How to Hire an Agile Coach: Lessons from Bill Belichick’s Playbook

When it comes to building winning teams, few figures in sports history rival Bill Belichick. Known for his strategic mind, ability to adapt, and knack for bringing out the best in his players, the legendary New England Patriots coach provides a masterclass in leadership. His success stems from a relentless focus on preparation, adaptability in the face of challenges, and a deep understanding of his team’s unique strengths and weaknesses. These qualities have not only earned him countless championships but also a reputation as one of the greatest coaches of all time.

While most of us rarely associate sports with agile coaching, business leaders could learn a thing or two from the esteemed football coach. Just as Belichick fosters collaboration, continuous improvement, and clear communication within his team, an agile coach does the same to help organizations thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments. The ability to inspire teams, guide them through change, and create a culture of accountability and innovation is just as critical in agile transformations as it is in football.

If you’re navigating an agile transformation, hiring an agile coach who embodies Belichick’s approach could be the key to your organization’s success. A great agile coach doesn’t just enforce processes; they mentor teams, enable adaptability, and empower individuals to deliver their best work under any circumstance.

So, how do you find the right agile coach? Let’s break it down, Belichick-style.

1. Look for Strategic Thinkers with Adaptive Agile Coaching Styles

Belichick is famous for tailoring game plans to his team’s strengths and his opponents’ weaknesses. Similarly, a great agile coach doesn’t rely on a one-size-fits-all solution. A strong agile coach assesses your organization’s unique challenges, strengths, and goals to craft a strategy tailored to your needs. This strategic thinking is crucial for addressing the complexity of agile transformations, which can call for cultural shifts, alignment across teams, and adaptable processes over time.

A strong agile coach should also be able to adjust their coaching style to meet the needs of individuals, teams, and leadership. Belichick’s success stems from his flexibility—some players respond best to tough love, while others thrive on encouragement. Agile coaches must exhibit the same versatility to effectively guide diverse teams through their transformation journey.

What to Look For:

• A deep understanding of multiple Agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, etc.)
• The ability to analyze your current state and design a transformation roadmap
• Flexibility in coaching approaches (directive, facilitative, and mentoring)
• An ability to meet people where they are in their Agile journey
• Strong Change Management (CM) skills to effectively lead people through the agile transformation
• Experience with both small teams and enterprise-scale transformations
• The ability to build relationships across all levels of the organization

Interview Tips: Ask candidates to describe how they’ve adapted agile principles to fit a challenging organization or industry. Encourage them to provide specific examples of obstacles they faced, such as resistance to change or conflicting priorities, and how they adjusted their approach to ensure successful adoption of agile practices.

Pose a scenario where they need to coach a resistant leadership team or a struggling departmental team. Ask how they’d approach the situation, including the steps they’d take to build trust, foster collaboration, and address the root causes of resistance or dysfunction. Look for actionable strategies and a clear understanding of agile values during their response.

2. Find a Master Communicator

One of Belichick’s key strengths is his clear and direct communication. He ensures each individual understands their role and how it fits into the bigger picture. Similarly, an agile coach must bridge gaps between stakeholders, leadership, and teams, fostering alignment and understanding of responsibilities and shared goals.

Strong communication is a basic pillar for Agile teams, but even global enterprises often need help beyond the team. In 2018, multinational oil and gas company BP tapped Hyperdrive to support an initiative to move into clean energy. More than 30 agile coaches worked with BP teams, including C-suite executives, to implement Agile strategies and execution. Hyperdrive’s coaches drove the agile implementation rooted in strong communication, and bp’s teams reported a 100% performance acceleration.

What to Look For:

• Exceptional facilitation and project management skills for meetings, retrospectives, and workshops.
• The ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms.
• A knack for resolving conflicts and building consensus.

Interview Tip: Pose a scenario where a team and leadership have conflicting priorities. Ask how they would handle it.

3. Prioritize Adaptability and Resilience

Belichick’s legendary adaptability has been one of the key drivers of his success. He’s willing to change his game plan mid-season, mid-game, or even mid-play if necessary. We witnessed a prime example of this adaptability during Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks. In the game’s final moments, with the Seahawks just one yard away from a potential game-winning touchdown, Belichick made the unconventional decision not to call a timeout. Instead, he trusted his team’s preparation and forced the Seahawks to stick with their personnel-group on the field and play selection. This decision led to one of the most famous plays in NFL history—Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception—sealing a Patriots victory.

