Beyond Superpowers: My Journey With The Superheroes Academy

Some thoughts on my journey through the Superheroes Academy CTC/CEC Mentoring Program.

What is your coaching superpower? Hmmm...I can see right through people. No that’s not it. I can accelerate teams to greatness through sheer will. No, that’s not it either. Being a role model for transparency. Yup, that sounds like me. It turns out I had never really thought about my strengths as an Agile Coach before. And this was only the first of a series of questions I was asked during the Superheroes Academy CTC/CEC Mentoring Program aimed at growing my awareness and skills as an Agile Coach. At that moment, I realized that what I was in store for over the next 8 weeks of coaching would be much more involved than classroom training.

Eye Opening

The Superheroes Academy CTC Mentoring Program opened my eyes to a new level of thinking about coaching and agility. Going through the CSP application process came naturally to me, as I felt like I knew my stuff when it comes to Agility, but the CTC application process was different. I learned that while I can have vast knowledge about Agile, sharing it with others through a coaching approach isn’t easy to do. By going through the Superheroes Academy CTC/CEC Mentoring Program, I’ve gained confidence in my coaching abilities along with the strategies I will take to coach others.

Valuable Content

There were many things I really liked about the program, but the element that helped me the most was the weekly routine we followed. Every week we would have a task or set of tasks to complete, then we would talk about these at our weekly check in. This helped me stay focused from week to week as there was always something to work on. To get the most value out of this program, the individuals involved definitely need to put in the time and effort to make the conversations worthwhile. There was also good collaboration on our Google group between all of the members and coaches. Most of the conversations centered around questions that came directly off of the CTC or CEC applications.

One other element that was very effective was the Core Protocols used to make sure everyone was focused at the beginning of each session. This really helped to get everyone engaged before the session would even start. It was intriguing to me how well this worked.

More Time Please

I don’t really have anything negative to say about the program, but the sessions were time boxed to 1 hour per week. Almost every week we would be having a good conversation and had to wrap it up due to the time. I do feel that more than an hour seems like a lot of time to devote, but maybe allotting an extra half hour would benefit the conversations we had during our sessions.

Great Coaches to Work With

Brock and Erkan were very effective in providing value during each week of the program. I learned a lot from the content that was covered, but also learned a great deal just by observing how they asked questions and the strategies they used to get us thinking in different ways. This proved to be very valuable as I started applying these things throughout the program and as I worked through the application. Brock and Erkan were also very engaged in every session I attended. These two really know what they are talking about, and I would absolutely work with them again.

Wrapping Up...

Overall, I feel like I learned many key coaching strategies during my time with Superheroes Academy. My journey to the CTC is far from over, but I am a lot closer after participating in this program and I have a solid plan for the remainder of my journey. I am very grateful for the knowledge and insight I received by going through this program and plan to keep this momentum going throughout my application process.

Want to learn more about our mentoring program? Check it out!