I was browsing LinkedIn recently and came across a post by the legendary Alex Sloley where he stated that he had signed the Oath for an Agile Coach. I was curious, looked into it and decided it was good.
The Oath is modelled on the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians, and whilst it is just a bit of fun, I find the values to be worth remembering and indeed living by as we go about our business day to day. Here is the oath in full below:
AS YOUR AGILE COACH, I PLEDGE THAT
I am driven by your goals. Your success is my success.
I am your guest. I will only offer my coaching services by invitation.
I share knowledge. I will gladly share my knowledge for those who are to follow me.
I respect learnings. I will respect the prior learnings of those who came before me, as well as the learnings that will come after me.
I don’t know everything. I will not be ashamed to say “I have no idea”, and I will offer “let me find out more or find someone else to help you.”
I offer compassion. I will enter environments, vow to heal them where I may, and offer compassion where it is the most needed.
I seek a balance between hand-holding and letting go. I will apply all measures which are required to help those in need, avoiding the double traps of over-nurturing and giving up.
I value discretion. I will respect the privacy of the organizations that I help, the teams, and the individuals on the teams.
I help people. I do not help a burndown chart improve, or the team velocity spike. Instead, I help a suffering team and/or organization whose current state may affect a person’s family and economic stability.
I prevent dysfunction. I seek out root causes wherever possible.
I serve others. I am a Servant Leader. My obligations are to serve individuals, teams, organizations, and the community.
Shall I not violate this oath, may I long experience the joy of coaching those who seek my help.
So following Alex’s lead I also signed the Oath for an Agile Coach with the promise to do my best to uphold it, even though its sometimes easier to break parts of the oath for a “quick win”.
Thanks for the share Alex!