Coaching the ‘Uncoachable’ Person
The Agile Mentors Community had a lot to say about coaching the uncoachable person. In a moderated discussion, we posed the question:
“Have you ever tried to get someone on board with agile who just doesn’t get it? Or maybe they just don’t want to get it? How do you coach someone who seems uncoachable?”
We heard a variety of perspectives around this topic from agile coaches and Scrum Masters with varying experience levels and coming from different parts of the world.
Find What Peaks Their Interest
A coach from California was working with an agile team that was trying mob programming, but one guy was disengaged and kept checking Facebook rather than participating with the team.
The coach realized that it wasn’t worth forcing him to mob program—that would be ineffective and lead to resentment. Instead, he worked with the Facebook lover to see what other things he might contribute to the team that would interest him.
Another agile practitioner from the United Kingdom reinforced that it’s not a good idea to force anyone to do anything, but it is OK to let them experience natural consequences.
This practitioner went on to say that If this team member is not pulling his weight, maybe there’s a job for him at Facebook. He also added that it’s not a good idea to invite him anymore to drive or navigate mob programming efforts. He said he would tell him once that it’s not OK to be on Facebook instead of participating, and then, if the behavior didn’t change, he would let go of the idea of him participating in mob programming.
Coaching Takes Patience and Time
Another coach from the United Kingdom stressed that coaching someone takes patience and time. His approach is to listen, reflect things back and empower people to make their own decisions.
He added that it also helps to focus on the strengths and areas of improvement that individuals mention. Let them take actions and accountability.
Learn from Failure
A Scrum Master from New York City, commented that while we hate seeing people fail, sometimes it needs to happen for the betterment of the team.
“I’m responsible for the team, but if there are a few ‘bad apples’ that derail and distract other team members or the project, they will more than likely fail. From failure there’s an opportunity to grow tremendously and they will want to learn,” she said.
Don’t Tolerate Brilliant Jerks
A coach from Washington D.C. said that he believes that companies should follow Netflix’s approach to not “tolerate brilliant jerks.”
This coach was working with a guy who was known throughout the organization as difficult. The big bosses demanded that he coach this person to change, but at a certain point, the coach realized that the person was truly uncoachable and that it was no longer a coaching conversation, but a management conversation.
He then dropped a copy of the article, Why Netflix Doesn’t Tolerate Brilliant Jerks, on his boss’s desk. Point taken!
An Agile Team isn’t for Everyone
A digital delivery manager, also from the UK, had a senior tech guy placed on her Scrum team to lead and mentor junior team members because of his exceptional knowledge and experience.
He came from a hierarchical organization and thought mentor meant ‘tell them what to do’ and force the team to work long hours and weekends to get work done!
Despite many hours coaching on how to delegate, the benefits of pair programming, and why it’s important to listen to other people’s ideas, he still had the attitude that his way was the best way.
The company decided that working on a team wasn’t his cup of tea, but he had valuable technical skills the organization needed. They gave him his own special projects where he could work as many extra hours as he wished!
For more great suggestions for coaching a perceivably uncoachable person, join the Agile Mentors Community. Visit https://www.agilementors.com for more information on membership.