Lifting the Lid on Coaching Supervision

The final episode - the one where we mark the ending and celebrate success Clare and Steve bring the podcast to a close, celebrating the journey, the friendship, the learning, the relationship - and with true parallel process, notice how these are all elements of the coach/client and coach/supervision relationship. The experience had been deeply reflective for both Clare and Steve and somewhat une...

In today’s episode, Steve and Clare reflect on the 5+ years that they have been recording together.  How time flies when you are learning together! We reminisce about the original hopes and intentions - around encouraging more coaches to invest in supervision.  We wonder at the supervision that we have offered each other, out loud with you listening in, via these conversations.  We also look into...

Prompted by a great question Clare was asked, we explore whether supervision, because it allows for advice giving, is in fact just lazy coaching?  We explore the challenges, the focus, the facilitation, the timeframes, the co-learning, the breadth and plethora of topics as we lift the lid a touch further on what supervision can be.

This podcast sometimes looks at what has presented itself at Clare and Steve's supervision 1-1s and groups. In this episode, they step into their own vulnerability to share the themes they are taking to their own supervision of their coaching and supervision. Those themes? Landscapes and love, confidence and complacency, the risks and the rewards.

Clare and Steve explore how shifting our perspective can change how we show up and how we coach.  Maybe it's through whose eyes we are seeing the problem, maybe it's where we're looking from, when we're looking, how our energy and state influence our perspective, or maybe something else?  Reviewing and reflecting on the dimensions of our perspective on a situation can be an invaluable reflection a...

What if your client comes alive with only 5 minutes of the session to go?  How does that impact you, the coach, and what flexibility should we have for our clients' needs?  Where does contracting come in and are we too focused on the transactional elements of that and on our needs?  Could we pay more attention to our client's emotional and psychological needs and be contracting more on endings and...

In this podcast, you will hear Clare and Steve discussing group supervision in particular, and how to recontract with the group for what you need.  This is not just about what you need from the supervisor, but what you need and want from the group.  In self-led supervision (as Louise Shepperd would call it, you have a  collective  responsibility as a group to define your boundaries, limits, prefer...

If you have considered supervision, but not yet taken the plunge, one core reason you might, is duty of care. When might the duty of care to your client, the client's wider system - eg their family or team, or duty of care for yourself, challenge your coaching?  Would you even spot it?  Is supervision itself an act of duty of care to self?  Coaching can be a lonely business, and supervision can su...

Coaching is more than just the session itself.  It’s also about the wrap-arounds that create the container – and as is often the case, Steve and Clare find a metaphor that’s useful to their own understanding, that of a boiled sweet (the coaching or supervision itself) with a wrapper that has twisted ends.  There are so many aspects to creating this wrapper – the contract being one, but also the wo...

In this episode, Clare and Steve talk about the impact of economic decisions (whether by our own UK government by the US presidency or elsewhere in the world).  This conversation was triggered by a communication from a coaching platform to its coaches, but it became much more wide-ranging, as we talked about ripple effects in all areas of our work.  We ask the question “Who tells coaches what we c...

Clare and Steve explore what we as coaches might be expected to know, or do, when starting work with a client who has a diagnosed mental health condition.  Even without clinical knowledge, is it possible to contract and move forward in a coaching relationship? How can supervision support you?  What if your client has said nothing, but you have a suspicion that there might be a mental health condit...

In this episode, Clare and Steve are joined by Ginny Baillie who has much to say about associate work whether that is via a coaching platform or through an associate coaching company.  We talk about the need for thinkers to have awareness, willingness and responsibility for the coaching to make an impact, and how current models of associate work may not be setting thinkers up for success against t...

In today’s episode, Steve and Clare ask the question ‘who is the customer’ when the organisation is paying for coaching.  The discussion meanders (as always) through the coach’s obligations in the three-way contract the data (source unknown) suggests that 91% of clients change what they want from coaching part-way through the coaching going with the flow the coach understanding the leadership deve...

