@GregoryCurrie That's entirely possible, but it's certainly also true that bad actors can kill good reputations very quickly regardless. I prefer to assume OP was screwed, than is a terrible person themself, because then we can provide actual answers and advice other than "be a better person"

It seems that you've been stepping quite beyond what a typical Scrum Master's role is. I suspect your team member feels the same. The fact your manager does not share your concerns with respect to the team member suggests to be that you've done a poor job of aligning your expectations with management. I suggest a core factor in whatever you decide to do is to determine if you can bring into alignment your expectations with your manager. If not, time to move on.

@JackGifford Indeed possible if you're dealing with someone incredibly malicious and nefarious, but the actor here is described as "painfully shy and introverted", which I think makes it unlikly the actor has the tools required in their toolbox.

He is very good 1 on 1 with people and he knows how to play the victim. Not that I expect you to believe me but I really am trying my best and don’t have a malicious bone in my body.

@user32613 what led you to the conclusion that your reputation was ruined/damaged/tarnished? The fact that your managers ask or suggest to be more receptive and close to this person does not imply that your reputation was compromised... how did you reach this conclusion? Could it be that, perhaps, you are taking this a bit personal instead of taking it professionally?

Unfortunately yes the SM role is not what it seemed and not what it seemed when I applied for the role. It’s kind of a team lead / scrum master / team manager. It could be yes that I am taking it too personally but I heard from several people that he went to them “for support” because I have made him feel unsafe in his team. He has also kind of created a campaign about how managers should create safety in the team and presented it to several superiors and peers. Then my manager has come to me to say my peers have gone to my manager about the topic.

All your comments have really been helpful and I have been thinking about them over the last day and I think kind of the combination of everything you say is basically that I am breaching not only Scrum's definition of the role, but even I am breaching the expectations my manager has for my role. I re-read his expectations of Scrum Masters and no one where does it say manage performance and no where does it say improve delivery performance. The closest it says is optimise overall department performance. So I think I need to step back a bit and reassess my approach.

What he does however say is that I should build rapport with individuals. So what I have started to realise is that he doesn't want me to manage delivery performance, he wants me to be kind of like a coach/mentor to the individuals and I can certainly do this.

Often HR departments and managers believe whoever complains first and loudest. Regardless of the situation.

"My manager then said I need to work on building a relationship with him but does not really care about the low performance of the developer. he wants me to be kind of like a coach/mentor to the individuals" - You're good cop. He's bad cop. Send yourself to managerial training.

@keshlam I don't think your title edit covers the actual question.

Better title welcome. The question here really is not about someone's reputation being ruined, but about understanding that they have exceeded the authority and responsibilities of the role. This title at least has a chance of being found in a search by someone with similar concerns.

The employee has not ruined the querant's reputation. They exceeded their authority, unnecessarily, and were correctly called out for it. They can correct matters easily by accepting that, admitting misunderstanding, promising to learn from it, and doing so.

@keshlam That sounds like a summary of the answer, not a good summary of the question. After all "you need to crack the whip harder and reign them in" could be a valid competing answer. Probably heavily downvoted, but an answer nonetheless.

Has he ruined your reputation, or have you ruined your own?

Congratulations @ScottishTapWater you’ve managed to say the most cutting most controversial thing on here. You’ve done what you’ve come to do well done.

@nvoigt: I'm thinking in terms of making this findable by someone who has a similar issue, as is SE's goal. The current headline is too broad for a successful search; it matches too many situations and isn't actually a very good match for this one. Hence my attempt to focus on the source of the conflict. I agree that my suggestion wasn't great either, but I don't have a better one. If folks think it should be left, I'm ok with that; it just feels like better is possible.

"Managing juniors performance as Scrum Master. Have I overreached and how should I recover" ?

Sounds good @mattfreake. Maybe even remove the "junior".

@user32613: For what it's worth, the typical scrum master should be an experienced developer who is already an individual contributor to a team, and the role of scrum master should rotate between all qualified developers on a per-quarter or per-sprint basis. A scrum master is a servant who fills in the gaps left as an agile architecture shifts and sways with the changing needs of the client, ensuring that each individual contributor is unblocked.

This hopefully explains why you're getting so much snark and sniping: your employer has failed you by putting you in this role, and your duty is now to rework your role into something which serves your team properly.

@Corbin no this is not true. Many scrum masters who have no development experience provide a lot of value for the team.

So you, as a "scrum master" (the bane of developers) have a badly performing developer you've let run loose for 1 year (you shouldn't have let that happen), who after you confronted him complained about "unsafe environment" (a term describing weak minded people), and ran to everybody in higher position (suddenly his introversion was cured) to seek comfort, and demonized you (quite a cutthroat, also questionable leadership), and allegedly harmed your reputation (wasn't that high apparently).

Pro leaving: It sounds like a really unprofessional place. Pro staying: Fight and restore your reputation.