Dealing with negative/toxic person in the team

What does the rest of the team think?   Is his behavior disrupting the effectiveness of the rest of the Development Team?

We can't lose him

Why not?

He doesn’t know what scrum master does.

Isn't that the immediate problem which ought to be solved?

Yes, this absolutely is toxic behavior. And, as Ian points out, the immediate problem is that this person (and perhaps others on the team) are unaware of what you do as a ScrumMaster. In my experience, the best thing to do to explain to others what you do is by demonstrating action. Specifically towards members of the Development Team, that includes removing impediments to their success, facilitating events, and coaching the team to become self-organizing and cross-functional.

So: What can you do, in the current Sprint as well as future Sprints, to make the work that you do and the things that you accomplish transparent to the team?

Does this individual have a negative perspective on you personally, or on the adoption of Scrum? What does your organization look like (are there other Scrum Masters / teams)? Has the organization as a whole adopted Scrum?

The Sprint Retrospective would be my preferred venue initially, but it really depends on your personal preference. The Scrum Guide states:

The Scrum Master participates as a peer team member in the meeting from the accountability over the Scrum process.

You concern is certainly applicable to "how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools," and as a peer team member it is something that you should bring up. Just ask: what is the team's perception of your effectiveness as a Scrum Master? Perhaps a part of the plan for implementing improvements would be for the team to all read the Scrum Guide's section on the Scrum Master and come up with actions that you could take to help the team within your role. You could also talk a bit about what you do now; how is it benefiting the Scrum Team? What you do should be transparent to the team, so that upon inspection you as a Scrum Master can adapt and improve.

Does this individual have a negative perspective on you personally, or on the adoption of Scrum? What does your organization look like (are there other Scrum Masters / teams)? Has the organization as a whole adopted Scrum?

The Sprint Retrospective would be my preferred venue initially, but it really depends on your personal preference. The Scrum Guide states:

The Scrum Master participates as a peer team member in the meeting from the accountability over the Scrum process.

You concern is certainly applicable to "how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools," and as a peer team member it is something that you should bring up. Just ask: what is the team's perception of your effectiveness as a Scrum Master? Perhaps a part of the plan for implementing improvements would be for the team to all read the Scrum Guide's section on the Scrum Master and come up with actions that you could take to help the team within your role. You could also talk a bit about what you do now; how is it benefiting the Scrum Team? What you do should be transparent to the team, so that upon inspection you as a Scrum Master can adapt and improve.

He doesn’t know what scrum master does.

Could you elaborate and clarify what makes you gauge that he doesn't know what the scrum master does?

He has multiple verbal attacks in the dailies and retros on me, Which I ignored. He thinks that because I don’t do anything I should not be there.

How do you participate in the daily scrum on a daily basis when this behavior happens?

I don't go near him. He is needed for project's succeed. Team is divided. People who need his technical skills worship him. Those members will repeat what he says. So far (When he was working from remote location) team said "I have great convincing skills, come to team as positive light etc" but now the same team members asks me "Do you code? Do you write PBI?". Other part, People who don't need him they don't care about anything.

I had had a talk with him explaining what SM does but he thinks its not required. Team is self sufficient.

Which is not the case, My boss and his boss see the clear difference between my presence and absence. They have asked me just ignore him and stick around for project sake. When I was brought in team was in trouble. He was individually good. I enabled the whole team work at predictable pace. He also thinks that since we started to get appreciation only after I joined, I have kind of steal his credit. 

SM's transparency - I do update on everything in daily stand up what I did so that we could deliver value to the customer and for the uninterrupted focus of the development team on sprint. 

He think so what ? its not even needed. Then I step back, then I let them fail and highlight the failure.

At this point this one negative person attacks on me saying why were you sitting duck ?

SM's transparency - I do update on everything in daily stand up what I did so that we could deliver value to the customer and for the uninterrupted focus of the development team on sprint. 

Do you normally lead the stand-up, get everyone's updates and update the board? How exactly did you let them fail? Can you describe a situation?

