You passed your Scrum Master Certification—so, what’s next? Once you have the basics of Scrum down, you have to dig in and get your hands dirty, so to speak. After all, certification classes teach the fundamentals of Scrum, but only over only two days, and there’s so much more to explore.
An important aspect of being a Scrum Master is focusing on your soft skills—those innate skills relying on innovation, problem-solving, and communication that doesn’t depend on special training. Soft skills feed into the roles any Scrum Master could play.
You’ve heard the saying that someone can “wear multiple hats.” If that’s true, then Certified Scrum Masters are hat collectors. In fact, effective Scrum Masters take on eight roles to contribute to organizational and team success. Let’s explore each one.
1. Ringmaster
Enter any circus ring, and you’ll immediately notice a ringmaster overseeing the event. A good ringmaster facilitates the event, rather than micromanaging. In this capacity, a Certified Scrum Master steps back and lets their pros go to work without telling them how to do it. Instead, they encourage and support their “circus members.”
In being a ringmaster, Scrum Masters adopt horizontal management styles. Instead of the organization focused just on making money, delighting customers takes top priority. Scrum Masters enable teams instead of controlling them, stimulating innovation.
2. Inventor
Experimenting is the key to learning and adapting. “That’s how we have always done it” should never keep you or your teams from trying something new.
Certified Scrum Masters wear the hat of an inventor or change agent, helping teams shape the organization by experimenting to find new things that effectively fit their needs. That might mean finding the courage to challenge the status quo, propelling the organization, and increasing overall productivity.
3. Teacher
Think back to your school days. Did you have a teacher who inspired you to do and be more? That doesn’t have to end in the classroom, and it should continue within your organization. Certified Scrum Masters must be teachers who continually learn and encourage teams and the organization to do the same.
In this sense, Scrum Masters make sure teams understand both scrum and Agile. After all, they need to understand the basics, as well as the why and how in order to guide future actions and keep everyone on the same page.
However, that doesn’t mean being rigid. In the teacher role, it’s important to help teams work out problems and provide tools and training to do it.
4. Protector
When an organization begins its Agile journey, one of among many obstacles that crop up is the organization itself. Change is hard, and takes time to shift away from how things always worked. Certified Scrum Masters act as protectors and mentors to reinforce new behaviors and processes,
"Mentoring transfers your Agile knowledge and experience to the team as that specific knowledge becomes relevant to what's happening with them.”
—Lisa Adkins, Coaching Agile Teams
Scrum Masters set an example and protect the team from their own biases. They also help the team and the organization understand the rules, value theories, and practices of scrum.
5. Magician
If you’re a Scrum Master, you’ve probably been asked, “What do you do all day?”
The question comes up a lot at conferences and user group meetings, right? The broad answer: Scrum Masters do what needs to be done to remove impediments, often before anyone realizes there is a need. The fact is there’s no daily checklist list—just new opportunities to surprise and delight the organization by making magic happen.
Sometimes this means thinking several steps ahead and asking the right questions to relieve impediments. These questions often include:
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Is it really an impediment?
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Does the impediment need to be removed?
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What’s the real problem?
Certified Scrum Masters should stay on top of key roadblocks at a reasonable measure. That means finding the right balance between preventing impediments to begin with and giving teams the leeway to solve them independently.
6. Coach
Think of managing scrum like coaching a sports team. Like a coach, a Certified Scrum Master focuses on team-building, encouraging the team to be self-organized, and providing strategic guidance. The team follows the coach’s casted vision—adapting in ways that work best—and relies on them to hold the team together.
This might mean facilitating meetings, conversations, and improvements to keep the team moving forward. Certified Scrum Masters make sure everyone’s on the same page regarding goals, scope, and product domain, and they inform techniques for effectively managing product backlogs.
7. Bartender
Picture this: You’re watching a show or movie, and a character is pouring their heart out to a bartender—but good bartenders don’t tell anyone how to fix their problems or blindly agree with patrons. The same is true for the dynamic between Scrum Master and team members.
Sometimes team members just need a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen, knowing they are heard. The idea is to listen to understand, instead of listening to act. As “bartenders,” Scrum Masters act as facilitators who help teams work through their thinking and empower them to make decisions.
8. Servant Leader
Certified Scrum Masters can’t be selfish, but rather they must be collaborative for the good of many. That means taking the role of a servant leader to share power, put the needs of others first, and help people develop and perform to their potential. Shifting to serving others first leads to higher performance and engaged, fulfilled teams.
According to the Agile manifesto, servant-leaders “... build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” In this way, trust, transparency, collaboration, and empathy take center stage.
Become a Better Scrum Master
Being a Certified Scrum Master isn’t as simple as other roles with a singular focus. Instead, your hands are in a little bit of everything in order to build camaraderie, increase collaboration, and give your teams the right tools to succeed.
That might mean being a coach, teacher, or mentor in certain situations, but a protector or servant leader in others. Adopting multiple roles may not come naturally—or quickly—but anything worth doing requires hard work and guides you toward success.
Learn how to make scrum work for your organization to find the path toward business Agility.
