Agile coaching helps the people who work in such changing environments become more effective and successful.   It encompasses coaching, facilitating, teaching, mentoring, consultancy and client service, all applied with an open and deliberate bias towards using agile techniques to address the client’s needs.

Agile coaching needs licence to operate at individual, team, leadership and systemic levels if it is to be effective.

Agile coaching is an evolving profession. When selecting an agile coach, look for competency in the following areas:

• Knowledge of a wide range of agile and lean principles.
• The ability to serve the business and the teams
• Coaching skills: coaching teams, individuals, leaders and entire systems.  Look for some knowledge of professional coaching techniques
• Facilitation skills - be that an event, a workflow cadence, an agile framework or a culture through behavioural change
• The ability to provide guided learning through teaching and mentoring
• Taking a partnership stance. An agile coach will spend time crafting a working agreement with the client, identifying their goals, boundaries and creating accountability and awareness. An agile coach cannot make the changes the clients people need to make in themselves
• However , direct consultancy and advice is part of the mix and will be needed. Expect a transparent conversation about what 'mode' the agile coach is operating in at any given moment