The Heart of Coaching Supervision

Working with Reflection and Self-Care

Eve Turner, Stephen Palmer, Eve Turner, Stephen Palmer

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351746687
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Psicologia
• Categoria: Psicologia in industrie e organizzazioni

The Heart of Coaching Supervision takes us on a journey that starts with understanding who we are, and why we do what we do the way we do it, so that we can help those we work with understand themselves and their practice. The journeyincludes our background andpersonal and professionalinfluencesand considersthe need for self-resourcingto resource others. It examines our being alongside our doing, to ensure that we can provide the best possible service to all those we work with.

The book's highly experienced contributors provide a unique perspective on supervision's benefits. The chapters cover themes that support self-discovery and resourcing including the three Ps of supervision and coaching, diversity and inclusion, resourcing, working with intense emotions and the self as instrument. Nancy Kline's Thinking Environment © is explored in a supervision context alongside creative forms of reflective and expressive writing and resourcing through a peer supervision chain. The Heart of Coaching Supervision also includesten engaging, international case studies, considering the role of supervision in depth.

A key contribution to the field, the book is essential reading for all coaches and mentors, coaching supervisors and psychologists, managers in a coaching role and anyone in a helping profession or leadership position wanting to better understand the wide benefits of supervision.

1

Introduction to The Heart of Coaching Supervision¹

Eve Turner and Stephen Palmer

Introduction

The stance of this book is that supervision can be a positive benefit and an activity that is re-sourcing and profoundly beneficial for coaches, mentors and more widely for anyone in a helping profession or leadership position. Its impact extends beyond those receiving it to others in the wider system(s) – all our clients, both individual and organisational, for others within organisational systems such as our peers and direct reports, for other systems such as our families and friends, for our sectors, our profession and for the world at large. This wide-ranging claim is not, as yet, backed up by substantial research, although this is slowly changing (Hawkins and Turner, 2017; de Haan, 2017; Palmer, 2017; Sheppard, 2017).

In writing this book we are starting with the need for self-awareness for ourselves as supervising practitioners, the need to provide ourselves with space and opportunities for reflection and learning. In Chapter 8 (p161) Kline says she learned from her first employer, a Quaker head teacher, Thornton Brown, that “students are learning you” (Kline, 1999: 68–69). We are the role models, and if we are dealing with one of our own “hot buttons”, for example, how do we manage this and retain our ability to be the compassionate observer, to hold what Hawkins describes as wide-angled empathy and compassion (Chapter 4, p74)? This is combined with an understanding of the complexity that supervisors, coaches, mentors and leaders face, day to day, the challenges that brings, the intense emotions that may be surfaced (see case study). The authors wish we had been given a pound, Euro or dollar (we are not fussy!) for every time someone has mentioned a lack of time as a factor for not being able to do something; that also applies to reflection and self-care. In this book, alongside a depth and breadth of reflective practice, there are also practical ways to support ourselves that need only take one minute, many of which we can do alone. There are also approaches we can choose to do alone and with others, and also those that will encourage us to work with others collaboratively in partnership (Chapters 8 and 9).

This book sets out to explore who we are as supervisors, but the exploration and the exercises associated with it, are equally suitable for coaches, mentors, leaders; in fact, anyone could benefit from the content. The emphasis is on growing our self-awareness, developing our understanding of how we are in relation to ourselves and others, and then building our relationships with others and wider systems. When we do this, as entertainer and mental health advocate Ruby Wax (2016: 232) concludes having studied and practised mindfulness: “I still have the same hot emotional triggers – I don’t think they ever go – but they’re fainter; I can watch them coming down the pipeline and remember that they’re just triggers, not facts.”

What is supervision?

There are many definitions of supervision. What they have in common suggests that supervision:

1. Provides fresh perspectives.

2. Attends to the quality of what we do and ensures safe practice.

3. Attends to how we develop ourselves personally and professionally.

4. Requires us to grow high levels of self-awareness and to work on ourselves, as we are “the tool”.

5. Has many stakeholders and is about interconnecting relationships, involving systemic work; it is not only about what is created between the coach and supervisor.

6. Is a place to re-source the coach, mentor, leader and supervisor.

In point 1. (providing fresh perspectives), we are not limiting this to the idea of review (of sessions, recordings, conversations, agreements etc.). Hawkins (2017) argues that supervision can be dominated by the car rear-view window, looking back at what has happened, and he asks: “How do we rebalance reflection with preflection, building our capacity for the challenges of the future world?” We cannot predict the future, and indeed trying to do so could be both time-consuming and frustrating. It is also widely accepted that the strength of the supervision room and of coaching is in our ability to be present in the moment, in the here and now. But without being alert to the future we may miss opportunities and challenges and the chance to grow our ability to deal with them.

Some quotes from writers in the field describing supervision illustrate the six common themes. Hawkins and Schwenk (2006: 4) talk of

[a] structured formal process for coaches, with the help of a coaching supervisor, to attend to improving the quality of their coaching, grow their coaching capacity and support themselves and their practice. Supervision should also be a source of organisational learning.

Hay (2007: 4–5) says:

I think of it as two words – super and vision – as in super-vision. To me, it is the process of helping you to step back, metaphorically, from your work so that you can take a meta-perspective, or broader view, of your practice.

Carroll and Shaw (2013: 255) see

One of the key tasks of supervision is in helping individuals and groups look at their work from new and different perspectives. It is a process that involves looking at what we do and how with super-vision, new eyes, new perceptions, new visions we can see things differently.

They talk of looking beyond our comfort zones, taking many stances “beyond, beside, beneath, above, below, against for” and ask: “what would happen if I looked at myself, my client, our relationship, the organisation in another way?” (Carroll and Shaw, 2013: 255).

Murdoch believes (2013: xxvii) that

who you are is how you coach . . . and supervise. My experience is that operating alongside all of our professional trainings, our thinking, tools and models, is the personhood of the practitioner – our humanity matters, as does our maturity, our open-heartedness and our generosity of spirit.

Over the years, as supervision has developed across the helping professions, from social work (Kadushin) to counselling (Proctor) and then coaching (Hawkins and Smith) three main functions have been identified but described variously, illustrated in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 The three functions of supervision

(adapted from Hawkins and Smith, 2013: 173)

At the start of Chapter 4 Hawkins describes his reason for describing the third leg as resourcing rather than restorative or supportive. He argues that each of us needs to find ongoing ways of being and staying “topped up”, of being re-sourced constantly. This will ensure we do not get depleted and rely, in the worst extreme, on supervisor input to be “whole” again, to be restored.

As one factor in achieving this, Hawkins (2017) tells a story of a colleague, a Sufi teacher who encourages us to “focus on life as a generous teacher, developing capacity around us, through us and within us”. In this, Hawkins advocates a move from dialogue to generative trialogue where “life” in all its forms, including the more than human world, provides us with learning that we bring to supervision, to coaching and beyond. Within the book there are many places where we can take stock and allow this to happen.

What does research tell us?

Corrie with Lane and Watts (2016: 7) sum up the current situation when it comes to evidencing the impact of supervision: “enthusiasm for supervision currently outstrips the evidence base, including the evidence that attests to its impact on practice.” Corrie and associates also talk of the relatively little attention that has been paid to the development of supervisors, as opposed to supervisees. In a review of coaching supervision Tkach and DiGirolamo (2017: 56) note that there are currently “no universally accepted guidelines or best practices”. They advocate the “development and agreement amongst researchers of standardised measures” to move the industry forward in its understanding of what takes place in coaching supervision (2017: 59).

We do know that the growth in coaching supervision has been relatively rapid since 2006, at least among those coaches who are able to be reached, for example through membership of professional bodies and forums. In 2006 “only 44% of UK coaches received continuous and regular supervision” (Hawkins and Schwenk, 2006: 4). This compared to 88% of organisers of coaching and 86% of coaches believing they should have it. By 2014, in a survey carried out by Hawkins and Turner, with 428 coaches completing the supervision section responding via professional bodies (in particular the AC, EMCC and ICF) and with Coaching at Work magazine, there had been a “massive increase in coaches having coaching supervision, a rise from 44% to 93.3% in the UK, and 83.2% globally. North America is significantly lagging behind other regions; however, it is roughly where the UK was in 2006” (Hawkins and Turner, 2017: 106).

