Worldwide coach training for professionals seeking skills in working powerfully and positively with behavioural change

 Home Page       Programmes          Opportunities           Being a Coach        Resources        Professional Supervision           Qualifications  

Professional Supervision

The NZ School of Coaching is passionate about building and supporting coaching as a profession.  To do so, we recognise the importance of “Professional Supervision” as a key to achieving respect and status in the market place as well as ensuring we are operating an at optimum level.

As with any of the aligned professions of Psychology, Counselling and Therapy, Professional Supervision is an important part of accepting the responsibility of work which impacts on the lives of our clients.   

As a relatively new industry, the Coaching Profession is unregulated and therefore open to any person who seeks to call themselves a Coach.  However, the market is learning that it must have sound answers to the following questions before they will engage the services of a Coach, as is their right.

1. What Coach specific training have you undertaken?
2. What qualifications/certification do you have in Coaching?
3. What professional Coaching associations do you belong to?
4. What code of ethics do you subscribe to?
5. What professional supervision do you undertake?

The NZ School of Coaching aligns itself with the International Coach Federation in the application of core competencies and the code of conduct and ethics.  With respect to Professional Supervision, the ICF is silent and therefore we have adopted, for the time being, the definitions of Professional Supervision being proposed by the Association for Coaching (Scotland). 

The NZ School of Coaching is prepared to not only talk about the importance of professional supervision, but seeks to put in place a framework for Coaches seeking supervision by acting as a link between coaches and supervisors in the provision and co-ordination of professional supervision services.  A further document will address this process. 

FAQ's

What is Supervision?

What model of Supervision do you use?

Why is Supervision desirable for the practising coach?

How do I choose a Supervisor?

What Forms of Supervision are there?

How do I find a Supervisor?

What is Professional Supervision?

Professional Supervision is a formal arrangement for coaches to discuss their work regularly with someone who is experienced in coaching and supervision. The task is to work together to ensure and develop the efficacy of the client work. The agenda for supervision is the coaching work together with the supervisor's reactions and comments. Thus supervision is a process to maintain adequate standards of coaching provision.  It is also a supportive process.  Supervision has sometimes been called “Super Vision” as a way of demonstrating that it is not restrictive or prescriptive but rather a process for increasing creativity.

Professional Supervision is all about reflection on your professional practice.  Supervision is not Coaching or  Mentoring.  These require quite a different set of skills and a different intent for the engagement.  Many of the core skills however are common to Coaching, Mentoring and Professional Supervision

Through the supervision process, the primary concern of the supervisor is to ensure that the coach is addressing the needs of the client as well as monitoring the relationship between the coach and client to maximise the effectiveness of the relationship.  In addition, Supervision is also a way of ensuring that ethical standards are adhered to throughout the coaching process. As a secondary position although Supervision is not concerned primarily with training or line management, it is legitimate for supervisors to encourage and facilitate the ongoing self‑development, continued professional development and learning and self-­monitoring of the coach.

What model of Supervision do you use?

The NZ School of Coaching adopts a model of Supervision called "Reflective Learning". It combines a contractual process with the cycles of adult learning.  It encompasses the importance of balancing the personal with the professional to produce the unity of the "professional self" (Horney)  This process in supervision is seen to form the basis of reflective practice.  It is based on the work of Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1984).  The NZ School of Coaching believes this model fits well with models of Coaching.   Training in this model is available through the NZ School of Supervision. Please address enquiries to the Programme Director, Margaret Wyn (margaret@nzschoolofcoaching.com)

Why is Supervision desirable for the Practising Coach? 

By its very nature, coaching makes considerable demands upon coaches who may become over-involved, ignore some important point or have undermining doubts about their own abilities.  It is difficult, if not sometimes impossible, to be objective about one's coaching and the opportunity to discuss the coaching work in confidence with a suitable person is invaluable. Good coaching also requires the coach to relate practice to theory and theory to practice. Supervision can help the coach to evolve practice and in this sense is one aspect of continued training. 

Further, working with people means accepting responsibility for something called "duty of care" - as a Coach of ethics and a professional outlook, you will see it as not only desirable, but essential to ensure a "duty of care".  Professional Supervision can provide this for you.

