101 Coaching Supervision Techniques, Approaches, Enquiries and Experiments
- 362 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
101 Coaching Supervision Techniques, Approaches, Enquiries and Experiments
About This Book
This book locates 101 practical coaching supervision techniques in their theoretical context. It is organised into ten chapters, each reflecting a different philosophical basis for the coaching supervision work: Existential, Gestalt, Person Centred, Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic, Solution Focused, Systemic, Thinking Environment, Transpersonal and finally an Eclectic chapter.
With contributions and insights from leaders in the field, this book outlines the different philosophies and their principles and explains their application in practice. The book will help readers determine which technique to use and when, as well as offering a step-by-step guide to implementing or adapting it for their own work. With a breadth of techniques, the book will help all supervisors broaden their repertoire and ultimately become a better practitioner.
Accessible and practical, this book is a valuable resource for experienced and novice supervisors as well as their supervisees. It will inspire them to keep their supervision and coaching practices both current and fresh, offering a diverse range of techniques to experiment with.
Frequently asked questions
Chapter 1
An eclectic perspective on coaching supervision
How is this philosophy described?
What are the underpinning principles and beliefs of this philosophy?
- Valuing a multiplicity of approaches. In supervision we often spend time deconstructing a coaching session. How do we establish what happened, how and why? What forces were at play that influenced behaviours, thought patterns and outcomes? How did the coachâs own fears, insecurities and assumptions affect the coaching conversation? Lancer et al.âs (2016) framework of the seven coaching conversations (the spoken conversation and six silent conversations before, during and after the coaching session); or Hawkins and Smith (2006) seven eyes model can both be a useful starting point for deconstruction. Used on their own, however, these and other models present only one way of looking at a coaching session. An eclectic perspective asks: âWhat other model could we apply here, which might give a different story about the events we are discussing?â In coaching generally, we are constantly reminded of the dangers of taking a single perspective. If a client complains their boss is unreasonable, we would expect to explore the issue from the bossâ perspective as well. The same principle holds true for supervision. If we apply one model only, we risk creating a one-dimensional picture of a multi-dimensional situation.
- The paradox of knowledge. Intense curiosity, learning by experiment and the humility to be comfortable with the extent of our unknowing â these are a universe away from the stock picture of the supervisor as a coach with a greater store of knowledge. One way to compare a ânormalâ supervisor with an eclectic supervisor is that the former may expect to be valued by the supervisee for their expertise; the latter has at least as much expertise, but remembers that an expert is someone whose great knowledge gets in the way of their learning. In short, an eclectic supervisor has so much knowledge that they are able to see the limitations of its value.
What is the role of the coach supervisor in the context of this philosophy?
- Normative function. Managing boundaries and other aspects of client safety lie at the core of the normative function, but these tend to be preventative or remedial interventions. To support coaches in becoming more mature, the supervisor has a role in raising the coachâs ethical awareness and ethical resilience. Boundary and safety issues are relatively easy to pin down â not least because of the professional bodiesâ codes of conduct. But ethicality goes to the core of what it means to be human. Itâs also highly dependent on shifting context â which requires an eclectic knowledge and variable frameworks.
- Formative function. Systemic eclectic coaches draw on a wide range of concepts and philosophies but having a lot of models doesnât in itself make someone a better coach or supervisor. It is how you integrate and apply them that counts. An eclectic approach starts from the assumption that nothing I know is more than a partial truth. One team coach with a provocative style contracts with a team that he will share partially formed observations and hypotheses, with the expectation that every now and then he would have to apologise and say: âI was wrong â but what have we learned as a consequence?â
- Restorative function. An eclectic supervisor brings compassion, not just for the coach, but for the entire system and the players within it. Anecdotally, in a recent discussion about sociopaths in the workplace we considered the question âWhat must it be like, to be a someone with this personality disorder?â From an eclectic standpoint, even where someone has a malign influence on a system, understanding the systems that drive them may lead to more fluid and imaginative ways of working with them.
How would you prepare yourself to work congruently with this approach?
- Lean wisdom â context (task) specific.
- Broad wisdom â reflection on life experience (personal and vicarious).
- Meta-wisdom â brings together multiple, shifting perspectives.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of tables and figures
- About the editor
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1. An eclectic perspective on coaching supervision
- 2 An existential approach to coaching supervision
- 3 A gestalt approach to coaching supervision
- 4 A person-centred approach to coaching supervision
- 5 A positive psychology approach to coaching supervision
- 6 A psychodynamic perspective: A developmental Transactional Analysis approach to coaching supervision
- 7 A Solution-Focused approach to coaching supervision
- 8 A systemic approach to supervision
- 9 A Thinking Environment approach to coaching supervision
- 10. A transpersonal approach to coaching supervision
- Index