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Coaching culture: coaching supervision

Why coaching supervision?

“The purpose of supervision is learning that leads to the continuous development of the conscious competence of the supervisee and the supervisor and to a higher level of practice.  At its core, supervision implies an accountability to learning – that of the supervisor and supervisee – that may extend to that of the systems of which they are a part.” Cochrane and Newton

A supervisor’s role is to help a coach to take a “super-vision” of their coaching practice, and what they are doing to help their coachees. It attends to the blind, deaf and dumb spots that the coach may not be fully aware of.

What is coaching supervision?

There are three main elements to supervision:

  • Qualitative – supporting the coach to work in ways that are courageous, skilful and ethical, asking “is this the best you could be doing?”
  • Developmental – developing the coach’s coaching through feedback, guidance, role modelling, and helping them to self-supervise through reflective practice.
  • Resourcing – supporting the coach when doubts and insecurities arise, and providing them with a space to process what they have absorbed from their coachee or their system.

Why coaching supervision in organisations?

You are investing a lot of money in coaching, and you want to make sure that your internal and external coaches are providing a great service for the benefit of the individual AND the organisation.  Coaching supervision provides that support and challenge to ensure that executive coaches stay at their edge.  It’s different from continuous professional development in that it focuses on specific client case studies, rather than general skill-building.

How does coaching supervision differ for internal and external coaches?

Internal coaches face different ethical issues compared to external coaches.  For the internal coach, there may be issues of being a part of the system, and not wanting/seeing the need to challenge that system.  There may be issues of confidentiality, when internal coaches know their coachees in other relationship contexts.  There may be issues of upset, where the coach learns of things happening in the system that betray their own psychological contract with the company.

Issues that are unique to external coaches may revolve around business building getting in the way of pure coaching.

And there are many other issues that are similar for both internal and external coaches, such as identifying themes in the coaching that need to be fed back to the coachee (even if the coachee chooses not to follow up on them); challenging the coachee to stick to their commitments; working out how to support a coachee who is being bullied, without straying into HR’s responsibilities etc etc.

Having that place to reflect on the quality and ethics of our coaching is imperative for good quality coaching to continue to take place.

How does coaching supervision work?

I generally recommend 1 hour of supervision for every 12 hours of coaching or 1 for every 5 for a beginner.

We contract at the start for how we will work together, and what the coach’s development goals are.  We would usually contract for 6 sessions, but that is flexible.

The most effective way to use a supervision session is for the coach to think through the issues which are important beforehand.   We contract in the session for what he/she would like to work on, and how we will know that we have achieved that goal…and then we will explore the situation until the coach get to that point.

2 thoughts on “Coaching culture: coaching supervision

  1. Hi
    I would like to receive your blogpost in my mailbox.
    Regards
    Shubha

    1. hello Shubba. You are most welcome to sign up to receive the blog in your inbox. You can do that at the bottom of each blog post.
      Clare

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