The Benefits of Supervision can therefore be summed up as follows:

Protection 

Protection of the client

Protection for the organisation purchasing services

Protection for the coach

Development  Opportunity

To monitor client work and develop existing/new skills in a supportive environment

Opportunity for coach’s professional and personal development

Ethical Standards 

To ensure coaching applied ethically and effectively

How do I choose a Supervisor

In choosing a supervisor, coaches need to assess their position on a scale from newly qualified to very experienced taking into account their own training, philosophy and methods. The setting for coaching may be an important factor. Agencies and institutions may have their own criteria for supervision and provide supervisors from within the organisation. In many instances outside supervision may be more appropriate as outlined later in this Information Sheet.

The less experience the coach has, the more experience the supervisor needs. Supervisors should be sufficiently experienced and qualified in coaching or in a closely related field for others to have confidence in their professional skills. The precise nature of their profession is less important than their skill in coaching and the rapport with the coach concerned. Ideally the supervisor should have some training and experience in supervision. The main focus of the coach's work should be taken into consideration. 

The coach should comprehend fully the training, methods and orientation of the proposed Supervisor. Though at times a coach may prefer to get different insights and perceptions this can be confusing in supervision. As coaches work from different philosophical backgrounds, it is important at an initial interview for the coach to ascertain whether the potential supervisor is someone with whom it will be possible to work with and learn from.  Since it is the responsibility of coaches to ascertain the qualifications and experience of the potential supervisor, they should enquire about this before making a formal contract.

Choosing a line manager as supervisor can lead to difficulties, since a conflict of interests may arise between the needs of the organisation (the priority of the line manager) and the needs of the coach. Many organisations will offer in-house supervision (sometimes called managerial supervision) as well as requiring coaches to engage in external supervision.  If line management supervision is mandatory then ideally there should be access to other consultative support. Finally, it is essential to bear in mind that ultimately the supervisor must place responsibility for the client over and above responsibility to the coach.

Finding a Supervisor can be a challenge, so the NZ School of Coaching has set up a register for people who want to be Supervised and those who want to be Supervisors.  See below.

The Supervision contract

It is recommended that a contract with a supervisor of the coach's choice is for a fixed period, subject to review. It may cover such practical arrangements as fees, privacy of venue, length of contact time and frequency of contact. 

As a general principle, supervisors should maintain confidentiality with regard to information about the coach and clients. When the initial contract is made, however, there must be agreement about the boundaries of confidentiality with regard to the people to whom   the supervisor is accountable. The lines of accountability and responsibility between coach, client, supervisor and organisation need to be very clearly defined. 

Both the coach and the supervisor are also responsible for ensuring that they both adhere to whichever Code of Ethics and Practice is issued by the professional body the coach belongs to. 

Forms of Supervision

One to One - Supervisor‑Coach: A single supervisor provides supervision for one other coach. Inexperienced coaches need to choose a supervisor who has been a practising coach for a number of years.

 One to One - Peer Supervision: Two participants provide supervision for each other by alternating the roles of supervisor and coach. Normally the time available for Supervision is divided equally between them.

Group Supervision with Identified Supervisors: There are many ways of providing group supervision. At one end of the spectrum the supervisor, acting as leader, will take responsibility for apportioning the time between the coaches concentrating on the work of individuals in turn. At the other end of the range, the coaches allocate supervision time between themselves using the supervisor as a technical resource.

Peer Group Supervision: Three or more coaches share the responsibility for providing each other's supervision within the group context. Normally they will consider themselves to be broadly of equal status, training or experience. Experienced coaches may at times find peer group supervision sufficient. It is not, however, recommended for trainees or newly qualified coaches. Peers may be reluctant to confront each other and may lack the wider experienced perspective considered an essential ingredient of Supervision. Where a peer group does exist, it is essential it there is a clear understanding of where the final responsibility for the clients' welfare rests.

Telephone Supervision: It is not uncommon for a coach to engage in telephone supervision either as the main form of supervision or as an adjunct to a more traditional face-to-face model.  Some supervisors also offer group tele supervision sessions.

Email/Postal Supervision: For those who due to location may live in isolated areas Email Supervision with the provision of taped work could prove a useful way of working.  However, it would be best if this method was combined with the Telephone Supervision option mentioned above as it is unlikely that the email/postal option would be sufficient on its own.

Some coaches use a combination of these models.

Finding a suitable supervisor

It is recognised that supervisors may be difficult to find.  With this issue in mind, the NZ School of Coaching has offered to run a Register of Supervisors and to act as a link between Supervisors and Coaches.   Both Supervisors and Coaches can register on our website and we will facilitate a match.

Top of Page