Scrum master is the most funniest of roles you could encounter but its also the most responsible.
You are paid to be scrum master and get beaten for being one :):
1. You are not the leader buddy :Scrum master is not the leader of the team. However, he / she is accountable for the delivery of the team.
2. Different hats at different time : People say scrum master should be emotionally intelligent and should have soft skills to handle the say to day issues that the team faces. Moreover, scrum master is a slave leader (thats when the role is most effective) who will help remove the impediments that the team faces. However, people hardly understand that team's efficiency improves with time and the scrum master's role (inspite of definitions) will practically vary from time to time.
3. Lead by example : Its obviously enough from role's perspective for scrum master to do scrum master responsibilities. Obviously being a slave leader takes away a bit of your flair (if your natural energy flows differently). The motivation in lean is to dirty your hands to understand the team better. The expectation from team will be that scrum master pulls up some tasks and delivers them too instead of just asking questions :) and this will be coming out in retrospective.
4. Pull vs pull : Most serious of topics in my perspective. Ahem.... you are supposed to be a slave leader and if you start pushing tasks, you will be not be perceived as one. The question before you is : Do you wanna allow your team to take the intiative / do you wanna show you do?
5. Silence as technique : Be ready to be silent, be ready to pretend you dont know the answer. Let the team discuss and find out the answer. Let them make mistakes and be ready to learn from it. However, in that case, keep a watchful eye on other opportunistic people / your higher ups who could kick your balls.
