My First Year as a Scrum Master

Today is my Scrum Master anniversary! I got my certification back in May of last year, but it was on this day in 2016 that I was voluntold into the role (which I jumped at, although not before telling the manager in question that he was never to do that again).

It has been quite a year. I have often entertained the thought that the CSM certification is basically your entrance point into apprenticeship. The mechanics are one thing, but you're not going to learn how they work except by doing it, and that's going to be a multi-year process.

It has been a rewarding year in a lot of ways. I've balanced being a Scrum Master with my existing role in the company (do not recommend that as a practice) and only lost my temper about it a few times. I've led what feels like a million meetings -- standups, retrospectives, backlog refinement sessions.... I've done a lot of new things -- went to the Agile Games, did some impov there, read a lot of books, met some cool people, listened to some podcasts, learned about entire fields of knowledge I never knew existed. I've gotten positive feedback from my teams and mentors. I've acquired a healthy appreciation for how many things I don't know.

Coincidentally, I was already planning to spend part of today coming up with a list of skills and knowledge areas as part of a development plan. My preliminary list looks like this:
  • Facilitation. I'm told that I'm pretty good at this. 
  • Active Listening. A challenge. 
  • Conflict Resolution. Scary. 
  • Coaching/Mentoring. Have made some steps here, could definitely improve. 
  • Change Leadership. I'm personally very enthusiastic about agile topics, but I need to work on communicating that, and/or on being more assertive.
  • Follow-through. There are so many things that could be improved, focusing on one and moving it forward is a real challenge.
  • A whole world of technical skills I feel like I should learn. See previous bullet.

Very curious where the next year will go.

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