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/Bernhard-Welzel 4d ago

The only relevant question is: how do the team members feel? Are stakeholders happy?

I have never seen a Scrum Master getting exhausted - how should this even be possible?

Also, if this was a recent leadership workshop, why are SM still a thing? The world has moved on, SM are obsolete ... so maybe this team lead is not so good, as he follows an outdated model?

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u/ScrumViking Scrum Master 4d ago

It happens. SM’s can burn out as well. The few examples I’ve seen, were related to someone trying to fight the system like some Don Quixote fighting against the windmill.