Scrum Masters are supposed to be devoid of office politics. Our job is to leverage team potential and provide value to the stakeholders but it’s a big swamp, just teaming with alligators. A Harvard Business Review study indicates, that avoiding hiring a toxic employee can save your company an average of $12,489. Why are we so ineffective at removing them? Unless they present cause for termination, a Scrum Master has very few options. You can try coaching, and hopefully, they will self-correct. Everyone loves a bad boy until you have to work with them. Author: Mark Haynes, https://dmarkhaynesconsulting.godaddysites.com/ When coaching fails, you may need a direct approach. Here is a cast of bad boys and girls and a few thoughts on how to play with them. Scenario: Sneaky Pete The manager’s favorite Scrum Master has stolen your idea. Your creative idea is shot down at a staff meeting. Due to group consensus, implementing it is not politically expedient. After a few months, it was repackaged and presented as his own. The Harvester There are many varieties of Harvesters: casual, opportunistic feeders, sanctioned ones, or managers. Ideas are commodities, and stealing is part of the cost of doing business. These are parasites who feed off of a collaborative work environment. Why share ideas only to be stolen by others? People will attend to their self-interest as the team transitions back to a group of individuals. Some convince themselves it was their idea. That’s called cryptomnesia and is done subconsciously. Remind them who [...]
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