Coaching Supervision
The relationship between coaching supervisor and coach is totally confidential and as important as that between coach and coachee. The coach or supervisee feels safe and secure to trust the supervisor and comfortable to discuss three areas of their work.
Coaching supervision has three main functions*:
- To develop the skills, understanding and coaching capacities of the supervisee and support them to become even better coaches. The developmental function.
- The supervisor looks to ensure supervisees’ emotions are unaffected by the emotions of their clients. The Resourcing Function.
- Making sure the supervisees’ work is of the required standard, and that ethical and boundary issues are being practised. The Qualitative Function.
*Lawrence, P. and Whyte, A. (2014). What is coaching supervision and is it important? Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.
Kay is currently undertaking a Coaching Supervision course at Oxford Brookes University qualifying at the end of 2022. Below are two testimonials from highly experienced coaches who kindly enabled Kay to practice in the role of student supervisee:
‘Kay is a joy to work with. Her relatable and personal style allowed us to jump quickly into deep rooted issues, where she helped me to see how much I had grown as a coach and how to integrate the learnings to address instances where I still find myself triggered into old patterns. I could see a real difference in terms of how I was approaching my clients due to her guidance. I would highly recommend Kay for supervisory coaching, she has an excellent knowledge of coaching modalities coupled with psychology, and is able to artfully marry the two to help her supervisory clients achieve greater insight into themselves and their coaching’.
‘I found our supervision sessions very nourishing. It reminded me that we spend so much time on our own with clients that to have a fellow professional to share thoughts with and hear their reflections is in itself so helpful. For this to workwell for me I was reminded also through our experience together how important it is I respect my supervisor and feel a commonality of viewpoint of coaching, within which to then hear challenge and different viewpoints. I felt I had this with Kay. Kay’s references to coaching intuition and using our self as coach was very reassuring to me to hear, and I felt this as validation and encouragement for the approach that feels important to me as a coach.
But also, to hear some challenge to my own assumptions that I needed to keep this very separated from my training work, and not let my training approach influence me during coaching. Kay, through her questions, drew attention to how much I felt my coaching had influenced my approach to training in a very positive and beneficial way. Kay challenged why it need not also be the other way around, and to acknowledge and let instinctively into my coaching work all the experience I have absorbed as a leadership trainer. This made such sense to me, and we reflected on why I may be holding myself back from this ‘embrace’.
What I also very much appreciated was the energy of our sessions. I am excited by my work, feel passionate about it. I felt there was room for this within our sessions, and I appreciated Kay’s own passion for her work. Again, I think that helped with my sense of connection with Kay as a colleague, and a colleague taking the role of supervisor with me.
I felt Kay helped me feel more validated as a coach, able to value and have trust in what I myself bring as a coach. I have noticed carrying that forward since our sessions into an enhanced sense of confidence in my work and coaching sessions. Thank you, Kay!
*Lawrence, P. and Whyte, A. (2014). What is coaching supervision and is it important? Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice.