching serves as a powerful enabler to building high performance Agile teams, nurturing psychological safety, team autonomy, shared philosophy and framework adherence.
Spotify, in its large scale agile transformation, leveraged extensive coaching to facilitate the evolution of the “squad” and “tribe” model. By embedding agile values deep into the organisational culture, they cultivated an environment where indelible innovation flourished. Similarly Bosch and ING spoke openly about the key influence their dedicated agile coaches had in facilitating cross team alignment and layer the foundation for a continuous learning and improvement mindset.
This paper delves into the broad ranging value and benefits that Scrum coaching brings to teams and organisations. It highlights the impact on team maturity, effectiveness of delivery and the over all organisational maturity and agility. This paper draws on significant personal experience, real-world examples and case studies to illustrate how coaching is critical in transforming good teams to great teams and why the strategic investment in coaching is essential for any organisation serious about agile success.
The Role of a Scrum Coach: Catalyst for Agile Excellence
"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment." – John Wooden
A Scrum coach is more than a process expert—they are a guide to the future mindset of your team or organisation. A coach acts as the architect of a future engineering culture and a trusted partner and guide along the journey. While Scrum provides a solid framework, it's the coach who helps teams fully embrace agility, and more specifically the agile mindset.
The scrum coach acts as a mentor, a facilitator, a trainer and a change agent. According to Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, “Scrum is like your mother-in-law, it points out ALL your faults” (Sutherland, 2014).
Take Spotify, for example. As they scaled their "squads and tribes" model, it was agile coaches who embedded the mindset of continuous improvement, enabling innovation at both speed and scale. Coaches didn’t just guide ceremonies—they shaped how teams thought, collaborated, and adapted. Similarly, at ING, a global banking giant, agile coaches were pivotal in transforming static hierarchies into adaptive, empowered teams that could respond rapidly to market needs.
A Scrum coach typically focuses on the following five key areas to help teams and organisations achieve agility:
Agile Mindset & Culture
Culture and mindset sit at the heart of any team’s journey toward real agility. For a coach, this is where the true challenge lies — helping people unlearn old habits, question the familiar, and step into a new way of working that remains deeply engrained long after the coach steps back.
Great coaching isn’t about enforcing a textbook set of rules or a strict workflow — it’s about breathing life into values like Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage. These aren’t just poster words on Scrums bedroom wall, the coach needs to ensure the underlying meanings, the very motive for their existence, is deeply understood. They shape how teams show up and interact with each other, how they make decisions, and how they treat each other when things get tough. When lived fully, they create the conditions for deep trust, clear focus, and meaningful collaboration.
A skilled coach creates space for honest conversations, where uncertainty is okay and experimentation is encouraged. They help break down the walls — between roles, teams, and mindsets — and shift the culture from ticking boxes to taking ownership. When courage is truly present, creativity follows. And that’s when teams stop just delivering — they start thriving, adapting, and doing work that actually matters.
Collaboration & Communication
Commitment, Courage, Focus, Openness, and Respect—are the core principles that shape how a Scrum team collaborates and communicates.
These values are foundational to healthy and high functioning communication and collaboration in a team or organisation. It is these very values that guide individuals on their day to day work, decision making processes, cultural integration and collaboration.
A Scrum Coach plays a crucial role in facilitating the adoption and deepening of these values, which in turn fosters effective communication and teamwork.
Let’s direct collaboration and communication into the individual scrum values:
Commitment
Commitment is about the dedication one applies to the objectives of the team. With respect to communication, this value emphasises follow-through — ensuring that promises made during meetings are kept and that everyone is on the same page. The trust instilled in commitment acts as an underpinning accelerator within the dynamics of the team, this separated good from great teams.
Trusted communication accelerates the entire team ecosystem — when team members trust each other, decisions come almost unconscious, collaboration becomes second nature, and the team can move with clarity and confidence.
A Scrum Coach can facilitate this by helping team members set clear, achievable goals and providing the structure to track progress. They should also help the team reflect regularly, through retrospectives or one-on-ones, to ensure that commitment isn’t just a checkbox but a shared mindset and when teams can simply “trust” each others commitment, great things happen.
Courage
In an engineering team, creativity is a highly desirable and attainable trait that drives innovation, problem-solving, and ownership. However, at the core of creativity is courage—the willingness to take initiative, challenge assumptions, and act despite uncertainty. A courageous engineer doesn’t just execute tasks; they speak up when something is wrong, take calculated risks, and push boundaries to create impactful solutions. They embrace the unknown, knowing that breakthroughs come from venturing beyond the status quo.