Swati, after re-reading your posts in this thread, I'm wondering if the situation is really about a toxic team member.   Apologies in advance if I misinterpret any of the following, but below are my observations:

He doesn’t know what scrum master does... I had had a talk with him explaining what SM does.

Swati, just curious if you could please briefly sum up what you believe a Scrum Master does?

He has multiple verbal attacks in the dailies... Which I ignored. He thinks that because I don’t do anything I should not be there...   I do update on everything in daily stand up 

Why would he attack you during the Development Team's Daily Scrum?   You do realize that it is their meeting, and there is no requirement for you to either speak, or even attend.   Your sole responsibility regarding the Daily Scrum is to ensure the Development Team conducts it, and that they keep it within the 15-minute time box.   That's it.

I enabled the whole team work at predictable pace... what I did so that we could deliver value to the customer and for the uninterrupted focus of the development team on sprint

Swati, it may help if you could provide specifics around what you do to promote the team's uninterrupted focus and working at a sustainable pace.

I step back, then I let them fail and highlight the failure.

How do you highlight their failure?   Do you coach them that failure is a good thing?   I hope you are not simply waiting in the wings to point your finger and say "I told you so", because I would definitely take offense to that if I were a member of the team.

There is an old Agile adage: "Failure is not an option in Agile.   It is mandatory."   Consider why this can be a beneficial position.

he thinks its not required. Team is self sufficient. Which is not the case... When I was brought in team was in trouble.

Why do you believe the team was in trouble before you joined?   What evidence is there telling you the team is not self-sufficient?

More to the point, why do you believe that management's favorable opinions of you are a validation of your influence on the team, when the team actually appears to be in open rebellion against you? 

I'm going to agree with @Timothy's last post. It sounds like there is more to this than a single toxic team member.  It appears to me that English is not your primary language so it could be that we are misinterpreting your statements and if so, I apologize.  But based on your current phrasing, it does sound like some of the problem may be your interpretations of Scrum and your actions. 

Please help us better understand the situation so that we can all provide better advice.  I will state though that no matter what we all say, you will have to find a way to deal with this on your own.  In similar situations I have always found that face-to-face conversations are best. Talk to the individual. Yes, retrospectives are a place for hard, difficult, uncomfortable conversations. But there is nothing wrong with trying to resolve some of these differences in private. As you said, it could be that he doesn't understand what role you play.  Help him.  Also show nothing but respect for what he does so that he can learn from your actions and he can start to respect your contributions. 

Q- Swati, just curious if you could please briefly sum up what you believe a Scrum Master does?

A - I might have a scope of learning, that's the reason I am here. thanks for your questions. I mostly observe, make notes, give the nudge to developers towards tasks accomplishment if needed, verify we don't over commit, Add my suggestions if it's needed for quality improvement and continuous process improvements, talk to them to let them know best practices or example from best of the agile (on appropriate moments) . See any opportunity for automation and drive the POCs to add into agile maturity. Hold retros. I was not participating in dailies just making sure that it happens but then there were more questions "why on earth I am even in office?" so started joining and holding the dailies, to make them feel that I am also a part of the team I started giving update on what I do (Transparency). I highlight their contribution and nominate them for awards if qualified, Remove any hindering issues to sprint goals. Plan for some team building activities or outing. Primarily everything which help them perform at their peak. I have PSM1, PSPO1 and a trained agile coach.

Q- Why would he attack you during the Development Team's Daily Scrum?   You do realize that it is their meeting, and there is no requirement for you to either speak, or even attend.   Your sole responsibility regarding the Daily Scrum is to ensure the Development Team conducts it, and that they keep it within the 15-minute time box.   That's it.

A - Till few weeks ago I was not speaking but there were more bitterness towards my role so I started speaking.      Example (Sprint 57), I spoke "Just a reiteration, Let's put actual hours in the TFS so that we can learn any gaps in the estimation also we have three more days to go for review pls have a look at Items on hand if we need revision to estimation." Then the series of sarcastic/mocking comments in open forum started. "Look at that swati is saving herself ha ha ha".                                                                                                                                                                                           I thought I needed speak because the previous sprint (Sprint 56) we over committed and we did not deliver.                      Even in the previous sprint(sprint 56) I was quite thinking that dev team will decide but they did not and this toxic person snapped at me in the retro meeting "What is scrum master doing when we are failing ?"                                                         I am still ignoring those. It was clearly told in the retrospective that they need more contribution from SM.

