Revitalise your work

..and think afresh about your own practice.

The coaching industry is growing fast and is making an important contribution in the workplace and in people's individual lives. As coaching proliferates, so the need for effective and qualified support and supervision of coaches becomes increasingly important. Coaches agree that supervision is important for themselves and for those who organise or buy in coaches into an organisation.

So as a coach, or as a manager, what are you looking for in a supervisor?

Someone who provides a check on how you are working at present
A way of reviewing what you are doing in your coaching practice and helping you consider structures as well as the interpersonal relationships between coach and client
Someone who can identify ethical issues you may not have noticed or encountered before
Someone with more experience of coaching with whom you can share ideas and gain new insights
A supervisor who can enlarge your scope and perspective and so enable that transformational moment which leads you to a new understanding and a fresh way forward in your work with one specific client, or in your overall approach
Someone who can in a positive and supportive way, help you to steer your own course of personal and professional development
A person who recognises and affirms good practice
Someone who will challenge you to change beliefs or practices which do not deliver what is wanted for you or the client

Background

As a Powerchange Personal and Professional Development coach of almost ten years and qualified teacher, I am Accreditation Executive in Powerchange. I am responsible for the assessment, benchmarking and continuous professional development of Powerchange coaches.

Trained in Coach Supervision and Mentoring at Oxford Brookes University, I offer supervision to coaches and organisations, which meets the highest professional and personal requirements.

Style

In a relaxed, humorous and flexible atmosphere, we look at the many aspects of your coaching practice and discover together how to develop deeper understanding of the client in their organisational context, explore the coaching relationships and ways of improving the effectiveness of the coaching and interventions you use and contribute to the continuing professional development of you the coach.

Theoretical perspective

Supervision is more than coaching the coach, where the focus is on the coach rather than the coaching

It is more than fixing problems and resolving difficulties.

More than understanding the psychology of the coaching client and how to work with it.

The primary role of supervisors is helping the coaches to see more than they can currently see in their work. (Bachkirova 2010)

For Example

enhancing the coach's ability to take multiple perspectives on client issues and the coaching process
identifying ethical issues that may not have been attended to by the coach
helping the coach to see other side of what they consider to be their mistakes or failures

Professional Philosophy

Supervision is a working alliance between two professionals where coaches offer an account of their work, reflect on it, receive feedback and receive guidance if appropriate. The object of this alliance is to enable the coach to gain in ethical competence, confidence and creativity so as to give the best possible service to clients. (Carroll)

We see things not as they are, but as we are. (Talmud)

The developmental function is about developing the skills, understanding and capabilities of the coach. This is done through the reflection and exploration of the coach's work with their clients. In this exploration, the coach may be helped by the supervisor to:
understand the client better;
become more aware of their own reactions and responses to the client;
understand the dynamics of how the coach and the client interact;
look at how they intervened and the consequences of their interventions;
explore other ways of working with this and other similar client situations.
(Schwenk 2010)