To cultivate courage and high agency in engineering teams, leadership should focus on fostering an environment that empowers ownership and autonomy, allowing engineers the freedom to experiment, make decisions, and take responsibility for their work without the constraints of micromanagement. Encouraging bold decision-making is crucial, creating a culture where engineers feel safe to take risks and pursue unconventional solutions without fear of repercussions. Additionally, promoting open collaboration and psychological safety enables engineers to confidently share ideas, challenge assumptions, and engage in constructive debate without judgment. Providing the necessary resources, mentorship, and time allows high-agency individuals to turn their bold ideas into reality. Finally, recognising and rewarding courageous initiatives is vital, celebrating engineers who take proactive steps to improve processes, deliver creative solutions, and drive meaningful change, even in the face of uncertainty.
As Winston Churchill famously said, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” A high-agency engineering team thrives when individuals have the courage to act, innovate, and take responsibility for shaping the future. Leadership’s role is to remove barriers, foster bold thinking, and create an environment where courage fuels creative breakthroughs.
https://www.empirique.io/blog/2qagr0djpq4hbs5vgdpwrjkp4ybglf
A good Scrum Coach knows how to create that kind of space — one where people don’t hold back because they’re afraid of being wrong. Instead, they feel supported to try new things, take risks, and even mess up, knowing the team is there to learn, not to blame. It’s not about being fearless; it’s about building the kind of trust where people feel okay being uncomfortable, because that’s often where the best work starts.
Focus
Focus is a byproduct of great communication. Without an underlying foundation of solid communication, team focus is almost impossible.
Focus is the ability to prioritise the work that matters most and stay aligned with the team's objectives, this inherently means, all team members need to have clear and unambiguous clarity around their tasks. Focus helps in eliminating distractions, which in turn support the value of commitment and further accelerates seamless communication. For Scrum teams, this means that the entire team, including stakeholders, is aligned on the goals and priorities.
A Scrum Coach can ensure that team members understand the purpose behind every sprint and task. They also help maintain this focus during the course of the sprint, ensuring that meetings stay on track, discussions are purposeful, and unnecessary distractions are minimised.
Openness and Respect
Openness and respectful communication in a team thrives when psychological safety is present — when people feel secure enough to speak honestly without fear of embarrassment, judgment, or blame. It’s about creating a space where team members can share their thoughts, admit mistakes, ask questions, and offer feedback, knowing they won’t be punished for being real.
Google’s Aristotle project, launched in 2012, set about to determine what common factors predict the success and effectiveness of a project team. The project examined 180+ teams, over a 2 year period, through interviews, surveys, outcomes, deadlines and people analytics.
The project name was derived from Aristotle’s famous quote “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” reflecting the idea that team dynamics matter more than individual talent.
Through the examination of data gathered, patterns that correlated to heightened team performance were identified. It was determined one of the key factors of importance was psychological safety. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor, who coined the term psychological safety, defines it as "a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking." It was determined that innovation was significantly stronger in teams where individuals felt they were safe to express ideas without ridicule.
“We thought that the best teams would be those with the smartest people, but what we found was that the best teams were the ones where people felt comfortable being themselves.” - Aristotle Researcher
The number one, most critical factor the Google’s Project Aristotle highlighted was Psychological Safety. Teams where members felt safe to be vulnerable and open with each other, to take risks, admit mistakes, ask questions, and offer new ideas without fear of embarrassment were more creative and innovative.
Team Development & Performance
Great teams aren’t born they’re built. Often from the ground up. This miracle doesn’t happen overnight. Teams mature through stages slowly building knowledge, process, trust and resilience. The journey is often expressed through Dr. Bruce W. Tuckman’s "Forming–Storming–Norming–Performing" team development framework. Tuckman's model outlines the stages that most teams go through as they form, develop, and become effective.
In the early stages, when a team is just forming, things are uncertain. People are polite, maybe overly cautious. No one wants to step on toes. The coach steps in here to create clarity — not just around roles or goals, but around how the team will work together. It’s about laying the foundation: shared values, working agreements, and a space where people can speak up without fear of judgment. Because without that safety, real communication doesn’t happen.
