For my career, I have had the great privilege to witness different companies undergo many different phases of Agile transformations. I've met many amazing Scrum Masters along the way that have evolved to take on major responsibilities in their organizations. However, I have also seen many Scrum Masters who fall into common traps that impede the Scrum team, impede delivery, and inadvertently slow down their own career growth by falling into five common traps that I have identified. I'll identify these common mistakes and offer ways to best avoid them or get out of an invisible sinking tar pit that frequently pulls new Scrum Masters into their demise and show you how to get back on the path towards becoming a great Scrum Master.
Trap #1: You're the Only One Typing Notes for Every Meeting
Are you always the one doing the typing in every Scrum event? Being a Scrum Master doesn't make you the team secretary. Anyone who can type can take the keyboard or laptop and write user stories, take notes, update hours and change Outlook appointments. If you want a self-organizing and empowered development team, you cannot do everything for them, including taking notes. I often get asked if a Scrum Master is a full-time role because all they have seen are Scrum Masters that run all the meetings and take all the notes. If that's all you do, it's understandable why one would see it as a part-time job.