Last night I attended the monthly Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) DC event. Once again, the organizing team was able to get a really great guest. The guest last night was none other than Lyssa Adkins, known in Agile circles as an amazing coach and inspirational force. She's also the author of the book Coaching Agile Teams (link goes to Lyssa's website ).  Lisa's presentation was titled "What is an Agile Coach, Really?" Listening to Lyssa made me think about where I am and where I want to take Agile with my current or future customers and teams.  She stated during her presentation

Excellent agile coaches know how to help their teams get more and move from the mechanical application of agile into a world where teams deepen their experience of agile practices and principles and then go further, to take up their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance.

Yes, you read the right "deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance"

A big shout out goes to David Bland, Richard Cheng, Manoj Vadakkan, Max Keeler, Nimat Haque, Dave Nicolette, and all of the others in the DC area who came out last night, had some pizza, and talked Agile. You don't realize you're part of a tribe, until you come to an event like this and see those familiar faces.