When everyone thinks you are delivering something different.  It’s a good time, no it’s the best time to sit down with everyone and make sure you are all talking about the same thing. When this happens, you might be the facilitator more than anything in the conversation, not trying to push people to what you see as the delivery, but rather poking holes in what the ideas of others are (respectfully) to make sure everyone…

If you are never taking the moment to step back and let watch who on your team will take the reigns and run with them, then how will you know what they are capable of. The fallacy of many leaders is that they feel like they can’t step back at all because “the team will fall apart” or “they won’t be able to do it” without me there. The truth is, they are most likely…

What to do, what to do when you are only half completed the work in a story and you’re at the end of a Sprint. There are two schools of thought here. Move the Story to the next Sprint. Split the remaining work into the next sprint. I generally opt for Number 2, when you do Number 1, all you are doing is shoveling the work to a different corner of the room hoping it’s…

There is a temptation to shift the duration of your sprint when it isn’t going as expected. Maybe more customer issues came in, maybe your estimates were off, or perhaps most of the team was out sick with the stomach flu, whatever the reason, the temptation to add a few days or weeks is always there so we can say that we finished work “within the sprint”. The problem with this approach is that your…

The last few years have been a never-ending Overload. The last few days have been a literal electrical Overload. We all have those moments and the best advice I can offer; Take the moments to yourself, get your head on straight. Stay away from email/text/etc until you have had that moment to breathe. Generate that small win. Figure out what caused the overload and take steps to reduce it. If it’s never-ending, figure out why…