Top 19 Agile Coaches to Learn From in 2026
The best agile coaches don't just teach frameworks—they help you change how your team thinks and works. If you're navigating shifting priorities, misaligned stakeholders, or delivery that keeps slipping, the right coach can shift that. I've put together this guide to help you find agile coaches whose methods are practical, proven, and worth your time.
Top 19 Agile Coaches
Below are the profiles of the top agile coaches, covering who they are and the impact they've made in this space.
Marsha Acker
Marsha Acker is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, an executive and team coach, and author of The Art & Science of Facilitation, with over 20 years in leadership and team…
Marsha Acker is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, an executive and team coach, and author of The Art & Science of Facilitation, with over 20 years in leadership and team development practice.
Her work combines systems thinking, structural dynamics, dialogue, facilitation, and agility to help teams handle tension and collaborate effectively. She also develops agile coaches and leaders through TeamCatapult workshops.
Bob Galen
Bob Galen is president and principal agile coach at RGalen Consulting, an author, trainer, and speaker. He’s a longtime practitioner who has worked with agile methods since the late 1990s in industry.
…
Bob Galen is president and principal agile coach at RGalen Consulting, an author, trainer, and speaker. He’s a longtime practitioner who has worked with agile methods since the late 1990s in industry.
His coaching spans teams, leaders, and organizations, with a pragmatic focus on Scrum, product ownership, quality, and coaching craft. His book Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching and community work emphasize stronger, more professional agile coaching.
Mike Griffiths
Mike Griffiths is an independent author, project manager, trainer, and consultant at Leading Answers who has worked with agile methods since helping create DSDM in the 1990s and beyond.
His experience bridges…
Mike Griffiths is an independent author, project manager, trainer, and consultant at Leading Answers who has worked with agile methods since helping create DSDM in the 1990s and beyond.
His experience bridges agile delivery and traditional project management, including service on Agile Alliance and APLN boards and contributions to PMI guidance. He teaches adaptive leadership, risk, and delivery practices that help project teams work effectively amid change.
Cherie Silas
Cherie Silas is the founder and CEO of Tandem Coaching, an ICF Master Certified Coach, Certified Enterprise Coach, and co-author of Enterprise Agile Coaching, with executive leadership experience.
Silas works with…
Cherie Silas is the founder and CEO of Tandem Coaching, an ICF Master Certified Coach, Certified Enterprise Coach, and co-author of Enterprise Agile Coaching, with executive leadership experience.
Silas works with executives, teams, and organizations on leadership, culture, process, and organizational change. Her enterprise agile work treats coaching as a systems practice, helping leaders address the conditions around transformation rather than simply applying a framework.
Geoff Watts
Geoff Watts is the founder of Inspect & Adapt, a leadership coach, speaker, workshop facilitator, and author. His work spans agility, product thinking, coaching, and organizational change.
After beginning with Scrum at…
Geoff Watts is the founder of Inspect & Adapt, a leadership coach, speaker, workshop facilitator, and author. His work spans agility, product thinking, coaching, and organizational change.
After beginning with Scrum at British Telecom, Watts spent decades coaching teams and leaders through agile change. Books including Scrum Mastery and Team Mastery turn that experience into practical guidance on servant leadership, team growth, reflection, and resilience.
Pete Behrens
Pete Behrens is the founder and CEO of Agile Leadership Journey, a leadership coach and author. His work grew from years of helping agile teams and the leaders who shape their environment.
…
Pete Behrens is the founder and CEO of Agile Leadership Journey, a leadership coach and author. His work grew from years of helping agile teams and the leaders who shape their environment.
Behrens now focuses on how leaders can support lasting change across an organization. Through Agile Leadership Journey, he helps leaders and coaches build adaptable teams, strengthen culture, align their work, and handle uncertainty.
Johanna Rothman
Johanna Rothman is a consultant, trusted advisor, author, and speaker known as the Pragmatic Manager. She helps leaders improve management and product development through adaptable practices.
Rothman helps leaders improve how their…
Johanna Rothman is a consultant, trusted advisor, author, and speaker known as the Pragmatic Manager. She helps leaders improve management and product development through adaptable practices.
Rothman helps leaders improve how their teams work and develop products. Through books, workshops, and advisory work, she helps them choose practices that fit their situation and focus on business results instead of following a process for its own sake.
Tricia Broderick
Tricia Broderick is a leadership and team coach, author, speaker, and organizational advisor. Her career spans software engineering, project management, executive roles, leadership, and coaching.
Broderick co-wrote Lead without Blame with Diana…
Tricia Broderick is a leadership and team coach, author, speaker, and organizational advisor. Her career spans software engineering, project management, executive roles, leadership, and coaching.
Broderick co-wrote Lead without Blame with Diana Larsen. The book shows leaders how to build teams that learn from mistakes without blaming people. Drawing on her experience in agile work and team leadership, she helps teams handle setbacks and improve together.
Diana Larsen
Diana Larsen is a leadership agility guide, author, and longtime consultant who has spent more than three decades helping leaders build productive, resilient teams and learning organizations.
She co-authored Agile Retrospectives, …
Diana Larsen is a leadership agility guide, author, and longtime consultant who has spent more than three decades helping leaders build productive, resilient teams and learning organizations.
She co-authored Agile Retrospectives, Lead without Blame, and the Agile Fluency Model, among other works. Larsen’s coaching and consulting center on team learning, leadership agility, retrospectives, and work systems that help teams improve deliberately.
Lyssa Adkins
Lyssa Adkins is an agile coaching author, coach, facilitator, and teacher who co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute and wrote Coaching Agile Teams, a foundational guide for agile coaches.
Adkins helped shape…
Lyssa Adkins is an agile coaching author, coach, facilitator, and teacher who co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute and wrote Coaching Agile Teams, a foundational guide for agile coaches.
