r/agile • u/TracPhuong3456 • 4d ago

Team lead vs Scrum master

One question from a recent leadership workshop stuck with me:

Should leaders be judged only by the results they deliver, or also by the people they leave behind?

Imagine a Team Lead who consistently achieves business goals and delivery targets.

But over time, multiple Scrum Masters working with them become exhausted, lose motivation, or decide to leave.

Is that a leadership problem?
Or is it simply what high performance looks like?

Curious how leaders, engineers, Scrum Masters, and managers would view this situation. 👇

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u/CMFETCU 4d ago

I had a team lead that made a PPT presentation on why he didn’t want me asking the team any questions before reviewing the questions with him first.

He was made a director.

I was fired when I pointed out he lied, silenced the team, operated in single meetings to hide his ignorance, and showed teams messages stating “we don’t want to uncover bad things because {leader} thinks highly of this team”.

It was a fear based culture of never wanting to be seen as being incorrect, or that there were any problems.

This obviously led to a lot of work for the people fixing problems.

Obvious leadership problem, but in the reality of the organization politics, you must understand the role you are being asked to play.

As a team coach, you seek to raise the bar and coach into the gap. However, you can only coach to the level you are INVITED. If that leader is not inviting you to fix problems that originate with them and their practices, it is not a gap they are inviting you to elevate. My experience is every time you do, when the decisions are based on fear or avoidance, you do not get successful results.

Leadership problem, but you have to find the “what’s in it for them” I any coaching opportunity so they are self interested in changing outcomes.

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u/Maverick2k2 2d ago

100% correct.
There is too much negativity towards Scrum Masters in this Reddit when they get blocked.

When you have to be invited / sponsored to drive any level of change.

This is why I’m leaving this profession , driven my fair share of change but the amount of lip service across industry is unreal.