The Daily Standup

The Importance of Recognition Today we celebrate being recognized as a TOP 3 Agile Coaching podcast on the internet! How important is recognition? VERY IMPORTANT!! How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Agile Is Not Dead. AI Didn’t Kill It. And Waterfall Is Not BackA recent article claimed that Agile is dead, AI killed it, and Waterfall is back.It is a strong headline. It is also the kind of headline built to provoke a reaction. Yet beneath the noise lies a useful challenge that leaders should not dismiss too quickly. The article takes aim at ceremony-heavy Agile, vague user stories, weak delivery theatre, and the belief that feedback loops can replace serious thinking. Some of that criticism lands because many organisations have allowed Agile to become a label for meetings, boards, points, and process compliance rather than a way to deliver better outcomes.Bad Agile deserves to be challenged. Ceremony without impact should be removed. Estimation that does not improve decisions should be questioned. Product roles without real authority should be redesigned. Retrospectives that surface the same problems every sprint, with no change to the system around the team, are not agility. They are frustration with a calendar invite.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

How to Do Hard Things When You Have Zero MotivationOne of the biggest mistakes you can make if you want to be consistent is trying to “trick” your brain.We’ve all seen the advice:

• “Just do it for two minutes.”
• “Give yourself a reward.”

When I was stuck and wanted to change my life, I fell for it too.I remember watching a YouTube video more than 10 years ago about “proven hacks” and trying it.Well, those techniques worked… for a few days..How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Agile Practitioners and Future JobsThere are insights that only come to me after a good conversation. My earlier self would have said “too late, a missed opportunity, again less than perfect”. Right now I rather think “moving forward mentally, another opportunity will come, great”. Recently, in the breaks between the recording, we had chatted about how wrong and unattractive the idea of “Scrum Masters should work themselves out of a job” is.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Why Every Software Project Needs Project ManagementWhen people think about software development, they often imagine developers writing code. However, building successful software involves much more than programming. Every software project requires planning, communication, teamwork and continuous monitoring. This is where Agile Project Management becomes essential.As I continue learning about software engineering, I have realized that even the best developers can face challenges if a project is not managed properly. Good project management helps teams stay organized, meet deadlines, and deliver high-quality software.

Isn’t That My Manager’s Job?When I work with product leaders on product strategy, one of the most common responses I hear is, “Isn’t that my manager’s job?” Sometimes it comes as a complaint. Sometimes it’s a genuine question. Either way, it usually reflects the same belief: strategy belongs somewhere above them.On paper, they are not entirely wrong. It does sound like something a manager should provide. But there are a few reasons it rarely works that way. Even in organizations where leadership does bring a good strategy to the table (and not a generic direction sometimes mistaken for strategy), product leaders still have a major responsibility in bringing the strategy down to earth. Not by translating it to a roadmap and executing accordingly, the responsibility is at the strategy level itself.But if you think it’s someone else’s job, you don’t do your own strategic job. You wait. You don’t want to step on your manager’s toes. You are not sure what to do.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Leadership as a Supporting RoleDo you find yourself huffing and puffing as a tech leader? Not sure how to keep all of those plates spinning? You, my friend, need to let go of your main character syndrome.The answer to the overwhelming load many tech executives report is rarely to work harder. Rather than piling ever more things on your plate, it’s time to embrace the existence of your team.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Feeling The World Cup - A Sons Blind JourneyIn Iran, a father named Ardashir Babajani found a deeply creative way to share one of his favorite joys with his nine-year-old son, Alireza, who was born blind. Like millions of families around the world, they love soccer, and especially the World Cup. But for Alireza, watching the game on a screen wasn’t enough to make the action come alive.So his father built something simple, but extraordinary. He made a tactile soccer field and used his hands to guide his son’s hands across it, helping him feel the movement of the game as he narrated each play in real time. Passes, attacks, goals, suddenly, the match wasn’t just something Alireza could hear. It was something he could experience.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

How To Develop People Skills?Developing people skills, often referred to as soft skills or interpersonal intelligence, is less about innate charisma and more about the consistent application of specific psychological frameworks.For a professional looking to manage teams or influence stakeholders, these skills are the primary lever for organizational efficiency.Here is a strategic guide to developing high-level people skills.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Scrum Needs Leadership Support - Mike CohnOne of the biggest mistakes leaders make is treating Scrum or agile as something isolated to the teams.
The teams will be agile.
The teams will do Scrum.
The teams will hold the meetings.
The teams will become faster.
But the surrounding organization remains largely unchanged.
That is not sustainable.
Scrum asks teams to focus, collaborate, inspect, adapt, and deliver valuable increments of work. For that to happen, leaders have to create an environment where those behaviors are possible.
That often means eliminating silos and forming cross-functional teams. It means giving teams a challenge and then getting out of the way enough for them to solve it. It means resisting the temptation to second-guess team decisions. It means allowing teams to tell the truth about overly optimistic deadlines, unrealistic scope, and risks they see in the work.
A team cannot do its best work while being pressured to commit to things it does not believe are feasible.
A team cannot be self-managing if every meaningful decision is made somewhere else.
A team cannot deliver predictably if leaders constantly redirect it and then act surprised when the original plan is not met.
Good leadership support means shaping the environment so teams can succeed.
When a desired deadline or desired scope is not feasible, leaders and teams should treat that as a shared problem to solve.
Maybe the scope can be reduced. Maybe more time is needed. Maybe a different approach is possible. Maybe another initiative should be delayed. Maybe the organization needs to accept more risk.
The first step is telling the truth.
Scrum works better in organizations where truth is welcome.
Try this: The next time a team says a deadline or scope is not feasible, don’t ask, “How can you still make it?” Ask, “What would need to change for this to become feasible?”
That question turns the conversation from pressure into problem solving.How to connect with AgileDad:- [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠- [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠- [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠- [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/