"What if you, the coach, think the learner/client's idea is 'bonkers', do you stick to a coaching frame or not?" - this was a question a coach brought to supervision recently.  Clare and Steve explore this idea, confessing that we might all have guilty imps where we might deviate from the formal 'proper' coaching path. What strategies might you take when your inner imp says "You know this approach...

Clare and Steve discuss some common challenges for coaches, beginning with feeling inadequate or "not good enough," often stemming from a lack of external feedback after completing coach training. They note this "playing small" mindset typically evolves over time into a desire to "play bigger" and have more impact. And yet, even experienced coaches can doubt themselves. Also, if we play too big we...

Clare and Steve are joined in conversation by Angela Jopling.  Angela describes herself as a coach of 26 years, a Supervisor of 15 years, psychotherapy trained who operates in the fuzzy space.  We have all noticed how the space between coaching and therapy is blurring.  20 years ago Angela wrote a thesis on this fuzzy space whilst doing her master's degree in psychotherapy. Often coaches are cauti...

David Clutterbuck describes himself as a provocateur in our coaching and supervision space.  And that’s how he showed up in this podcast with Steve and Clare, with provocations about politics in organisations.  How does this relate to coaching?  Much more than we might ever imagine.  Every relationship is political in some shape or form, for the benefit or for the detriment of the parties. Think o...

Exploring our work through considering a quote is the topic of the day.  Clare and Steve discuss using quotes as a way to stimulate new thinking and to reflect more deeply on our work.  The conversation delves deep into what does it mean to  'make sense' or 'understand' and what is 'meaning making'?  The use of a quote opens up an inner exploration which travels far beyond simple conscious thinkin...

When the personal intrudes on the professional, we might consider bringing that to supervision.  Sometimes that personal stuff may seem really trivial, but if it’s getting in the way of us being the best coach for the people with whom we work, then we have a duty of care to clear the air for ourselves. In this episode, Clare and Steve talk about our reaction to unsolicited email and LinkedIn junk...

Steve and Clare are joined by Val Hastings, author of "Coaching from the Inside", a book exploring the guiding principles of internal coaching.  Whilst this book is the sum of research into internal coaching from interviewing internal coaches from around the world, Val's book is a must read for all coaches starting out on their coaching journey, whether external or internal.  Our podcasters explor...

Prompted by Steve asking 'Are we losing the truth?' Our podcasters notice how our relationship to the truth is being pulled in multiple directions - be it government, social media, mainstream media - we are, it seems, simultaneously hunting for the truth, but also easily persuaded into believing anything is the truth. Clare and Steve take this hypothesis into the coaching and supervision space and...

Today Clare and Steve explore the topic of ethics - please don't switch off! Our podcasters challenge the notion that ethics are clear and that there is an answer as to what is right or wrong when we coach. We explore how ethics and moral codes are inter-connected, and how what might be the right or wrong way forward in an ethical dilemma might be more a function of your personal moral code, your...

Steve and Clare have a wide-ranging conversation with Yannick Jacob about the question “Who are you?” Why is this important? Because who you are is how you coach. And being your authentic self is how you differentiate yourself from the other coaches in the marketplace; and how you make connections (or not) with potential clients. We talk about the role of supervision in supporting this exploration...

In today’s episode, Steve and Clare talk about the confusion that can happen – for both coach and thinker – when the coach changes hats. That might be moving from: consultant or mentor to coach and back leadership trainer to coach and back employee to coach and back psychometrics feedback giver to coach and back We talk about how to make that clean such that the thinker knows which role you are pl...

Clare and Steve are joined by Charly Cox from Climate Change Coaches and together we explore working with climate change. The largest single topic for us all as human beings today, Charly talks about her work training and guiding coaches to deal with the enormity of this vast subject area and the emotional connection that can come with it for both client and coach. We notice how collusion and judg...