Why Scrum Masters Should Grow Their Agile Coaching Skills

As a scrum master, you’re at the forefront of change—supporting teams and weaving agile practices into the fabric of entire organizations. With coaching and facilitation skills in significantly high demand, many organizations now rely on scrum masters to step into these responsibilities. Strengthening your skills to meet the market can help you adapt to the expansive expectations of being a scrum master.

In this blog, we’ll look at how agile coaching skills can empower your career as a scrum master who thrives in today's organizations. Skills-based training offers a practical pathway for that growth.

The overlap between scrum masters and agile coaches

As organizations grow in their agile practices, they often look to their scrum masters for the coaching aspects of the job. As a scrum master, you might find yourself taking on responsibilities that agile coaches typically handle, such as aligning teams and departments to improve collaboration and agility across the organization.

According to the 2024 Scrum Master Skills in the New World of Work report, 38% of organizations now prioritize coaching and facilitation skills when hiring scrum masters. Demand for these skills has nearly doubled in the past year alone, partly due to a reduction in dedicated coaching staff in many companies, shifting more responsibility onto scrum masters. Investing in coaching skills makes you more versatile, helping you facilitate productive team discussions, inspire your team to reach its potential, and play a key role in agile transformations across the organization.

Coaching skills are in high demand for scrum masters

More than half of the organizations surveyed report that finding scrum masters with the right combination of skills to meet their evolving demands is very challenging. Notably, 93% of companies seek candidates with strong coaching skills but state that it’s one of the skills hardest to find. Building strong coaching and facilitation skills can help you stand out in the job market and open doors to new career opportunities.

Source: Scrum Master Skills in the New World of Work report

As scrum masters are expected to take on increasingly strategic roles, your skills become even more valuable. Senior scrum masters, in particular, are called upon to handle politically sensitive and technically complex situations, bridging gaps between development teams and upper management. Coaching and facilitation skills are requested nearly three times more often for senior scrum master roles than for other positions. Growing these coaching competencies can give you an edge and help you make a bigger impact in your career.

Unfortunately, the supply of scrum master candidates for available positions far exceeds demand, making upskilling even more imperative. The scrum master skills report found that, on average, organizations receive between 70 and 300 applications for each scrum master role. In one case, a company got 1,265 applications for a single position.

To begin your skills development journey, Scrum Alliance provides free resources to get you started on your path to coaching.

Exploring career paths as a scrum master

As a scrum master, you have many opportunities to grow and make a greater impact in your career.

Senior scrum master

A senior or lead scrum master role is probably the most straightforward path to advancement in your career. Coaching and facilitation skills are highly valued in this role. In some organizations, the skills required for a senior scrum master are indistinguishable from those for an agile coach. Certification in facilitation through Scrum Alliance’s Certified Agile Facilitator™ course is a great first step in developing your expertise. The certification will provide you with the knowledge and skills companies seek; it’s also a clear differentiator on your resume when competing against hundreds of others.

Agile coach

If you’re interested in stepping into a coaching role or really honing your coaching capabilities, consider becoming a Certified Team Coach or a Certified Enterprise Coach through Scrum Alliance. These globally recognized certifications show hiring managers that you’re ready to work with multiple teams, align efforts with strategic goals, or even guide an organization through an agile transformation.

Looking for an introduction and overview of agile coaching? Check out the microcredential course Introduction to Agile Coaching. You'll learn more about this essential role and plot a course for professional growth in key coaching competencies.

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Leadership and management 

Who wouldn’t want to move up in their career into roles with greater responsibilities and bigger impact? Regardless of the area of the company you’re in—product, sales, marketing, IT, operations—you’ll need leadership skills to guide people and enable change within the organization. The Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Leader® course provides tools to cultivate your leadership qualities applicable to any role or industry.

In any managerial position, you must align team efforts with larger business goals, where mastering objectives and key results (OKRs) can be particularly beneficial. OKRs create a clear structure for setting and achieving strategic goals across teams. Scrum Alliance’s Agile OKRs microcredential offers a focused way to get started, covering the essentials you need to implement OKRs in your current or future role.

Consulting and advisory

Some scrum masters see opportunities in consulting and advisory roles where you’ll guide companies through an agile transformation. Skills in scaling agile are essential in these roles, as they help you work with large or multiple teams to establish communication channels, manage cross-team dependencies, and implement agile principles at scale. While the CEC certification offers a deep level of expertise for consultants in agile transformation, an agile scaling certification could be a practical next step if you focus on expanding agile practices across teams and departments. 

Expanding your impact as a scrum master

The role of a scrum master is growing beyond team-level facilitation to drive change and agile practices across entire organizations. Developing your coaching and strategic skills prepares you for today’s challenges and opens doors to long-term success and leadership. 

For deeper insights into the skills that matter most, download the 2024 Scrum Master Skills in the New World of Work report and explore new ways to grow, lead, and make an impact in the agile space!

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