Then comes storming — and it always does. Friction surfaces. Tensions rise. People challenge each other. This is where a coach earns their keep. Not by smoothing over the conflict, but by helping the team lean into it in a healthy way. Honest disagreement is where trust is tested and strengthened. As the team finds its footing, the coach encourages accountability — not top-down, but between peers. People start owning not just their work, but the success of the team.
As the team starts to click — hitting the norming stage — things begin to flow. Now the coach can step back more, giving space for self-organisation to emerge. That might mean team members facilitating their own retros, making more decisions without escalation, or experimenting with how they collaborate. The coach becomes more of a sounding board than a guide.
By the time a team is performing, they don’t need direction — they need challenge. This is where continuous improvement becomes the heartbeat. The coach introduces new ways to inspect and adapt, helps the team see their blind spots, and encourages them to push their own boundaries. Because even great teams can get better.
The coach’s role isn’t to carry the team — it’s to help them realise they can carry themselves. And when that happens — when people trust each other, hold each other accountable, and care enough to keep growing — that’s when the magic really happens.
Process Improvement
A great Scrum Coach doesn’t just enforce the rules of the Scrum framework — they help teams understand the “why” behind each practice, and evolve how they apply it. When daily stand-ups turn into dull status updates or retrospectives start feeling repetitive, the coach steps in to shift the focus back to purpose: collaboration, reflection, and continuous improvement. They refine ceremonies to be sharper, tighter, and more valuable. Sprint Planning becomes about shared clarity, not just story pointing. Reviews become conversations, not presentations. And retrospectives? They’re where the real work happens — where teams stop, take stock, and commit to getting better. It’s not about adding more process, it’s about making the process serve the team.
Just as importantly, the coach helps clarify roles and tighten up artefacts. Are Product Owners prioritising based on real value? Is the team owning the Definition of Done, or just checking boxes? Are blockers visible and being removed fast enough? The coach doesn’t have all the answers — but they ask the right questions, the ones that spark better thinking. They help the team stop going through the motions and start owning their work, their outcomes, and their growth. When that happens, Scrum stops being a framework and starts becoming a culture — one rooted in clarity, accountability, and real momentum.
Leadership & Mentorship
The Scrum coach brings clarity amid chaos. They observe patterns, surface impediments, and ask the hard questions teams might avoid. They don’t offer all the answers—instead, they create the space for teams to discover their own.
"The job of a coach is not to steer the boat, but to help the crew become better sailors.” - Henrik Kniberg, one of the minds behind Spotify’s agile model.
Whether accelerating delivery, building psychological safety, or fostering true cross-functional collaboration, Scrum coaches are the unsung heroes behind successful agile transformations.
The real focus for any coach is not on leading the team, but rather on developing leadership within the team. In the case of Scrum teams, this could mean a multitude of things, from supporting Scrum Masters to confidently own their facilitation role (Courage), ensuring retrospectives collectively tease out and rectify systemic team issues (Collaboration & Communication), to encouraging developers to speak up in planning meetings (Open communication and Respect).
An accomplished confident coach leads by example, often being confronting by asking the hard questions, actively listening - strategically taking a back seat and maintaining composure even in tense moments. As John Maxwell wisely said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” The coaches influence is never forced, but undeniably felt.
Mentorship is the quiet catalyst for growth — it doesn't hand out answers, it lights the path forward.
“The best learning comes from the people you work with, and the best mentoring happens in the flow of work.” - Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft)
Rather than offering direct answers, mentors help individual team members find their own path through insightful questioning, challenging perceptions and questioning assumptions.
If a Scrum Master is struggling with team collaboration, a lack of engagement in team members at the daily standup or the domination of specific members, the mentor may ask “"Whose voice is missing in conversations?” Or “When team members give updates, do they speak to each other, or just to you?"
If a Product owner is struggling to balance stakeholder demands, or being troubled by the lack of bandwidth in the team or a misalignment in the product vision. His/Her mentor may ask “What would happen if you said no! ? Have you tried it?” Or “Have you asked your stakeholders what success really looks like for them?"
As the team matures over time, so does the role of the mentor and coach. The roles transition from directive to reflective, from steering to observing.
A great coach or mentor leaves behind a legacy that is often reflected not in their actions, but in the team’s ability to function independently and thrive on its own. As a team matures, the coach's role becomes less visible. Their greatest success is seen in how little they need to intervene because the team has internalised the lessons, built trust, and learned to solve problems collaboratively. The true measure of a coach's effectiveness is not how much they speak, but how much the team can accomplish without needing constant guidance.