Q- How do you highlight their failure?   Do you coach them that failure is a good thing?   I hope you are not simply waiting in the wings to point your finger and say "I told you so", because I would definitely take offense to that if I were a member of the team.

A -For example - I put two different situation in front of them where they succeeded and where they failed and asked them can you see the difference ? They will come up with an answer like colloboaration was better or whatever. Yes, I do mention it to them "Fail -First, Fast and small" (Empiricism) 

Q -Why do you believe the team was in trouble before you joined?   What evidence is there telling you the team is not self-sufficient?

A - At the time of hiring, I was called in a meetings with PO, stakeholders, leadership and was specifically informed by them with the list of issues the team was facing. I observed them for almost 2 months before I gave them my suggestion if they are willing to take it. I have never given any suggestion to that toxic person who hated me from day one. His first line of conversation was "What is your role ? Why are you here ? What are you going to do ? There is absolutely no problem." We were taught to enter the team through who are positive and willing to change themselves.  In one of the incident I observed that team member was giving the same update, narrating the same issues form last 4 days, She never asked any help or none of the senior technically outstanding performers offer or asked if she needed any help. The toxic guy is gathering the credit for himself not bothering about the sprint goal or team, that was the first time I interacted with the team and got good results for Sprint 38 to 48. Now The toxic person moved from onsite to offshore and got colocated. Everyone started resisting me, I stepped back. Things started breaking from sprint 49 onwards. I had meeting with my manager at sprint 49 and informed him in advance that major escalation is on the way because of xyz reasons. I also told my manager that this is the time for us to wait and watch. spring 55/56 out of 14 committed PBI we just delivered 2 PBI.

Q-More to the point, why do you believe that management's favorable opinions of you are a validation of your influence on the team, when the team actually appears to be in open rebellion against you? 

A -I consulted another team and it helped them greatly. They gave very positive feedback about me. I helped my manager/his boss learn scrum/agile and they are able to see positive results themselves under autonomy.  My product owner also holds reasonably good opinion about my work, which goes to my supervisor directly without my knowledge. PO could see the team's performance in my absence and presence. In two different meetings my boss's boss and another senior person (in a client facing role) thanked me for whatever I could do. I keep taking feedback from everyone around me and make sure I don't deviate from my responsibilities. 

This is complicated stuff and a serious bottleneck in your progress both on individual and team level, but also on organizational level. Based on your words (but I'm just hearing your side, so that's all I can use) it appears that there is a lot more to it than just Scrum based issues.

(Disclaimer; the following text might be dangerious, used it with caution). An assumption, based on the offered information, is that there is some sort of power struggle. The Scrum Master role, if not taught and felt correctly, can be seen as some sort of managerial type of position. If this person shows the behaviour of going for his own benefit, ignoring the team's best interest, ignoring sprint goals, having difficulties with the SM role from the get go, trying to get the team on his side to collaboratively get the SM down etc. etc. rings the bell to me that he wants contiuous validation of his own super talent.

And by super talent, I mean the stuff why you mention you can't loose him. He is now the king of the hill. And the bad thing about this, is that the organization allows him to be there. Keeping some in the position to be the sole guy-to-go-to is basically rewarding bad behaviour. This is a serious impediment for having cross-functional teams. 

 

But there is more to this behaviour. It might be insecurities, it might be an unstable home situation, it might be venting his frustration about the organization. It can be all sorts of issues.

What I like to do is go outside with each individual of my team members. Go out for a walk, half an hour to an hour. Check how they are feeling, how they feel about the team, how they'd like to develop etc. 

