Anca Trif

“I’m a new Scrum Master — what do I actually do every day?” Every new Scrum Master asks this at some point. You’ve passed the certification. You’ve landed the role. And now it’s Monday at 10:15 a.m. — the Daily Scrum just ended — and you’re staring at your laptop wondering: “Okay… now what? What do I actually do for the rest of the week?” Spoiler: the real work of a Scrum Master happens outside the ceremonies. Those 15–60 minute meetings? That’s maybe 10% of your week. The other 90%? That’s the invisible work no one tells you about: 🛠️ The Invisible Work That Matters Most: 👉 Coaching ✅ Coaching the developer who “forgot” (again) to update their story status — and helping them understand why visibility matters. ✅ Helping a Product Owner slice that monster story into smaller stories the team can actually finish within the sprint. 👉 Resolving blockers (including the ones Jira never shows you) ✅ Facilitating the removal of blockers. ✅ Identifying blocker patterns that keep coming back. 👉 Protecting the team’s focus ✅ Saying “no” (politely but firmly) when leadership tries to sneak in “just one quick thing.” ✅ Guarding space so the team can finish work instead of context switching every 24 hours. 👉 Getting to know your team one-on-one ✅ Ask meaningful questions: what excites them about their work? What frustrates them? What does “a good day” look like for them? ✅ Use one-on-ones to uncover hidden tensions — not tasks, but energy, motivation, or confidence barriers. 👉 Observing the dynamics nobody else notices ✅ Who interrupts who in meetings? ✅ Who’s always quiet but might be sitting on the best idea? 👉 Identifying bottlenecks early ✅ Noticing where work always gets stuck in the flow. ✅ Helping the team redesign how work moves so progress doesn’t stall. 👉 Ensuring the team is healthy ✅ Creating a psychologically safe environment where people feel valued, not just measured. ✅ Championing sustainable pace over short-term speed. 👉 Making work human again ✅ Checking in on morale. ✅ Reminding the team they’re not “resources” — they’re people. ✅ Bringing humor, perspective, and relief into high-pressure weeks. 💡 Here’s the truth: Scrum Masters aren’t busy because they’re running ceremonies. They’re busy because they’re removing friction — human, technical, and organizational. Sometimes that looks like coaching. Sometimes it looks like protecting. Sometimes it looks like asking hard questions. And sometimes it looks like just being there so the team feels seen, supported, and safe to do their best work. ⚡ So if you’re a new Scrum Master wondering what you “actually do”? You do the quiet, invisible things that help teams thrive. And that’s the part that makes you indispensable. 👉 If you’re a new Scrum Master, save this post. 👉 If you’re an experienced one, drop in the comments: What do you spend the majority of your week doing outside of ceremonies?

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Stop preaching the Agile Manifesto to your clients. Yes, I love it. It's brilliant. But using it as your primary coaching tool is lazy – and sometimes even dangerous. Here's why:  The Agile Manifesto was written to describe what works in agile teams. It was never meant as a blueprint to transform corporations. The Manifesto assumes a certain culture. A certain view of people. A leadership style that creates trust and psychological safety. In that soil, its values and principles make perfect sense. But drop the same Manifesto into a Tayloristic culture – with rigid hierarchies, performance rankings, annual budgets, risk aversion… – and what happens?  👉 It gets ignored as "hippie talk"  👉 Or worse: it gets deliberately misunderstood and weaponized So if you're an agile coach pointing to the Manifesto as *the* solution, you're skipping the real work. You have to help leaders unlearn their old assumptions about people and management first. You have to build the cultural foundation.  Only then does the Agile Manifesto stop being "hippie stuff" – and start becoming a powerful guide. The Manifesto is not the beginning of the journey. It's the destination. #agile #leadership #AgileCoaching #AgileTransformation #culture

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