Supervision For Coaches

Jenny is an experienced supervisor of other coaches. She is a member of the Association of Professional Executive Coaches and Supervisors, (APECS) generally regarded as the UK's elite group of experienced coaches and supervisors.

At any one time she has up to 25 coaches as supervisees, including many who are themselves highly experienced as well as others who are just starting on their journey after completing initial training. Supervision is both essential and useful for any coach who wants to be considered fully professional.

Supervision is a place where you can

• Ponder what is going on with your most challenging clients
• Get some perspective on your coaching career
• With another seasoned professional, reflect on your practice knowing that you will not be judged or condemned
• Find answers to questions such as, Why do I always get stuck with this kind of client?
• Celebrate your successes
• Benchmark your practice and continue your training
• Learn some alternative coaching techniques or extend your coaching range
• Discuss business development issues such as how to sell with integrity
• Review a difficult session that felt like a failure
• Renew your energy for coaching.

Canny corporate clients are also increasingly asking for evidence that any coach with whom they work does have a supervisor as they consider this to be a sign of a fully professional coach rather than an amateur who is just dabbling.

Jenny is critical of what she regards as the inflated claims made for supervision by some in the coaching sector - for instance that it somehow safeguards clients or guarantees quality. After all, the word supervision essentially describes two people in a room talking about the work one has done when the other was not present, unless there is a recording from which to work (a good idea, by the way). The coach could lie about what went on, the supervisor could be credulous. The coach may have missed some of the most glaring problems. The supervisor may not be a wonderful coach him or herself.

Jenny is dubious about suggestions that all coaches should have supervision with what she considers to be wildly impractical frequency. Someone has to pay for this and it will either bankrupt the coach or add to the client's bill! All that being said, supervision is both important and necessary as one way of keeping your practice as a coach crisp and professional. Being prepared to open up your thinking to other perspectives is vital and supervision is one excellent way to do this.

How often?

It's up to you. It needs to be often enough to make an impact, so probably four times a year is the minimum Some coaches like to book regular sessions every two months, or more frequently, depending on how much coaching they are actually doing

Some like to book on an ad-hoc basis. Supervision can be done just as well on the phone as face to face and this is often a convenient way for both client and supervisor to save time and travel costs and can be a useful way of dealing at short notice with what feels like an emergency

Brief phone calls or emails can be exchanged at any time at no extra cost.