On leadership

I was asked to be a guest lecturer (one of three or four) on a Software Project Management course at Aalto university. In particular, the topic of the day is 'managing people' and I shall talk about my experiences as ScrumMaster.

The first thing that came into my mind was Tobias Mayers' great blog post 'Delete [ScrumMasters]', which did resonate quite extensively with my thoughts. I do believe being one of the rare individuals, though. And that's what I'll talk about.

Note: Carlton Nettleton describes what ScrumMaster is in this blog. He questions whether there even exists one person to fulfill all the roles.

I know I have a lot to learn to fully be qualified as SM on Nettleton standards - specifically since I've experienced this. Was it good/bad - I don't make such conclusions. And I'm not going to talk about that either - what which are the challenges and my road on fulfilling the role.

Instead, I'll be talking about leadership. What does it mean to be on a role where I have no what-so-ever thoughts of my own.

I'll talk about what leadership means to me.

And I'll talk about what it means for me to experience the day-to-day problems on group dynamics, communication and team work.

And I'll talk about the joy being on such a position brings.

And I'll talk about the learning we experienced as a team.


It's a talk filled with joy.

That is, I'm going to talk what does it mean, to me, to be a hiking guide. ScrumMaster - hiking guide. So different that they are the same.

Friday morning, this week. Aalto university - somewhere.