A powerful way to understand this concept comes from the field of servant leadership — where the leader’s role is to empower and uplift others, rather than control or direct. This is exemplified in a quote by Ken Blanchard:
“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Conclusion
Coaching teams and organisations in Scrum is less about following a playbook and more about helping people rethink how they work together and the values they embrace in their everyday decision making processes. At its core great Scrum coaches don’t just run ceremonies or enforce processes — they help teams grow, shift mindsets, and build a culture where trust, openness, and curiosity can thrive. The coach represents the guiding thought leader, a reference point demonstrating how values are translated into work processes, flows, communications and tools usage.
By discussing companies like Spotify and ING, we can see how coaches play a vital role in breaking down silos, encouraging experimentation, and guiding teams through real change — not just surface-level tweaks.
A good coach doesn’t give all the answers; they create the space for teams to figure things out together. What stands out most is the human side of coaching — the listening, the nudging, the courage to ask tough questions, and the patience to let teams evolve in their own way. When it works, it’s not just agile done well — it’s people doing their best work, together.
Recommended Books on Scrum Coaching
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time – Jeff & JJ Sutherland
This book, co-written by one of Scrum's creators, emphasises how Scrum principles can transform productivity and efficiency in teams and organisations.
Coaching Agile Teams – Lyssa Adkins
A comprehensive guide for Scrum Masters and Agile coaches, focusing on how to develop strong coaching skills to help teams grow, self-organise, and perform.
Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant-Leadership – Geoff Watts
A practical book aimed at helping Scrum Masters transition from competent to exceptional, with a focus on servant-leadership and fostering high-performing teams.
The Scrum Field book – J.J. Sutherland
Offers real-world applications and case studies, providing Scrum leaders with actionable strategies to improve team performance and drive results.
The Professional Agile Leader – Various Scrum.org Trainers
Focused on leadership within an Agile environment, this book offers guidance on how to create and sustain a culture of agility throughout the organisation.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Daniel H. Pink
While not exclusively about Scrum, this book provides key insights into intrinsic motivation and autonomy, crucial for Scrum leaders looking to inspire high-performing teams.
Agile Leadership: A Leader's Guide to Transforming Culture – Zuzana Sochová
This book explores how leaders can use Agile principles to transform organisational culture and lead teams effectively through change.
Lean Change Management – Jason Little
Focuses on applying Lean and Agile principles to organisational change, making it a valuable resource for Scrum teams through transitions.
Reference
📚 Books & Reports
Sutherland, J. and Sutherland, J.J., 2014. Scrum: The art of doing twice the work in half the time. New York: Crown Business.
Adkins, L., 2010. Coaching agile teams: A companion for ScrumMasters, agile coaches, and project managers in transition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
Watts, G., 2013. Scrum mastery: From good to great servant-leadership. United Kingdom: Inspect & Adapt Ltd.
Sutherland, J.J., 2019. The Scrum fieldbook: A master class on accelerating performance, getting results, and defining the future. New York: Currency.
Scrum.org, various. The professional agile leader. [No publication place: Scrum.org].
Pink, D.H., 2009. Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York: Riverhead Books.
Sochová, Z., 2020. Agile leadership: A leader's guide to transforming culture. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
Little, J., 2014. Lean change management: Innovative practices for managing organizational change. United States: Happy Melly Express.
Digital.ai, 2021. 15th State of Agile Report. [online] Available at: https://stateofagile.com [Accessed 9 Apr. 2025].
🧪 Research Studies and Models
Edmondson, A.C., 1999. Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), pp.350–383.
Tuckman, B.W., 1965. Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), pp.384–399.
Google Inc., 2012. Project Aristotle. [internal study summary, referenced in multiple media].
💬 Quotes & Thought Leaders
Gates, B., [n.d.]. “The art of coaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
Wooden, J., [n.d.]. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”
Churchill, W., [n.d.]. “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
Maxwell, J., [n.d.]. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
Nadella, S., [n.d.]. “The best learning comes from the people you work with…”
Kniberg, H., [n.d.]. “The job of a coach is not to steer the boat, but to help the crew become better sailors.”
Blanchard, K., [n.d.]. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
🌐 Web Resources
Empirique.io, [n.d.]. Courage in engineering teams. [online] Available at: https://www.empirique.io/blog/2qagr0djpq4hbs5vgdpwrjkp4ybglf [Accessed 9 Apr. 2025].