Core Stances and Skills of Agile Coaching with Paulo Dias - Paulo Dias

In our Back to the Basics of Agile Coaching series, we are returning to the foundations that truly make great coaches effective.

On 13th May, we’re joined by Paulo Dias for an interactive and practical session focused on the core stances and skills of Agile Coaching.

This session is designed for:

• Agile Coaches (new and experienced)
• Scrum Masters and Delivery Leads
• Product Managers and Transformation Leaders

If you’ve ever wondered:

• “Am I using the right agile coaching stance in the right moment?”
• “Which skills should I double down on to become a better coach?”

…this session will give you a clear, structured way to think about it.
Expect a hands-on, reflective, and highly engaging session where you won’t just learn concepts, you’ll apply them to your own context.

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## About the Session

Agile coaching is often misunderstood as a single skillset. In reality, great coaches fluidly shift between different stances depending on the situation, the team, and the maturity of the environment.
In this session, we’ll explore the four key stances of Agile Coaching, based on the work of Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd, and bring them to life through practical, real-world application.
But we won’t stop at theory.

We’ll connect these stances to:

• The evolution of teams over time
• The skills required to support them effectively
• And the decisions you make in the moment as a coach

Through guided exercises, discussion, and reflection, you’ll assess your own coaching style, identify your strengths, and uncover where to invest next to increase your impact.

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## What We’ll Explore

1. The different Stances of Agile Coaching
A practical breakdown of the core stances (e.g. coaching, mentoring, teaching, facilitating) and when each one is most effective.

2. Skills That Make a Great Agile Coach
We’ll map the essential coaching skills—from powerful questioning and facilitation to teaching and mentoring—and explore how they show up in real scenarios.

3. Self-Assessment & Reflection
You’ll evaluate your own strengths:

• Where do you naturally excel?
• Where are you over-relying on one stance?
• What’s your next growth edge?

4. Team Evolution & Coaching Strategy
We’ll connect coaching approaches to the stages of team development using Tuckman’s stages of group development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing), exploring:

• Which stance works best at each stage
• Why certain approaches fail if used too early or too late
• How to adapt your style as the team matures

5. Practical Scenarios & Interactive Exercises
Real-life coaching situations where you’ll decide:

• What stance to use
• What skill to apply
• And why

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## About the Speaker – Paulo Dias

Paulo Dias is a senior delivery and transformation leader operating at Executive Director level, with extensive experience across financial services, product transformation, and large-scale technology delivery.
He has led and enabled transformation across global organisations, helping teams and leaders:

• Shift from project to product operating models
• Embed agile ways of working at scale
• Improve delivery outcomes through better coaching and leadership

Paulo brings a unique blend of:

• Deep technical and product understanding
• Strong coaching and facilitation expertise
• Real-world transformation experience in complex environments

His approach to Agile Coaching is practical, situational, and outcome-driven, focusing not just on frameworks, but on what actually works in the real world.
In this session, Paulo will combine hands-on exercises, real scenarios, and practical frameworks to help you become a more effective, intentional, and impactful Agile Coach.