What is Coaching Supervision? A Space for Coaches to Reflect, Learn & Grow | Jennifer Britton

Two women practicing coaching supervision.

Have you been hearing more about coaching supervision this year? Well, for team coaches, coaching supervision is a requirement for the new International Coaching Federation (ICF) Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC).

What is Coaching Supervision?

The ICF defines coaching supervision as1:

a collaborative learning practice to continually build the capacity of the coach through reflective dialogue for the benefit of both coaches and clients... Coaching Supervision creates a safe environment for the coach to share their successes and failures in becoming masterful in the way they work with their clients.

Distinct from mentor coaching, coaching supervision is an extremely valuable way to provide a space for pause, reflection and sound-boarding. And during this process, coaches explore their work. Specifically supervision would explore "cases of a coach's work," in other words real-time client issues—from multiple levels.

In her 2008 book Group Supervision, Brigid Proctor defined 3 different reasons for coaching supervision:

  1. Normative – Our ethics and professional orientation and capacity
  2. Formative – The development of the "competence to practice"
  3. Restorative – The well-being of the coach

Supervision is like coaching in that it is grounded in partnership, and the coach and supervisor co-design how they want to work together.

Types of Coaching Supervision

Just as in coaching, there are many variations on coaching supervision. And as a coaching supervisor myself, I am always intrigued by how people want to use our time together.

Sometimes it's a space for creative play (using visual cards, my Conversation Sparker Charms™ and drawing) to evoke new awareness around what's possible for my coach client.

And sometimes the coach uses the time to start "unlayering" the different levels of the conversation together. For example, using models like the Hawkins–Shohet Seven-Eyed Model 2 or even Hawkins' Ten-Eyed Model for Team Coaching Supervision.

What does Coaching Supervision Explore?

Coaching supervision can touch on many areas, including:

  • Helping a coach see what's possible and assess options
  • Helping a coach with contracting
  • Unlayering the complexities of team or group coaching
  • Creating objectivity around our work
  • And exploring blind spots and areas of coaching that it may be valuable to create boundaries around

FAQs on Coaching Supervision

Do you need training to be a coaching supervisor?

Coaching supervision is not coaching. And there are many decades of research and resources around supervision which shows up in many different settings. For example many of us may have had a supervisor as a grad student.

The ICF states that, "Coaching Supervision is sufficiently different from coaching, so training to provide the knowledge and opportunity to practice Coaching Supervision skills is needed. As such, all Coaching Supervisors should receive Coaching Supervision training." And this also applies to coaching supervisors for the ICF's Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC).

Even a seasoned mentor coach will learn and find value in training to be a coaching supervisor.

How do I know I can benefit from coaching supervision?

Coaches at all stages of their development, new and seasoned, will benefit from coaching supervision. There's always value in exploring our professional practice.

The ICF identified key benefits for coaches who receive Coaching Supervision including 3:

  • Increased self-awareness
  • Greater confidence
  • Increased objectivity
  • Heightened sense of belonging
  • Reduced feelings of isolation
  • Increased resourcefulness

When is coaching supervision required?

The ICF "recognizes Coaching Supervision as an important element of a coach’s professional development, learning and growth." But as yet, coaching supervision is not a requirement for credential renewal. 

However, those working toward the ICF's Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC) require 5 hours of coaching supervision. Helpfully, up to 10 hours of coaching supervision can also count towards your Core Competency hours.

Please note that the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) has separate guidelines for coaches in working with a supervisor on a regular basis.

Is coaching supervision just one-on-one?

Many coaching supervisors work individually with coaching supervisees.

And at Potentials Realized, we continue to see the power of the collective wisdom generated in small groups. For this reason, we offer Coaching Supervision Groups, which meet monthly, with intakes on a regular basis.

Wrap-up

I hope you found this article about coach supervision helpful. To learn more about coaching supervision with me, see the grey box below.

You may also like:

Want to learn more about Coaching Supervision with Jennifer?

Curious about what coaching supervision is all about? Set up a call with me to discuss what 1-1 supervision looks like, or join one of our Coaching Supervision Groups

Reference

  1. ICF Credentials & Standards for Coaching Supervision
  2. Learn more about Hawkins Seven-Eyed Model of Supervision
  3. International Coaching Psychology Review, (Volume 12, No. 1, March 2017)
Jennifer Britton

Contributing Author:

Jennifer Britton, MES, CHRP, CPT, PCC, is the author of seven books and has influenced a generation of coaches in the realms of team and group coaching. You may have read her writing, including Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010), the first book in the world to be published on the topic of group coaching; From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching; or her latest, Reconnecting Workspaces: Pathways to Thrive in the Virtual, Remote and Hybrid World (2021).

Since 2006, Jennifer's Group Coaching Essentials and Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum programs have become known as the must-do training in the area of group coaching. Focused on providing coaches with best practices in designing, marketing and implementing group coaching, these programs have helped thousands of coaches launch their own group and team coaching programs in a wide variety of settings (public, corporate, non-profit). Together both courses are approved for 18.75 ICF CCEUs. These are the first two of 10 course pathways leading to certificates in Group and Team Coaching.

Potentials Realized's ICF-CCE programs are geared for aspiring group and team coaches, especially those wanting to work toward the New Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC) with the ICF.

Also check out our neuroscience course for group and team coaches (NLE-A), Team Coaching Essentials  and ACTIVATE Your Team and Group Coaching Superpowers. Prefer podcasts? Listen in to the Remote Pathways podcast, which explores the many different pathways to remote work, business and leadership.

Learn more about Jennifer & see all their articles here >>

Image of 2 coaches doing Coaching Supervision via Kraken Images

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