The motivation for supervision was described positively. For the vast majority, 92.6%, their motivation was as “part of my commitment to good practice” (2017: 107). For 51.6% it was considered as part of their CPD. When it came to having supervision “as a requirement”, the figures were relatively low: 33.9% for membership of a professional body, 25.6% for accreditation by a professional body, 19.2% to work in an organisation as an external coach and the lowest, 14.7%, to work as an internal coach. Where coaches didn’t receive supervision, fewer cited difficulties in finding a supervisor, the main reason in 2006. Instead it was because coaches chose to access peer networks or use their own reflective practice or their own coach (2017: 107).

The variety in practice is clear from the research that does exist. In Grant’s 2012 study of Australian coaches “50% of those who provided formal supervision had received some training in supervision” and a “major issue raised by many participants was the difficulty of finding training in coach supervision and being assured of the quality of any such training” (Grant, 2012: 28). While 82.7% of coaches were having some form of supervision, 30% reported having had a negative experience (2012: 17). Research published soon after, with 33 executive coaches from Australia/New Zealand, and 29 purchasing clients, found that

though coaches cited supervision as the intervention they would be most likely to deploy if they felt the need for emotional support, few coaches said they often felt the need for such support. The predominant function of coaching supervision for coaches was developmental. For purchasing clients, on the other hand, the primary purpose of supervision was quality control, though only 21% of purchasing clients insist on supervision as part of a quality assurance process.

(Lawrence and Whyte, 2014: 39)

While the majority said they would use supervision if stuck,

About 36% mentioned supervision as a component of their ongoing learning plan, 27% said they used supervision to ensure they were practising ethically and just 6% mentioned supervision as part of their strategy for ensuring they successfully navigated the needs of both client and coachee.

(Lawrence and Whyte, 2014: 43)

The French organisation, the Professional Supervisors Federation (2014), had 269 respondents to a survey looking at the state of supervision in France of which 148 were coaches and 89 described themselves as supervisors. The supervisors were highly experienced, and the vast majority, 94%, themselves had supervision. However, 80% had not been trained as supervisors, and only 36% of those not trained, planned to do so (2014: 22–25). When it came to the dangers of supervision the main fears expressed were of dependence and amateurism for both supervisors and coaches and the benefits were mainly seen as sharing methods and standing back (2014: 35). Interestingly, 40% of respondents did not know if their supervisors were supervised themselves. This mirrors a finding with coachees where almost half, 48.3%, did not know if their coaches were supervised (Turner and Hawkins, 2016: 34).

DeFilippo (2015: 12) did a qualitative project with “nine supervisory dyads which includes coaches and coach supervisors” and found results that included “increased confidence and objectivity for coaches, as well as satisfaction and learning for coach supervisors”. In a unique study, to date, Moral (2015: 126) examines whether there is a “specific personality profile of supervisors, or of coaches who want to become supervisors”. In looking at whether they have a s...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover Page
• Praise
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Notes on the Editors and Contributors
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to The Heart of Coaching Supervision, Eve Turner and Stephen Palmer
• 2 The 3 Ps of Supervision and Coaching: Philosophy, Purpose and Process, Peter Jackson and Tatiana Bachkirova
• 3 Diversity and Inclusion in Supervision, Judy Ryde, Lily Seto and Damian Goldvarg
• 4 Resourcing: The Neglected Third Leg of Supervision, Peter Hawkins
• 5 Working with Intense Emotions, Keri Phillips
• 6 Self as Instrument, Eunice Aquilina
• 7 Creative Forms of Reflective and Expressive Writing in Coaching Supervision, Jackee Holder
• 8 Supervision in the Thinking Environment, Jane Adshead-Grant, Anne Hathaway, Linda Aspey and Eve Turner
• 9 Resourcing through a Peer Supervision Chain, Lesley Matile, Sarah Gilbert and Eve Turner
• 10 Case Studies, Christina Baird and Sam Farmer; Laurie Hillis and Leona Devinne; Sarah Jaggers and Stephen Palmer; Michel Moral; Edna Murdoch; Alanna O’Brien and Siobhain O’Riordan; Karen Pratt and Alex van Oostveen; Ram Ramanathan; Eve Turner and James Marshall; Qing Wang
• 11 Personal and Professional Development, Eve Turner and Stephen Palmer
• Afterword
• Appendix A: Associations, Codes of Ethics and Training Organisations
• Appendix B: One Example of a Draft Supervision Agreement – Bespoke to Each Supervisee
• Index