Awesome Coach of the Week: Andrea Tomasini

10 October 2011 Author: Dave Sharrock

I'm pleased to put forward Andrea Tomasini as our Awesome Coach of the Week!I've been fortunate to know and work with Andrea for over three years. First, we brought Andrea into our company as a consultant, having bought into his vision for how we could turn our product development team ...

Dave Sharrock
Agile coach passionate about organizational excellence. Follow me @davesharrock

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I'm pleased to put forward Andrea Tomasini as our Awesome Coach of the Week!

I've been fortunate to know and work with Andrea for over three years. First, we brought Andrea into our company as a consultant, having bought into his vision for how we could turn our product development team around. Andrea is a a passionate advocate for agile, and an intoxicating communicator. The workshops, training and coaching sessions often attract observers and impromptu visitors. People just have to find out what is going on? Why is everyone moving around, building lego cities, running back to their desks? Basically anything but sitting and taking notes. In two days, Andrea some how imparts a huge level of understanding, not just information, through shared discussion, experience and insight.

Having observed Andrea at close quarters, I see two key characteristics that make Andrea an awesome coach. 

First, Andrea understands what makes a great coach, and lives this in everything he does. Andrea has an ability to build rapport and influence with executive leadership, to get his message across, and challenge entrenched thinking and hidden assumptions. At the same time, Andrea is at ease with the development teams, using his own practical experience to melt the ice and understand the situations unique to each company and team. Finally, Andrea has a deep understanding of and passion for agility, and this comes across in every response to a question and approach to a problem. 

Second, Andrea has incredible energy and a presence about him. If you want things to move forward, get Andrea on your team. Andrea can certainly find time to relax and enjoy time with friends, and in addition brings his energy and presence to everything this does. He moves at a rapid pace, keeping people moving with him and achieving results quickly. At the same time, he channels this energy very effectively. Andrea understands the need to challenge and question, to advise and educate, to nurture and coach, and which situations to use each very different skill. 

Since first meeting Andrea, I've changed companies and continents, and still work closely with Andrea. As with all the awesome coaches we honour, there is something remarkable inside that strives to express itself. So hats off to Andrea Tomasini, our Awesome Coach of the Week.