Some other thing that I do each sprint as start of the retro is to have the team individually fill out a small rating list, scale 1 to 5. 1 being worst, 5 being best. In my case these include:



 

- Product Owner

- Scrum Master

- Influence Work

- Easy to release/deploy/integrate

- Organizational support

- Definition of Done

- Connection on overall vision

Than I keep score of these in Excel throughout sprints to see where they fluctuate. Maybe some actions can be identified that led to either in- or decrease of the ratings. And it also gives an opening to the conversation "what can we improve on topic X". This also identifies who is more negative or positive on a specific topic. If there is 1 person being very negative and the rest is positive, it safe to assume that this is an issue this specific person has. Or vice versa. For example, in the beginning there was a very negative trend towards the connection to the overall vision. The Sprint Goal was clear and the vision of the company itself is clear (as it usually can be found on the website), but the link between sprint goal and company vision was missing. I, as a Scrum Master, worked the PO to have this introduced in the Sprint Reviews and continuously revisit this. See where we are at in the progression towards this vision. After the 4 sprints the rating was increased from a 1.3 to a 3.5.

What I can also recommend you to have a look at are:

- Levels of listening

- Asking Powerful questions

- Drawing Lifelines. Generates more understanding of who the person is. (this is usually done at the formation of a team and in your case would require a bit more trust, I guess. Might be useful.) https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/sites/gsb/files/alumni-migration/files/alumni_migration/career/careerlifevision/pdf/Lifeline_Exercise.pdf

- Check out Co-Active Coaching. Just the book already is very nice.

Hopes this gives you some input.

Addition to what other things I do - Work with PO on requirement clarity. show them the big picture. Work with other Agile activities in organization.

I don't tell them what to do and how to do it. No one reports to me. 

@Swati Pathak, Based on what you've expressed I am going to assume that this person is indeed difficult to work with. I have experienced similar situations too and I can completely understand how hard it must be for you to deal with it on a frequent basis. 

These are not easy things to do but here are a few suggestions:

Find an opportunity to talk to the individual in private, expressing how you feel when he makes certain statements. Be careful though, you should not trigger a defensive response in him and your tone, body language, facial expressions should also be neutral and not threatening, you need to be calm. Think of the conversation as being able to genuinely complement an enemy whose certain skills you appreciate and you are trying to negotiate being able to work together. In my case, which has similarities to yours, I ended up speaking with the individual and I told her that I respect her a lot, that I've always admired her skill and talent and I feel that I've fell short of her expectations. I further expressed that how in her pursuit of perfection (due to her knowledge) she at times tended to be a little difficult to work with. I further said, I may not be as strong as you are in this field/domain but if you could help me understand what I can do to help and if you could help me get there, then I'd appreciate that. The outcome was eventually positive, and we were able to achieve some middle ground (not the best, but far better than before). (please use this as a guideline only to structure your thoughts and conversation)

If the above fails, then you need to have a conversation with his reporting manager explaining the situation and the manager should facilitate a discussion between the two of you and hopefully iron out the issues.

In my situation, management supported the individual so much that the person literally had a free pass to be rude, not attend meetings, not be professional etc., so, I'd first understand how the dynamics is at the workplace especially with management and this individual before taking further steps. Just be careful and choose your battles accordingly.

Lastly, if all else fails, you may need to consider if you really want to continue working with that team or with that organization.

Also, this is purely my opinion, I don't think the Retrospective is the place where this issue should be discussed. The reason being, given your explanation, it appears the team is not at a stage where they can talk about this productively. Also, considering this is a personal conflict, bringing it public i.e.to many, may not be the best course of action.

You could make a sprint by delegating the responsibility of the scrum master to him. Either way you would be a shadow of his activities if something were to be done incoherently. So he would understand what it's like to be in your role and all the work you've been doing.

It is not easy to master the work done to:

- Product Owner

- Development Team

- Organization

Hello, 

I stop reading because I noticed something... why are you so involved in the daily scrum? 

It seems like this person just doesn't respect you or doesn't see the value of you being there. 

My questions to the forum and the experienced folks: 

Would this be an opportunity to draw a RACI chart- coaching, transparency, value ( respect) 

Get management ( the bosses) involved: Have to courage to ask for help.

If the SM is to remove impediments, you have to think outside of the box and the heart and start analyzing to come up with the solution. This impediment might become your greatest ally. 

