Coaching Supervision
One-to-one Supervision
Coach Mentoring can provide experienced supervisors to provide a regular space to other coaches on an individual or group basis to reflect upon the content and process of their work: The supervision will support the coaches:
- To develop understanding and skills within their coaching work
- To receive information and another perspective concerning their work
- To receive both content and process feedback
- To be validated and supported both as a person and as a professional
- To ensure that as a person and as a professional they are not left unnecessarily carrying difficulties, problems and projections alone
- To plan and utilize personal and professional resources better
- To be proactive rather than reactive
- To ensure quality of coaching work
Benefits of Supervision
The Association for Coaching’s 2007 survey into supervision detail the following benefits of supervision:
The top two benefits of supervision are providing a basis for learning and development, and in having an opportunity to discuss ethical issues, and almost all respondents identified these as benefits. Offering a trusting and open relationship, and offering maintenance and sustainability of practice were highlighted as benefits by over three quarters of respondents. The fifth area of benefit was offering opportunities to increase creativity.
On their learning, Coaches commented that supervision is important in providing “a place to be challenged in a supportive way”. It is an opportunity to discuss areas of difficulty experienced, to gain from another’s experience, and to examine intervention techniques. It enables Coaches “to reflect on challenges and navigate improvement”, and to “develop increased awareness of blind spots, triggers and blockers”.
Coaches suggested that supervision provides protection for both clients and for themselves. For clients, this process demonstrates a commitment to high standards of practice, provided quality control, and helps ensure “safety in practice”. It also “helps keep my coaching clean (so that) my own issues do not get in the way”. For Coaches, supervision provides emotional support, and enables them to gain a perspective such that it “helps me see the wood from the trees”. It also contributes to developing their identity as a coach, provides a check on coach burn-out, and helps them “let go of being too attached to coachee issues”.
Group Supervision
Group supervision can be a more cost effective option and one where there is a much greater chance that someone will be brave enough to name ‘the elephant in the room’ that is culturally unmentionable because of shared assumptions and beliefs.
Bringing coaches together (either face-to-face or virtually) fosters a feeling of camaraderie and mutual support, where coaches learn together rather than operating in lonely isolation. There is also a potential organizational benefit, as the supervisor will inevitably encounter recurring issues and themes, which can be fed back on a non-attributable basis. The biggest difficulty in group supervision in organizations is the very legitimate concern about confidentiality, especially where the coaches may know who is coaching whom. These issues can be partially dealt with through robust contracting, but group supervision tends to work better in larger organizations where there are fewer overlapping boundaries or relationships.