How Agile Coach Melissa Boggs Embraced the Agile Principles to Find Her North Star

One of my favorite topics when working with organizations on their agile journey is their mission, vision, and values. Gone are the days when an organization could choose to just write a mission statement, frame it, place it on the wall, and never speak of it again. Today’s employees have an expectation of purpose in their work, and a desire to be grounded in what is important to the company as a whole and in the long term.

Understanding the mission and vision deeply while embodying the values every day gives the organization a sense of direction, and a way to prioritize or deprioritize things. 

The agile principles talk about welcoming changing requirements and satisfying the customers, yet we still need a North Star. Without a strong sense of who we are as an organization, we will become like a house built on sand with every new possible opportunity. 

The 10th agile principle talks about maximizing the amount of work not done – Simplicity – and a strong mission helps us do just that. It’s rare that an organization just magically has everything it needs to complete its mission overnight. A strong and clear mission helps the organization understand where it needs to grow and learn.

Applying the Agile Principles to My Life

After several years of having these conversations with organizational leaders, I found myself at a pivotal point in my career. I was on the precipice of changing jobs, and also deep in the middle of my Certified Enterprise Coach application. 

One of the questions in the application alluded to my personal philosophy as a coach, and I realized something so important. I did not have a personal mission, vision, and values statement. 

What would I use as my North Star when making my future career choices? How would I know if I was prioritizing the right things in my personal and professional life? Like many organizations, there were intrinsic and implicit things that I valued, but I’d never made them explicit–even to myself.

Taking that step was critical. I spent time thinking about the impact I wanted to have on the world, and what I had to offer toward making that impact. I wrote my own set of statements, and those words, my own words, created clarity for me in the month and years to come. 

Whenever faced with a personal or professional decision, I often refer back to my personal mission, vision, and values. 

Am I living my values every day? Will this next decision I make have an impact on my mission or my greater vision? If it won’t, I might question if it is the right decision after all, or just a shiny distraction. These words inspire me to grow, learn, and become a better version of myself all the time. 

So often, “Agile” is perceived as permission to abandon planning and just behave on a whim. On the contrary, a truly agile organization - or individual - is firmly rooted in a strong sense of purpose, and able to listen closely and move quickly in order to continue pursuing that purpose. The most resilient of organizations – and people – are able to identify and move forward with opportunities that help them achieve their purpose while staying true to who they are and what they believe. 

The magic happens when the personal mission of an individual and the mission of their organization are in congruence. When an individual knows exactly how they want to impact the world, and they see an opportunity to do that in their work every day, that’s when both are in a position to succeed in service to their customers. 

To learn more about the Systems Coaching Competencies needed by agile coaches, take our free Path to Coaching module and earn five (5) SEUs: Path to Coaching Module 2, Systems Coaching Competencies.

Since 2001, Melissa has embraced experiences in leadership, business, and product development. Her experience with applying, consulting, coaching, and training agile values and principles spans executive teams, software teams, marketers, and educators in domains such as healthcare, public education, e-learning, security software, government agencies, and communication technology. As a consultant and as an executive, she has consistently embodied the Scrum values and additionally holds dear her personal values of Courage, Empathy, and Creativity.