Adkins helped shape agile coaching by bringing together coaching, mentoring, teaching, facilitation, and conflict resolution. She later expanded her work to leadership teams and organizations, helping them improve how they work and manage change.
Esther Derby
Esther Derby is a leadership and team coach, consultant, author, and founder of Esther Derby Associates. She has four decades of experience with organizational change and team dynamics.
Derby co-authored Agile Retrospectives…
Esther Derby is a leadership and team coach, consultant, author, and founder of Esther Derby Associates. She has four decades of experience with organizational change and team dynamics.
Derby co-authored Agile Retrospectives and writes on productive change, management, and complex adaptive systems. Her coaching helps leaders shape environments where teams can learn, take initiative, improve their dynamics, and respond to change without relying on rigid formulas.
Michael De La Maza
Michael De La Maza is a professor of business analytics and machine learning at Hult, a Certified Enterprise Coach, a consultant, and co-author of Enterprise Agile Coaching.
He helps teams and organizations…
Michael De La Maza is a professor of business analytics and machine learning at Hult, a Certified Enterprise Coach, a consultant, and co-author of Enterprise Agile Coaching.
He helps teams and organizations improve their performance by combining agile methods with data and an understanding of how people work. He has guided change at major technology and financial firms and writes about how agile coaching can support lasting change.
Andrea Tomasini
Andrea Tomasini is a founder of agile42 and strategic coach with a background in product development, software architecture, lean coaching, organizational change, and agile leadership worldwide.
His coaching focuses on leaders navigating…
Andrea Tomasini is a founder of agile42 and strategic coach with a background in product development, software architecture, lean coaching, organizational change, and agile leadership worldwide.
His coaching focuses on leaders navigating strategy, culture, resilience, and organizational agility. Tomasini helped develop ORGANIC agility and has trained and coached teams across industries, connecting agile practice with systems thinking and evidence-informed organizational change.
Kiron Bondale
Kiron Bondale is a project management consultant, trainer, author, and agile practitioner. He has deep experience in governance, risk, delivery, and leading complex organizational change initiatives.
Bondale combines traditional and agile approaches…
Kiron Bondale is a project management consultant, trainer, author, and agile practitioner. He has deep experience in governance, risk, delivery, and leading complex organizational change initiatives.
Bondale combines traditional and agile approaches to project management. Drawing on his PMP, PMI-ACP, Scrum, and agile coaching credentials, he writes and teaches about choosing the right approach for each project, leading teams, and managing risk.
Tanner Wortham
Tanner Wortham is the founder of Wortham Coaching & Consulting, an executive coach and consultant who brings more than 25 years of military leadership and technology experience to his work.
Wortham helps…
Tanner Wortham is the founder of Wortham Coaching & Consulting, an executive coach and consultant who brings more than 25 years of military leadership and technology experience to his work.
Wortham helps organizations plan and deliver work, hire and develop teams, and coach leaders. Drawing on years of experience with Scrum and agile teams, he focuses on practical changes, useful measures, and collaboration instead of following a process for its own sake.
Antoinette Coetzee
Antoinette Coetzee is a leadership and team coach at TeamCatapult and an agile workshop faculty member. Her work centers on coaching, facilitation, dialogue, structural dynamics, and complex change.
Her coaching explores how…
Antoinette Coetzee is a leadership and team coach at TeamCatapult and an agile workshop faculty member. Her work centers on coaching, facilitation, dialogue, structural dynamics, and complex change.
Her coaching explores how leaders and teams use collective wisdom, navigate complexity, and create new possibilities together. At TeamCatapult, she contributes to leadership and agile coaching development, with structural dynamics and dialogue shaping her work with teams.
Evan Leybourn
Evan Leybourn is co-founder of the Business Agility Institute, an author and speaker. His work examines how organizations build adaptability beyond individual technology or delivery teams.
Leybourn helps organizations apply agile ideas…
Evan Leybourn is co-founder of the Business Agility Institute, an author and speaker. His work examines how organizations build adaptability beyond individual technology or delivery teams.
Leybourn helps organizations apply agile ideas beyond IT. Through his research, writing, and work with the Business Agility Institute, he shows leaders how to adapt their strategy and ways of working so they can keep delivering value as needs change.
Eric Kimberling
Eric Kimberling is CEO and founder of Third Stage Consulting Group, an independent advisor focused on ERP, digital transformation, organizational change, and enterprise technology strategy.
Kimberling explains when agile methods can help…
Eric Kimberling is CEO and founder of Third Stage Consulting Group, an independent advisor focused on ERP, digital transformation, organizational change, and enterprise technology strategy.
Kimberling explains when agile methods can help with complex ERP projects and when they may add risk. He advises organizations to choose an approach that fits their needs and pay close attention to how teams work, how processes connect, leadership alignment, and managing change.
Brett Harned
Brett Harned is a project management coach, operations and delivery leader, speaker, consultant, and author of Project Management for Humans. He has over 20 years of experience in digital work.
Harned helped…
Brett Harned is a project management coach, operations and delivery leader, speaker, consultant, and author of Project Management for Humans. He has over 20 years of experience in digital work.
Harned helped found the Digital PM Summit and has coached teams and project leaders on managing work, communicating, and collaborating. He favors practical ways of working over rigid rules, helping agile teams clarify roles, improve processes, and work toward shared goals.
Selection Methodology
I selected the leaders on this list based on their relevance, demonstrated expertise and impact, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions to the field.
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I look for evidence such as leading meaningful initiatives or delivering notable results within their organizations, developing influential ideas or practices, publishing research or educational resources, speaking or teaching, and other contributions that demonstrate impact within their work or the broader field.
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