Personal Motivation as an Agile Coach

A good Scrum Master ought to be motivated to reveal but will take care not to resolve.

I am very motivated, but my motivation is quite cynical, I need to admit. I am very well paid for being a Scrum master or Product owner. Sorry if it sounds harsh....

Plus Scrum is exiting thing to do(even though some Dutch companies with special talents for creating and multiplying boredom manage to make even the Scrum boring).

Hi Ezgi,

Focusing in on a few things you said in your post...

we always deal with problems

having just problem started to drain my energy

Is it the constant exposure to problems that is draining your energy? Is it the types of problems present in your organization or situation? Is it that you find that you don't have time for the types of work or activities that energize you when focused solely on problems? We may be able to offer better support with additional context.

Have you read Drive by Daniel Pink? In this book, Daniel talks about motivating factors of Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose. When I think of my own motivation, or the times when I feel less motivated or drained, I come back to these factors.

Mastery is about feeling like you are getting better at things that matter. Sometimes the problems we are revealing and working through as Scrum Masters can become a bit routine, which may not support us in Mastery. If the problems you are facing are not supporting this, what can you learn or develop to help you improve in an area that matters to you. I find learning new things to be energizing, which can be the boost I need when feeling drained.

What is your Purpose? If your work is not aligning to your own Purpose, what can you start doing that does? 

Autonomy speaks to our desire to be self-directed. I am sure there are times when problem demands are being thrust upon you, which can be de-motivating. We may not always be able to control what we do, but often times we can determine how we do it. I find motivation in leveraging my creative side for how I do things. 

Any of this help?

Hi Ryan,

First of all thanks a lot for the book suggestion. I will definitely read it. My problems are the ones which exists in our organization and my purpose is removing impediments and foster a happy team. Since the team has problem which are typically organizational one, i feel i could not achieve my goal as SM. But today I am looking at my past actions and feeling I tried my best and there are no further options. Thus I am just transferring these issues to management.

As you said we can not always control, but I can just determine how to do.

Thanks a lot again for your time&reply

Hi Ezgi, I tend to motivate myself with how best I can be a servant leader as well as try to develop a high performing team. Honestly I feel demotivated at times when I have not even been given one single shout out for the work I do in the two teams that I manage during our Retro but its ok.

I get motivated from the output of self organising team, cross functionality, Agile ways of working  etc that I have encouraged and the Agile coach who employed me give me recognition from feedback he gets from the PO. I enjoy my job because its a personal love and Scrum Master's role can be thankless because many times they do not see what we really do as measurable unlike the developers and we just have to absorb that positively.