Situated Geekery

This question about whether a manager can be a coach reminds me of the one about the religious survey and the old-timer. The interviewer asks, “Sir, do you believe in full-body immersion for baptism?” The old-timer looks at him and says “Believe iin it?  Hell, son, I’ve seen it!”

When I’m coaching, it’s nearly always as a contracted outsider.  Part of my job is to identify the person(s) best suited to being the team coach when I’m not there.  This person becomes my shadow for a while, and we spend most of our days in close contact during the engagement.

Can anyone get to be a coach?

Yes.

I have seen successful coaches come from every job, every age, every sex, and every rank. For many coaches, the ‘coaching aspect’ of their skillset is something they’ve always had. They  never had a place to realize and develop the skill. Once proffered such a role, they bloom into it.

So, everyone can be a coach?

Sorry, no.

Being a coach is a combination of several different attributes, and the simple truth is that we’ve no science for some of them:

• Coaches have the gift of trustability. If they don’t, the team will never reach its peak of being one team.
• They also know their geekery. They’re not necessarily masters, mind you, but they know how geeks think.
• Coaches love to pair. Teams need a kind of ‘guaranteed good pair’ they can plug into any time.
• Coaches liberally share success. Ego is allowed, but not greediness.

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Imagine how to measure the extent to which a coach gets a buzz out of having a teammate laugh with the helpless joy of geekery? You can see, right from the outset, that some of these characteristics are, well, schmooshy.  Having no ‘science’, that is, no way to measure, learn, and advance other than instinct, means it’s best to start with people who already have some of the juice.

So, do you believe managers can be the coach?

Believe it??  Hell, child, I’ve seen it.

But not very often. And you should never assume that the manager of a team is the natural best coach.  Most often, the manager of a team is a complete non-coach, by temperament, by org-chart, and by all that is holy. This isn’t an idle poke at managerhood, though I think we all like to do those.  Rather, most people who would be coaches are highly disdainful of org charts and meetings, and most companies force even line managers into an endless round of daily uselessness.

Worrying about budgets, board meetings, and constant reports upwards, these are just not things most coaches are very good at. The pressures of a manager’s life are very different than the ones in a coaches life. Most of us just can’t handle two different sets of pressures.

What about a tech lead being a coach?

Better odds, here, by quite a bit.

But not as often as you’d guess. Many excellent geeks have joined our little circus industry because they are so driven by geek joy that they ignore most other possible sources of a joyful life. In particular, they derive no great portion of their pleasure from seeing other people succeed. Yet that is exactly what we want from a coach!

That’s kinda dis-spiriting, yo.

I know, I know. But remember, you may be the manager or tech-lead exception!

It really is possible to be a successful coach from just about any role on a team.  I have even seen administrative staff become the coach.  And guess what: she was damned good at it, too.

A Trick To Help You Tell:  Hang With Coaches

One way you might be able to learn whether you can be a coach is to hang out with coaches. There are lots of places to find them.

You can go to a conference. (It doesn’t have to be an agile conference to have agile content.  Look for the same names you see on your favorite lists, or dog their websites seeing where they go.)

You can join a coaches list. I am in the process of starting one, the Lonely Coaches Sodality, which is specifically targeted to people who are a) coaches and b) largely solo. Drop me a line saying you want to join.

You can get yourself a mentor. One thing is true of pretty much all of the big name coaches you see: we’re in this for the pleasure of teaching and learning and helping people. There may be money involved, or there may not.  Either way, you’ll find out pretty quickly whether you like the subject.

Don’t assume you are or aren’t a coach due to job title alone.

Tags: Advice, coaching