How Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches can align with management teams

Managers are not concerned about the same things that Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches care deeply about.

Looking through LinkedIn posts these days, the most common theme among Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches tends to be:

➤ How to ask better questions in the Daily Standup
➤ How to run better Retros that are engaging and fun
➤ What should you do with an incomplete story at the end of a sprint?

What management teams care about is -

➤ How is this improving getting through our portfolio of work?
➤ Are we better off now than we were 6 months ago?
➤ Are we going any faster overall? Can we prove it to an executive audience?

Meet with your management team. Ask the question: "What does success look like in your eyes?"

And don't always accept the first answer, either. If they say "more output!", then ask "okay more output, then what?" More output is quickly consumed by increased demand - it doesn't solve the deep-seated problem(s).

Get to the bottom of what really keeps them awake. Be ready for some uncomfortable answers. Then unpack how their objectives can be met with the work that you do.