Preparing for a supervision session

Why do coaches need supervision?

The concept of supervision in coaching is borrowed from the world of psychotherapy and counselling, where supervision is a condition of practice. Most of the professional bodies in coaching, in Europe at least, insist that all professional coaches undergo regular supervision. European standards for supervision should be published by the Round Table of coaching bodies in 2011.

Supervision is strongly recommended to support any level of coach or mentor, even at the level of basic skills coaching. The reasons for this are that:

• All coaches should be attuned to the continued development of their coaching skills
• All coaches meet situations, where guidance on different approaches would be useful in helping with a specific issue
• All coaches have a duty of care to those they coach. For example, a coach may not be aware that they are imposing their own agenda on the client – supervision raises their awareness of such situations.

Supervision has attracted an increasing amount of interest in the coaching profession in recent years. In the UK and Northern Europe, particularly, both professional bodies in coaching and large employers recognise the value of supervision in raising the quality of coaching (and hence how effective it is).

What is supervision?

The most commonly used definition of coaching supervision comes from Peter Hawkins and Nick Smith: “The process by which a Coach with the help of a Supervisor, can attend to understanding better both the Client and their wider system and themselves as part of the Client–Coach system, and by so doing, transform their work and develop their craft.”

Writers on supervision tend to identify three roles of supervision: Qualitative (Q -ensuring the quality and safety of coaching); Developmental (D); and Resourcing or Supportive (R). Among the functions of supervision, as defined again by Hawkins & Smith are:

• Continuous professional development and action learning of the coach or mentor. (D)
• Helping the coach or mentor to develop their internal supervisor and become a better reflective practitioner. (D)
• Providing a supportive space for the coach to process what they have absorbed from their clients and their client’s system. (R)
• Helping to keep the coach and mentor honest and courageous, attending to what they are: not seeing, not hearing, not allowing themselves to feel, or not saying. (Q)
• Identifying where and how the coach or mentor may need to refer the client on for more specialised help. (Q)

Types of supervision

Supervision is typically categorised as either peer or professional; and either individual or group.

Peer supervision occurs between two or more coaches, who provide mutual support. While it can work well between very experienced coaches, who bring different perspectives to each other’s practice (for example, business knowledge and counselling expertise), it is not recommended for less experienced coaches. While peer supervision provides emotional support, it cannot normally provide the other functions of supervision. Peer supervision between inexperienced coaches, or between coaches, who have insufficient understanding of supervision, may become collusive in nature and convince coaches they are much safer and more competent than is actually the case.

Professional supervision involves regular meetings with a qualified coaching supervisor. By qualified we mean either that they have completed a post-graduate diploma (or equivalent) in coach supervision or that they are experienced coaches, who also have qualifications in supervision from a parallel profession, such as psychotherapy. The UK has more qualified coach supervisors than any other country in the world, in large part because of the number of supervisor training courses available (see for example, Oxford Brookes Business School and Bath Consultancy Group).

Individual supervision is a regular one-to-one event, where the coach is able to address their experiences and concerns in an open, exploratory manner. The main benefit of this form of supervision is that the coach is able to receive concentrated attention on their practice.

Group supervision is increasingly popular, because it is cheaper and because each participating coach has the opportunity to learn from the experiences of peers. It often happens that an issue addressed by another coach raises awareness of similar issues for you. Group coaching uses a wide variety of techniques, many derived from group therapy and family therapy. It often also incorporates peer supervision, with coaches exploring together issues that colleagues bring to the session – however, in this form peer supervision is facilitated (supervised) by at least one qualified supervisor. The downside of group supervision is that you may not have the opportunity to present and explore your issue every time, but most groups have rules that ensure a) that members, who have an urgent issue, will always have an audience and b) that everyone presents at least once every three sessions.

Many experienced coaches have several different supervision arrangements, for different aspects of their practice. For example, they may have an individual coach to develop their use of Gestalt and belong to a group supervision set to address broader development issues.

How to be a great supervisee

Selecting your supervisor

In corporate programmes, a small group of supervisors (or just one) is usually appointed. If, however, you find you need to select your own supervisor, the following advice may be helpful:

• Be clear what kind of supervision you are looking for (e.g. individual or group? With an emphasis on a particular psychological approach?) and look for a supervisor with that experience or background
• Write a “job description” for what you want to achieve from the relationship
• If you are looking for professional supervision, make sure they are genuinely qualified and not just a peer supervisor in disguise!
• Look for someone, who will challenge you and help you gain a deeper understanding of yourself as a coach (and as a person)
• Look for someone you will be able to be honest with

Preparing for supervision

Preparation starts during and immediately after each coaching session. Spend time reflecting on:

• What went well and less well in this session?
• When did I feel uncomfortable and why?
• What patterns are emerging with this client or across several clients?
• Where would I have valued a different approach?
• What would I like to take to supervision?
• How will I explain the issue to my supervisor? (Consider both “What do I know?” and “How do I know it?”)

Although thinking through the issue before the supervision session is helpful, be prepared to take along quite vague feelings of concern or disquiet about an aspect of your coaching. The supervisor will help you investigate these and either provide reassurance or enable you to clarify what you are instinctively feeling.

Immediately before the supervision session, take a moment to ensure you are n an appropriate mindset – relaxed, anticipatory, open and curious.

In the supervision session

There are several ground rules that will ensure you get the most out of the session:

• Whatever happens is a learning opportunity – for example, if you feel defensive, your instinctive reactions should include asking yourself why
• Ask yourself from time to time “How can I help the supervisor help me?”
• In group supervision, aim to respect all your colleagues and to value both their strengths and their weaknesses
• Take time out of the conversations, when you need it, to reflect on comments or perspectives that strike a chord for you; extend the same courtesy to others, when they need similar personal space-

After the supervision session

Once again, it’s important to spend time shortly afterwards, reflecting on what you have learned. Some useful questions are:

• What am I now going to do differently?
• What am I going to continue to think about?
• How am I extracting value from this supervision relationship?
• What could i do to extract more value?

FAQs

© David Clutterbuck, 2014

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

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