There has been a lot of confusion over the years between supervision and mentor-coaching.  The two are very different roles with very different purposes. 

Mentor-coaching is a form of support for newly qualified coaches. The key requirement for the mentor-coach is greater experience, ideally alongside having a higher level of accreditation. The origins of this role lie in reluctance by many NorthAmerican coaches within the International Coaching Federation to engage in formal supervision, which they saw as more closely aligned to the worlds of counselling and psychiatry. 

Supervision is a much deeper relationship that requires a significantly higher skill set and level of accreditation. Supervisors are normally expected to have completed post-graduate diploma level training that integrates knowledge of coaching with competence in other disciplines, such as group facilitation, positive psychology or behavioural science. It fulfils three main functions:

  • Formative (educational)
  • Normative (ethical)
  • Restorative (well-being)

Recent years have seen a significant move within ICF towards accepting supervision as an essential part of ethical coaching, bringing the ICF closer to the perspective of other professional bodies, notably EMCC Global. This appears to be a major shift towards the expectation that coaches will engage in supervision as an essential component of professional development – and of coaching ethics. There is a strong case that lack of supervision breaches the ethics of the duty of care towards clients. It is very easy, especially at beginner stages, for a coach to be unaware that they may be holding back a client’s development, or worse, causing harm. Supervision is essential to maintain that awareness.

The ICF now defines mentor-coaching as involving the following areas of practice:

  • Development of skill
  • Ethical awareness
  • Credentialling requirement
  • Skill appraisal

It defines coach supervision as involving:

  • Development of self
  • Ethical maturity
  • Reflective practice
  • Systemic awareness

Both roles also involve:

  • Support for well-being
  • Professional development
  • Coaching style

One way of looking at this is that mentor-coaching focuses on conforming, while supervision focuses on transforming.

©️David Clutterbuck, 2026