#105 - Coaching for Technical Leaders - Bob Galen

“If you want to become a better and more effective leader, then one of your core skills should be coaching skills."

Bob Galen is the President & Principal Agile Coach at RGCG and a prolific writer, blogger, and podcaster. In this episode, Bob and I discussed coaching and leadership from his latest book “Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching”. Bob started by explaining the concepts of agile leadership and agile coaching. He shared about the different coaching stances and why he suggests that coaching is an essential core leadership skill. Bob then went into details to describe the skills to become a good coach, such as asking powerful questions and becoming powerful listeners. Towards the end, Bob shared some tips for coaching up and coaching the middle managers, i.e. coaching the coaches.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:06:39]
• Agile Leader - [00:09:17]
• Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching - [00:12:35]
• Definition of Coaching - [00:15:31]
• Coaching as a Leadership Skill - [00:19:44]
• Skills to Become a Good Coach - [00:24:00]
• Powerful Questions - [00:27:59]
• Powerful Listening - [00:33:37]
• When to Give Solutions - [00:38:54]
• Coaching Up - [00:43:30]
• Coaching Middle Managers - [00:48:06]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:47]

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Bob Galen’s Bio
Bob Galen is an Agile Methodologist, Practitioner & Coach based in Cary, NC. In this role, he helps guide companies and teams in their pragmatic adoption and organizational shift towards Scrum and other Agile methods and practices. He is currently President & Principal Consultant at RGCG, LLC.

Bob regularly speaks at international conferences and professional groups on topics related to software development, project management, software testing and team leadership. He is a Certified Scrum Coach (CSC), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and an active member of the Agile & Scrum Alliances.

He’s published 3 agile related books: Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching, Scrum Product Ownership, and Agile Reflections. He’s also a prolific writer, blogger, and podcaster.

Follow Bob:

• LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobgalen
• Twitter – @bobgalen
• Personal Website – www.rgalen.com
• Website – www.agile-moose.com
• Meta-Cast Podcast – www.meta-cast.com

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For episode show notes, visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/105.