Personally, I wouldn't use a RACI chart because the results of it would be exactly what anyone doing Scrum should know.

R = Scrum Team

A = Scrum Team (each role is accountable for various things)

C = Stakeholders

I = Stakeholders, entire organization

I feel like RACI charts are much more effective when dealing with non agile organizations. In this case I would be more inclined to revisit the roles and events than a RACI.

But this is only my opinion.

I feel like RACI charts are much more effective when dealing with non agile organizations. In this case I would be more inclined to revisit the roles and events than a RACI.

@Daniel Wilhite, I agree with you. Agility encourages management and leadership horizontally. What that means is everyone should be responsible (self-organize, self-manage)

@Daniel Wilhite I understand your point and thanks for sharing. Absolutely, I would definitely review the roles and events and values. 

Thanks!! 

One activity that I could think of to address this type of situation is maybe to meet the team during retrospective and establish a social contract or a team canvas as a team.

Why can't you LOSE him?

There's no Superhero in Agile culture nor in Scrum framework. 

OPPENESS does he even practiceing this Value with others?

Do the members of the team are learning from him or watching him doing it without SHARING how is he doing it?

Seems, He has an Ego issue, as SM you need to know when you have to be disruptive and getting the team close to Scrum VALUES and how close they are to these Values as A TEAM and You have to coaching the team how to live and change their behaviors accordingly

Organization has to support you, do they?

As Scrum Master you are  the team police chief officer and you would not disagree in the way they practicing their work but do they know their boundaries?

As Scrum Master you are the team police chief officer

Are you really?

What real world problem do you see if a SM becomes a police officer?

This would go against the spirit of the Scrum Guide, which promotes the coaching aspect of Scrum Master's work.

However, you are asking about a "real world problem". If Scrum Master enforces stuff, then he will remove the ability of the Scrum Team to learn from experiments and mistakes. Would you consider this a real world problem? Or maybe this: once SM becomes a member of the scrum police, he also becomes accountable, and will get fired if not delivering "scrum value" (whatever would that be). Would this be a real world problem?

Lots of excellent comments - I wouldn't say it's a Scrum problem but a person problem.

My two pence:

1. This forum is designed to view, review and frankly share these issues - you're not alone

2. Jerks and bullies are rarely self-confident using others to confirm and reinforce poor group behaviours. Check with the wider team what's going on as must people appreciate the help an SM delivers.

3. There are loads of ways to restore the power balance. You need top cover (senior buy in) to set a few things straight. How you do this will be up to you.

Hi. Another "here's my $0.02" :) I would like to highlight this:

I was quite thinking that dev team will decide but they did not and this toxic person snapped at me in the retro meeting "What is scrum master doing when we are failing ?" I am still ignoring those.

First observation: it's not constructive to keep calling this person toxic. Or arguing that "he hated you from day one". I'm not saying you are incorrect, but you may be blurring your own vision by constantly reinforcing these very emotional notions. These emotions on both sides may be hindering empirical growth - but the only emotions you can do anything about are your own :)

What puzzles me greatly is this: why ever would you ignore that question? Such questions would to me sound maybe like a harsh skepticism, a tough challenge to explain why he should consider you useful. Sounds to me like a great opportunity! To align your insights and efforts, to enlighten each other, to build trust... Even if he's being sarcastic when he asks it, which may well be, it's still an opening. In my opinion that's almost by definition already better than someone who never says anything at all, never seems interested in any team goals or progress, and just does whatever he wants not caring about anything or anyone. Now that's toxicity.

Specifically on the "what does SM do when we fail" - well, isn't that actually a good question? What should or could a SM do when the development team fails? What does it even mean for a dev team to fail? Often pretty useful and rewarding discussions and great learning opportunities, but if you choose to interpret them as attacks/threats, you may be distancing yourself from positive outcomes. After all, offence is taken rather than given.

If I try to compensate for your personal emotional opinion, your colored glasses that we are reading through, I'm not yet convinced of his actual toxicity. He may just be one of these people with a very unique manual, maybe even written in a language you don't speak yet :)

Call me an old hippie but I would say look for common ground and build trust. On the other hand, an impediment is sometimes actually an impediment. I wish you wisdom and luck in your approach. Hope this is at least some food for thought.