This iconic moment highlights Belichick’s ability to trust his preparation, adapt in real-time, and make bold decisions under pressure. Similarly, an agile coach must possess the same resilience and flexibility, pivoting when initial plans don’t deliver expected results.

What to Look For:

• A mindset of continuous improvement (Kaizen).
• The ability to identify and remove impediments as they arise.
• Experience navigating resistance to change.

Interview Tip: Ask for examples of how they’ve adapted an approach when things didn’t go as planned.

4. Seek Someone Who Builds High-Performing Teams

Belichick’s success stems from his ability to develop cohesive, high-performing teams where every player knows their role and contributes to the mission. A good agile coach should be skilled at turning groups of individuals into self-organizing, full-time collaborative teams.

A high-performing team is built upon a mindset of continuous growth among every team member, according to author and leadership expert David Marquet.

“You want everybody thinking and leaning upward, not everyone doing what they’re told from the person above,” said Marquet. “The way to do it is not by exhorting your people to lean into you. It’s by you leaning back and inviting them to come forward. You gotta create the vacuum for them to come into you.”

High-performing teams that follow agile ways, embrace outliers, invite scrutiny, and avoid binary (yes vs. no) questions. Agile coaches who help foster this environment are essential for an enterprise’s progress.

What to Look For:

• A track record of fostering trust, collaboration, and accountability within teams.
• The ability to mentor Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and other roles.
• Expertise in creating psychological safety for team members.

Interview Tip: Ask how they’ve helped teams evolve from dysfunction to high performance, and what metrics they used to measure success.

5. Choose Someone Who Inspires a Shared Vision

Belichick’s players buy into his philosophy because they understand and believe in the mission. In business, best selling author, Simon Sinek, said it best.

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. What you do [and how you do it] simply proves what you believe,” said Sinek. Likewise, an agile coach must inspire teams and stakeholders to embrace Agile values and principles as a shared purpose (their “why”).

Strong agile coaches possess more than technical insight; they are professional project managers, facilitators, mentors, advisors, and guides during a transformation. Certified Agile coaching courses often establish a standardized high-level understanding of Agile principles and what is needed to drive a team’s success. These certifications provide a solid foundation in fostering alignment, instilling confidence, and creating a shared vision for all stakeholders.

Learn more about strengthening your leadership and creating meaningful change through Hyperdrive’s Agile Coaching & Facilitation bootcamp!

What to Look For:

• Strong storytelling skills to communicate the “why” behind Agile.
• The ability to align teams and leadership on transformation goals.
• A passion for coaching and enabling others.

Interview Tip: Ask how they’ve helped organizations achieve cultural alignment during an Agile transformation.

6. Confirm Their Track Record

Just as Belichick’s championship rings speak for themselves, a great agile coach should have a proven track record of driving successful transformations.

What to Look For:

• References or case studies from previous coaching engagements.
• Certifications like Certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC), Enterprise Coaching for Agility (ICP-ENT), or SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner.
• Evidence of continuous learning and professional development.

Interview Tip: Ask for measurable outcomes from their past engagements, such as improved delivery times, increased team satisfaction, or higher business value.

Final Thoughts: Building Your Agile Dynasty

Hiring the right agile coach and finding the right scrum master is about more than just technical expertise. It’s about identifying a leader who can navigate your organization through the complexities of transformation, fostering collaboration and resilience along the way.

The perfect candidate will think strategically, solve problems creatively, and communicate effectively—someone who can inspire teams to embrace change and perform at their absolute best.

These roles are crucial to shaping a solid foundation for your Agile journey and building an agile organization, as they ensure that teams remain focused, motivated, and aligned with your company’s goals. By prioritizing these qualities and taking a page from Bill Belichick’s winning playbook—emphasizing preparation, adaptability, and teamwork—you can equip your organization to overcome challenges, achieve sustainable growth, and build an Agile dynasty that thrives for years to come.