An uncomfortable but inescapable truth about agile today is that most organisations avoid it.
Average managers produce average Scrum Masters.
In my experience, this is not due to a lack of potential in Scrum Masters, but rather to the leadership model under which they are employed. It was not Scrum that failed us. It was leadership. 9 in 10 people I speak to think it is a problem with Scrum. Over two decades, I worked with more than 10 organisations, consulted with 50+ Organisations, and trained close to 12000 people. The Root Cause Is Not Scrum. It Is Managerial Thinking
Let me break this down. The purpose of the Scrum Master role is to challenge the status quo. They are supposed to be servant leaders, system thinkers, and coaches.
And yet, the majority of Scrum Master job listings describe:
- Ceremony coordinators
- Jira bed goers
- Status-report carriers
- Delivery enforcers without authority
This role erosion happened because average managers replicate what they know. They just pass on their mental model down the hierarchy. Managers rooted in command-and-control often reach the JD level; they want someone to obey their orders. Except for the title “Scrum Master” nothing else resembles the role of a Scrum Master. Control, predict, and report within a role designed for learning, adaptation, and empowerment.
When Managers Fail to Understand Leadership, They Shrink Roles
Average managers lack the understanding of:
- Self-organizing teams
- Psychological safety
- Transparency without micromanagement
- Distributed decision making
So, they unconsciously weaponise the process. As a result,
- Scrum becomes a box to tick.
- The Scrum Master becomes a process Enforcer.
And what was meant to be agile is just a performance and nothing more.
Why Do We Have a Jira Bed Goer “Scrum Master”?
Job descriptions are not neutral documents. They are a reflection of someone’s experience and knowledge. A study shows that 4 in 5 workers have been ‘career catfished’ into jobs they don’t want. In other words, a JD is not a neutral artifact it is shaped by whoever wrote it, their assumptions, and their superficial understanding of the role. That’s why organisations hiring Scrum Masters often end up with templates, not thoughtfully defined roles. I relate this to the organisation’s leadership philosophy. Read More>>