Yes, it does.
The idea for the Agile Coach Academy was born out of conversations that Karim and I had about how there were so few resources available to help us when we first set out on our journey as an Agile coach.
We invested thousands of pounds in courses, workshops, books, etc. only to find that very few of those investments delivered exactly what we needed and exactly what we were looking for.
It was a process of trial and error that required countless hours of effort, time, and energy in exchange for very little reward.
So, yes, the Agile Coach Academy does actively coach and mentor you.
We are there to help you explore your thinking, develop sound lines of reasoning and to grow your critical analysis capabilities.
Where it makes sense to do so, we also teach as part of the Agile Coach Academy.
We have walked the path of Agile coaches in some of the largest, most complex agile transformations in the UK and Europe. It gave us incredible insights into what works and what doesn’t work. It sharpened our skills and gave us effective tools, models, and frameworks to ensure that we were effective as Agile practitioners and coaches.
That experience empowers us to mentor young Agile coaches and help them through the challenges they face within their working environments.
As an Agile coach, you need to be an effective coach and you also need to be an effective, practiced Agile practitioner to get the job done.
You need to develop your coaching capabilities and you need to be strong as a standalone coach in many circumstances. We help you develop those coaching capabilities, and we also provide a platform for you to actively practice amongst your peers.
A large opportunity that the Agile Coach Academy presents is the opportunity to practice in a safe space and receive immediate feedback on how effective your coaching and facilitation skills are.
We also provide you with new coaching tools, techniques, models, and frameworks to strengthen your arsenal as a coach.
At the same time, we are developing your Agile capabilities to ensure that you are an effective Agile coach.
A coach will not train, educate, or mentor their clients. They simply coach.
An Agile coach, however, does train, teach, mentor and coach their clients and teams so you need to be able to deliver across the board, depending on the circumstances and requirements.
Having a deep knowledge of Agile and Scrum and knowing the context and applications of Agile really helps with your credibility as an Agile coach. Knowing how to facilitate scrum events and other events as part of your daily practice is also incredibly important.
As a cohort, you will learn from each other’s experiences, questions and challenges.
Some of the people in the Agile Coach Academy have over a decades’ worth of experience in the field and will bring heaps of value to each session as we explore their challenges, and help them to develop solutions and opportunities to overcome those challenges.
The same goes for you.
As you bring your own working challenges into the environment, others will learn from you and your experiences and as a group we will work through different opportunities available to you and actively practice how to overcome those challenges.
A large part of the Agile Coach Academy deals with exploring your thinking and developing solutions to the challenges you face. Coaching. So, in addition to being mentored, you will also receive world-class coaching as part of your experience.
In some cases, formal training may be the best prescription for where you are at in your coaching journey.
Agile Centre offer all Agile Coach Academy participants a 50% discount on any Agile Centre course so if you need to upskill to an Advanced Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master, there is a course and a solid discount to help you on your journey.
Many of our attendees also choose to make applications for the popular Scrum Alliance Certified Team Coach and Certified Enterprise Coach certifications. As holders of those credentials, we are able to coach and mentor you through your application process.
If you like the idea of a mentored and coach-driven approach to your skills development, visit our Agile Coach Academy.
If you are curious about the coaching element of Agile coaching, visit our on-demand Introduction to Coaching course.