What every Scrum Master should know about success.

What makes a Scrum Master successful? This is something many Scrum Masters have a hard time defining.

Success as a Scrum Master — Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

Whether you are a Scrum Master or a Hiring Manager (for a Scrum Master) you should read this to make sure you are set for success for the role of a Scrum Master.

Why does it suck not knowing what success looks like for a Scrum Master?

When a Scrum Master has a hard time defining what success looks like for themselves, several things can happen.

• They have a hard time explaining to their peers and bosses what they do in a logical way.
• Impostor syndrome feeling.
• It gives space for anti-patterns (more on this below) to emerge, by the time the Scrum Master realizes this, it becomes harder to course-correct.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where — “ said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
- Lewis Carrol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Then, why is it necessary knowing what success looks like?

Simply because it feels right, it feels like having a sense of purpose and a mission.

It’s like having a north star guiding us towards what we want to achieve and this is necessary to become a great Scrum Master useful to the organisation they serve.

How do I define what Success looks like for me?

One day I was listening to Vasco Duarte Scrum Master Toolbox podcast and he usually asks his guests….

Update: Since then I have been a guest to the podcast, you can listen to my episodes here

So tell me what does success looks like for you as a Scrum Master? — Vasco Duarte