What Is Coaching Supervision?
You’ve gotten your CPCC, ACC, PCC or even MCC. You’ve met the hour requirements for your letters, you clearly know how to coach. However, if you want to succeed in this field and truly benefit your clients, it’s important for you to keep developing and upgrading your skills.
The further away we get from certification, the more chance we have to inadvertently develop bad habits. Over time, these habits become ingrained as regular behaviors and we don’t even realize what a toll they are taking on our work with clients.
Supervision is a one-on-one feedback session in which we review your coaching technique with an ear toward being supportive and unbiased.
“I want to be the best coach that I can possibly be.”
“Sometimes I take a client so far and then all of a sudden I’m stuck. I have no idea of what to say or do.”
“I know what the client needs to do but he just can’t seem to do it.”
“None of my clients ever stay longer than three months.”
“How do I keep my judgments from getting in the way of my coaching?”
“I’ve been coaching for almost 10 years and I’m a good coach. My problem is that I’m getting bored with my clients. It’s all becoming so damn predictable!”
I love to supervise coaches. I am quite rigorous and at the same time committed to having fun. I will be kind yet truthful in my feedback to you. I know that you will learn a lot from me, and I expect to learn a lot from you.
These are just a few of the comments that I routinely hear from coaches during our supervision sessions. Once your official coach training is completed and you’re on your own, where do you go to get ongoing feedback or supervision on your coaching? There are lots of courses on how to market yourself but precious few on how to hone your coaching skills. What if you had your own dedicated master coach/supervisor with whom you could discuss all of your coaching techniques in a fun, uplifting, and inspiring way? You could learn from your mistakes and celebrate your learning in a safe and nurturing environment.
I quickly help coaches to gain clarity and understanding of your own and your client’s process and situation. My playful style combined with my use of deep listening, intuition, energy reading, coaching and clinical expertise, and decades of experience help you to bring all of your gifts and skills to bear in your sessions with your clients.
Why Get Supervised?
The biggest value of coaching supervision is that it provides a safe haven for you to be real with yourself and about your work with clients. I am committed to co-creating a safe space in which you can make mistakes and grow from the learning that each mistake provides. It takes a great deal of courage to open yourself up to have someone else scrutinize your work. I’m always looking at your coaching with loving eyes and a loving heart.
I supervise people individually or in a small group. Most importantly, coaching supervision is a supportive relationship and conversation designed to reflect on your assumptions and how you understand what is happening with your client. It is an opportunity for you to ask questions, for us to think together, brainstorm ideas and questions, and deepen your understanding of your client and your role in relation to your client. My job is also to reveal issues that you may not have seen or thought about, to help you explore ethical issues that can arise during the coaching relationship, and to provide a mechanism for accountability. I’m also here to help you acknowledge and celebrate your coaching accomplishments and growth, and to support you when things get hard. Secondarily, because there are two of you involved in your coaching relationship, we’ll also look at your client’s assumptions and behaviors to determine how to best coach them in their given situation.
I have two lenses that I look through when supervising people. The first is that of relationship. Coaching is first and foremost a relationship. A powerful coaching relationship requires you to create a deep mutual connection with your client. You must be curious, able to accept all of who your client is, and be able to see the possibility of who they can become. You also must be able to believe in your own coaching ability, be vulnerable, and have the courage to fully show up in the service of your client.
The second lens that I look through is story. The way the human brain processes every interaction that occurs in a lifetime is to create a story. That story is a powerful determinant of the quality of all of our experiences. In the supervision session, I will be a loving editor who is committed to bringing the most powerful helpful story to bear for both you and your client.
Individual and Group Supervision Sessions
30 Minute Session
Tell me about your client, what’s working and what isn’t. I’ll ask you questions that will allow you to see both the larger picture (systems level) and the granular (what’s going on inside your client). While I make a number of suggestions, it is your answers to my questions that will provide you with the most value. Just as your client will get the most benefit out of doing their own work, you will get an equal benefit out of finding your most powerful answers.
60 Minute Session
Share a recording with me. I will listen to a 20 minute segment before we meet. We’ll discuss the issues in depth and answer your questions. I will offer some suggestions, but it will be my questions that provide you with incredible value. The way I work with you will also model how you can work with your client.
CTI?
I am currently a supervisor in the Co-Active Training Institute’s (CTI) Certification Program as well as a Supervisor/Mentor Master Coach in my private practice. To all CTI students, please make sure that you schedule sessions with me in the CTI section on my Acuity calendar at the upper part of the page. All private clients, please use the top part of the Acuity scheduling page.