@Swati - I gone through all the comments. One possible suggestion coming to my mind ( and this was followed in my last organization)

If currently you are not in a condition to LOSE this toxic guy, why not you encourage other team members to learn & understand HIS role / duties ( to reduce the dependency on HIM)

Once that is achieved, you will surely notice the improvement in HIS ego / attitude problems because now he is not the only one in the team to whom you cannot LOSE.

@Swati- I went through all the comments and particularly your replies. It is quite evident that the dependency on this person is a big impediment for the team and the project overall. You have taken quite a few steps and you are still showing an inclination towards learning new ways to manage the situation. Kudos for that!

Over and above that, the issue seems to create a 'toxic' environment in the organization (as others in the organizations may be observing and may pick up the behavior and your confrontations). He might be the "best one" for your current project. But infestation of this behavior can hamper other teams too. For that reason, I am certain that comments from the person mentioned and the disrespect personally to you and your role must be addressed. 

The person is showing narcissistic machiavellian characteristics (as the person might be thinking that he owns the team and the power). He clearly knows how scrum works and as it affects his personality, he is resisting any change and not contributing to the work of any other team members (example "team member giving the same update for 4 days"). Perhaps, a wrong type of a leader. In order to smooth this out permanently here are the few things that you can do.

1. Understand and inspect the sphere of influence of this person or his behavior. Whether the comments he made have already transpired outside the team? Are there any takers for his comments and behavior?

2. Understand how each team member was hired in the first place. Were they hired as campus placements? Were they referred? and if there is any additional information. This might help you to understand their progression in the organization check if there are any consistencies or inconsistencies in their behavior. Take appropriate guidance within your organization.

3. If possible introduce tools that can effectively map the emotional intelligence of the team members. You will/may receive a lot of criticism for this step but I think even mentioning that you are exploring it might be an appropriate posture to establish your authority. You can check evidence-based tools like EQi 2.0 etc. 

Never forget that "Scrum is easy to understand but difficult to master". A scrum master is a servant-leader for the team. Remember it does not mean 'servant of the leader' nor it means 'leader of the servants'. As an SM you are expected to take a stand as a servant as well as a leader as the situation demands. I feel, in this case, you have to reclaim the lead for the sake of your organization, as the behavior may spill over the other teams in the organization and reduce the effectiveness of Scrum implementation and other agile practices. 

I also understand many on this forum may disagree, but discussing it is great for our community as we are going into issues every one of us has or may have to encounter. And there are no simple answers available in any 'guides'. 

Hi Swati,

I'd like to add a couple of observations here - I'm hopeful that they may help.

I read with concern a few statements from you similar to this one: "A -For example - I put two different situation in front of them where they succeeded and where they failed and asked them can you see the difference ? They will come up with an answer like colloboaration was better or whatever. Yes, I do mention it to them "Fail -First, Fast and small" (Empiricism)".

My concern is specifically with your use of the phrase "where they succeeded and where they failed". Are you or are you not a part of the team? In my opinion, a Scrum Master who uses the term "they" when referring to their team is demonstrating a big misunderstanding about the Scrum Master role and how to be effective in it. So if "they" failed, then you also failed with them. If you don't see it this way I believe that there is a very basic issue that needs to be addressed, and it's even more basic than any Agile practice. It's just a people issue.

So this particular person asked you when you joined the team "What is your role ? Why are you here ? What are you going to do ?". Those are perfectly fair questions albeit a bit blunt. What was your response?

We haven't heard the other person's side of the story, so we may be missing some pieces of the puzzle, but let me tell you what I think from my perspective.

Every Scrum team gets to the point where they have normalized their interactions with all other team members. This happens with every new team, and sometimes takes a good bit of time to achieve. When a new member is added, the entire team has to basically start over and go through the normalization process again. It looks like that this process has not been completed successfully since you joined the team. Going by your previous comments, and assuming you have 2 week sprints, this has been going on for about 9 months. This is a pretty long time in my opinion, so something is not clicking here and the entire team needs to figure it out.

