Exploring the Context: Delving into Eye 7 in Super-Vision. This session is about exploring the context in Coaching Supervision, presented by Jonathan Sibley and Lynn Harrison at the Americas Coaching Supervision Network meeting.
Exploring the Context: Delving into Eye 7 in Super-Vision. This session is about exploring the context in Coaching Supervision, presented by Jonathan Sibley and Lynn Harrison at the Americas Coaching Supervision Network meeting.
In this session, Dr. Terry Hidebrandt presents on how to develop strategies to market coaching supervision services in the Americas. This Webinar on October 12, was the monthly session for the Americas Coaching Supervision Network.
This webinar wants to offer a forum for dialogue on ethics in coaching supervision. A key theme here is ethical dilemmas, your own role in them and your experiences with them.
But if you don’t mind, I will start by sharing some of my ideas and thoughts about ethics with you, briefly.
Our webinar is a dialogue (thinking together in a relationship) where we share ideas and experiences around ethics and dilemmas. In the zoom room, those present will be divided into smaller break-out groups. I will put out a question, the small groups of three will look into that question (or questions) for ca. 10 – 15 minutes each feeding back to the main group after being retrieved and brought back.
Short Bio
Kees de Vries is a CSA accredited coach supervisor and a PCC certified coach. He is also a Registered Psychologist NIP/W&O (Dutch Institute of Psychologists/Work & Organization Psychology). For 8 years he was active in ethics for ICF Global in the Independent Review Board, 3 years as chair. His most recent work and summary of his views on ethics can be found in “Coaching Supervision: Advancing Practice, Changing Landscapes “ chapter 9: Moving from Frozen Code to live vibrant relationship: Towards a philosophy of ethical coaching supervision” (Edited by Jo Birch and Peter Welch, 2019: Routledge: London)
In this session, Larissa Thurlow facilitates a discussion on how Trauma can be explored in the work of the Coach Supervisor, including when to refer and how to manage boundaries.
Three days before I embarked on a five-day, 50-hour training in coaching supervision, a friend and fellow coach questioned my plans, stating that to him, the value proposition seemed dubious. Having paid in advance, I attended the training anyway, and discovered that coaching supervision is so valuable that every coach who is serious about their work will seek it.
Clinicians use supervision—why not coaches?
Few licensed mental health professionals would utter aloud, “I’m past the need for supervision.” Although not required to receive supervision once licensed, clinicians are drilled throughout their training and early careers that they can never stop learning, honing their craft, or expanding their awareness. Therefore, their professional culture builds the expectation of continued supervision—not counseling, but bona fide, professional supervision—regardless of cost or experience. What makes coaches different? Is our work not complex, interpersonally challenging, and demanding of self-awareness? If the coaching profession wants to be viewed as more valid and credible, then we need to follow the example of the mental health profession and assimilate career-long supervision into our professional culture.
Embracing the value of supervision
Now that you know you have time for coaching supervision, that it represents a wise investment, and that no one is too advanced to benefit from it, let’s consider some of its unique advantages.
First, CS leads to improved quality of service and professional satisfaction. Although empirical research on the efficacy of CS is scarce at this early stage, its effectiveness is self-evident. Without exception, every coach has blind spots. We need another set of eyes to help us see those blind spots, much like our clients rely on our coaching interventions to increase awareness and performance, only more so. As coaches, we have to take into account everything in our client’s world, as well as consider the impact of our coaching interventions, our relationship with that client, and the beliefs, values, and personality we bring to the interaction. Supervision helps coaches keep all of these systems in sight, work with greater awareness, increase confidence, and achieve better results. Supervisors also provide essential (and comforting) backup for ensuring a coach’s ethical practice. Don’t take my word for it. You will have to experience coaching supervision first-hand to fully appreciate how empowering and satisfying it is.
Besides the personal satisfaction and quality improvement benefits, supervision is starting to become a consumer-driven demand. Yes, you read that correctly: clients and corporate sponsors are starting to give preference to supervised coaches when they choose their providers or award contracts. North American clients and corporations are just catching on to the value of supervision. However, if you coach or plan to coach in Europe, clients will likely presume you will be supervised, as CS has been common there for some time, and their professional associations (especially EMCC, the second-largest worldwide) actually require their credentialed coaches to receive supervision. As more coaches and consumers recognize its value, it will only be a matter of time before coaching supervision becomes a global best practices standard.
Finally, receiving CS counts toward ICF Continuing Coach Education (CCE) requirements, in Core Competencies, hour for hour. Therefore, a monthly, one-hour supervision meeting over three years satisfies 10 of the 40 CCU’s required to renew an ICF credential.
If you are feeling more convinced that every coach needs supervision, that you will value the service, and that supervision will inevitably become part of the coaching professional culture and standard of practice, then you probably see a wide-open opportunity, especially in North America. If you are looking for a way to gain a competitive advantage in a sea of ambitious coaches, retaining coaching supervision is there for the taking.
In this session, Lori Hillis explored the importance of reflecting on shame in the work of the supervisor.
In this session, Peter Hawkins presents on Systemic Team Coaching Supervision for the Americas Supervision Network on May 13, 2019.
In this session on Reflection and Group Supervision with Fiona Adamson on April 8, 2019, a coach brought a case and group participants share their reactions. A metaphor is explored and the group supervisor modeled reflective practice.
In this session, Dr. Michel Moral presents on challenges of coach supervisors working internally in organizations.