A side note - it's difficult to earn the trust and respect of a team, especially if you come in as an outsider to a manage a close-knit group that's been togeth

A side note - it's difficult to earn the trust and respect of a team, especially if you come in as an outsider to a manage a close-knit group that's been together for a while, and likely has seen a few managers come and go. There's also a certain amount of displeasure from purely technical folks on reporting to or being managed by trained managers; those with MBA's and whatnot - irrespective of your previous experience as a developer yourself. Obviously not by all, but a few here and there. Agile / Scrum etc fare much better with devs, not tradional PMO etc. Both these things count against you, and the worst thing you can do then is to enforce the things you've learnt from your management training - as there will always be a certain amount of pushback, especially if you try and make them aware of the business case behind it - some devs like to know the bigger picture, others don't care; they don't want that pressure. It comes down to paying attention to each person, not the collective, and figuring out their needs. Software or core skills make up very little of how they would see you; some of the most talented Scrum masters I've met have never touched a line of code, and I respect them more so for it. As a manager / leader, some of the best ones I worked with and now try to emulate are the ones that trusted me to get the job done, and made it possible for me to do so. They sheltered the team from the flack coming from higher up, fought for various privileges, always took the fall for any shortcomings and essentially made an excellent environment for us to work and communicate, not to mention they never let you feel the pressure and allowed you to continuously fail and learn from it. Instead of thinking of your role as trying to educate and lead, try thinking more in terms of "what can I do to help my team succeed?" and then ask them that exact question - every day, every week. You're not their teacher, nor are you their guardian. You are there primarily to make sure that your team can go about its business unhindered from all the bureaucracy and whatnot that gets thrown at them. Once a team knows you'll go out on a limb for them, they'll trust you and then reciprocate with their work and actions.