Another thing that you said caught my eye: "Which is not the case, My boss and his boss see the clear difference between my presence and absence. They have asked me just ignore him and stick around for project sake. When I was brought in team was in trouble. He was individually good. I enabled the whole team work at predictable pace. He also thinks that since we started to get appreciation only after I joined, I have kind of steal his credit."

You say that you enabled the whole team to work at a predictable pace. Just how did you accomplish this all by yourself? One person can't really enable an entire Scrum team to do anything, but they can help. I suggest that you try to forget what's in the Agile Manifesto for a while and take a hard look at what value you bring to the team besides informing people how Scrum is supposed to work. Make yourself useful, remember that you are filling a role that is dynamic and different for every team. Have you asked the team straight out what they think you should do? If not, why not?

The team members don't give a hoot what your boss (or their boss) thinks of your usefulness. They just care about your actual usefulness. So make yourself useful. Roll up your sleeves and help out where you can. If you are having your ceremonies onsite, bring donuts or pizza once in a while. Jump in and help complete a tedious task. Make people laugh by learning a good joke or finding a funny video about workplace behavior. If you have a good relationship with management, use it to cover the team's backside or remove frustrating obstacles. If you lose the "boss" mentality that often incorrectly manifests itself with Scrum Masters (and Product Owners as well), you will be able to see more clearly where you can fit in. If you become helpful to the team in whatever way you can, they cannot help but come to respect you, and with respect will come acceptance and perhaps even friendship. Once you are respected they will begin to listen to your suggestions more attentively, but make sure that they are suggestions and not directives - let the whole team decide (including you). Above all, this is your problem as much as theirs, so never forget that. Strike the word "they" out of your vocabulary when referring to the team. Work hard to help create a strong team identity - something they may have had that your sudden addition to the team may have disrupted.

I'm not saying this is your fault, there are people who are just hard to work with, and everyone needs to either learn to deal with them or learn to deal without them. If you've given humility, humor, and as much helpfulness that you can muster an honest try (not what you think is helpful, but what the entire team thinks is helpful), most people will come around and begin to see you as an integral member of the team. Are they working long hours while you go home early? If so, they will resent you. Are you running around announcing that you are leading "your" team to success? They will resent you; after all, aren't they the ones doing most of the actual work?

One final point: Be flexible and creative. All teams are different, with different needs and different experiences. Leverage those needs and experiences to make yourself fit. There is no such thing as the "correct" way to operate a Scrum team - it's all about finding out, over time, what works for your team - and that includes you. Don't ever assume that you are more qualified to be the Scrum Master than anyone else on the team - that's almost never true. It's just another role, and most people will have very definite ideas about what they think a Scrum Master should do. Make sure that you ask for the entire team's opinion. You don't need to allow them to define your role, but you do need to find a way to get them to appreciate and respect your role. It's not always easy, so if you give it your best shot and still cannot seem to fit in, do yourself a favor and find another team if possible. While the other team members' needs are important, they are no more important than yours and vice-versa.

I hope some of this helps and I hope that you can find a way to successfully integrate into your team.

1.  SM's role is non-negotiable.  If they wish for the SM to go away then they're not doing scrum.

2.  One of the SM's stances is being a teacher.  You may convert your retrospectives into learning sessions which is focused on scrum.  Start with its foundations then go deeply in the artifacts, roles, and events.

You may convert your retrospectives into learning sessions which is focused on scrum. 

Why would you suggest re-purposing a Scrum event (Sprint Retrospective) designed specifically as an inspect and adapt point for the entire Scrum team, in order to "educate" the rest of the Scrum team on Scrum?   Even if there were a need for Scrum learning sessions, such instruction should be either scheduled separately, or delivered continually to the team as needed.

In summary, you may not convert a Retrospective into a learning session.   That is not what Retrospectives are for.

Hi @Swati Pathak.



Try to see which Scrum value is not being lived by the team member. Take this opportunity to coach the entire Scrum team on Scrum values if needed.

Also, find out how well the Scrum team understands each Scrum role responsibility.