There are good and great Scrum Masters. Sometimes the distance from good to great is the hardest part of the journey. If you want your Scrum Master to be 5 times more effective, show them this.
There is a big difference between living an accountability and focusing on responsibilities only.
Even good Scrum Masters sometimes fail by spending too much time on the least impactful things. Here are 5 things your Scrum Master should stop doing in order to be 5 times more effective:
1. Focusing too much on Scrum Events only
Yes, the Scrum Master is accountable for the level of facilitation within the team. Quoting from the Scrum Guide 2020, they are accountable for:
Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox.
But does that mean that they need to facilitate every single event and team interaction? That they need to be present at every single Daily Scrum that their team is holding? At every single Product Backlog Refinement meeting? Most likely not. The Scrum Master should be invisibly present in the team. The more the Developers and the Product Owner will grow their facilitation skills the better the team will be at self-management.
As a Scrum Master, you should focus on having a greater impact by raising your team’s maturity level and spending more time in causing change for the better in your organisation.
2. Not engaging enough with the leadership of the organisation
Being a Scrum Master should be one of the first steps towards leadership. Being a true leader also means leading, training, and coaching the organisation, helping your colleagues and stakeholders understand the importance of an empirical approach for complex work and, sometimes, being the leader that you wish you had.
After all, the Scrum Guide 2020 states that the Scrum Master is accountable for establishing Scrum by
helping everyone understand Scrum theory and practice, both within the Scrum Team and the organization.
The Scrum Master is the first step towards leadership at other levels of the organisation. Your team, your colleagues, your organisation and your stakeholders will all benefit if you would bring your empirical mindset and servant leadership to the highest levels of the organisation.
3. Removing all the impediments without involving the team
Reveal, not solve. Yes, the Scrum Master is accountable, according to the Scrum Guide 2020 to
Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team’s progress.
But does this mean that the Scrum Master should wear the hero cape be the one removing all the impediments themselves? No. They should facilitate the removal of impediments. The best ways to remove impediments is by bringing the skills and the knowledge inside the team, so that the Developers can be quick at removing any obstacle, or by solving the root causes of repeating impediments, sometimes by being a change agent in the organisation.
4. Not coaching and teaching the Product Owner on stakeholder interactions
Without a clear Product Vision and Product Goals any team is destined to fail. A great Scrum Master knows when their Product Owner needs help on this. They are there to help establish and empirical product planning for complex environments, facilitate stakeholder collaboration, or, better, teach and coach their Product Owner in doing so, and work with the team so that they understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog Items.
5. Staying inside the Scrum Guide bubble
Scrum is great, but there are many other things that can help your team. The Scrum Guide intentionally doesn’t cover enough topics like team dynamics, forecasting, breaking down work, stakeholder management, measuring value or navigating organisations, just to name a few. Do you know that Flow Metrics can help your team get better at forecasting? That right sizing may be the most effective way to break down work and optimise the flow of value? Get your Scrum Master game up by exploring additional practices and bringing them to your team.
The journey from a good Scrum Master to a great one is sometimes challenging and requires a lot of courage. Get your team and your organisation unstuck by making the right decisions, moving yourself forward, and becoming a better leader.
Do you care about your Scrum Master’s effectiveness? Share this article with them.
This article was first published in the AskScrum.com newsletter.
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