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COACHING SUPERVISION • UNLEARNING • MENTOR COACHING • REFLECTING ON REFLECTION
Activating mentor coaching and coaching supervisionActivating mentor coaching and coaching supervision
JOURNEY TO
EXCELLENCE
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
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ELEVATE YOUR COACHING
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
30
features
20 The Evolution of
Coaching Super-vision
ICF, EMCC and personal
perspectives
By Dr. Damian Goldvarg
23 Coaching Supervision:
Friend or Foe?
By Theodora Fitzsimmons
26 Co-presencing
Demystifying coaching
supervision
By PoYee Dorrian
30 Supervision
A powerful path to develop
our coaching
By Aida Frese
32 Coaching Supervision
in Organizations
A game-changer to improve
the impact of coaching
By Je Nally & Kimcee McAnally
35 Un-learning
The key to mentor coaching
By Clare Norman
37 Mentor Coaches
The case for having one
By Laura Berman Fortgang
40 Reecting on Reection
The journey to coaching
maturity
By Kerry Woodcock, Larissa
Thurlow & Sherry Matheson
20
26
37
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 3
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
PUBLISHER, CEO & BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Garry T. Schleifer, PCC, CMC
MANAGING EDITOR
Janet Lees
ART DIRECTOR
Cathryn Haynes
ONLINE BUSINESS MANAGER
Kristi Pavlik
PROOFREADER
Anita Hunter
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Suzi Pomerantz, MT, MCC
EDITORIAL BOARD
Sackeena Gordon-Jones
Janet Harvey
Magdalena Mook
Suzi Pomerantz
Cheryl Procter-Rogers
Marcia Reynolds
Perry Rhue
Pamela Richarde
Marva Sadler
Gavin Shaskolsky
Iyanla Vanzant
Beverley Wright
CANADIAN OFFICE:
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Mississauga, ON, Canada L5R 3K4
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[North American Eastern Time Zone]
The views presented in this magazine are not
necessarily those of Choice Magazine Inc.
Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved. Repro-
duction in whole or in part without written
permission is prohibited.
Printed in the USA
choice
(ISSN 1708-6116) is
published quarterly for $39.95 US (plus
applicable taxes and shipping for non-US
subscribers) per year by:
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CONNECT WITH US
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10
upfront
5 choice thoughts
8 contributors
departments
10 COACHING TOOLS
• Mailchimp
• Airmeet
• Practice.do
• Magpai
• Teamwork
By Angi King & Kristi Pavlik
12 STICKY SITUATIONS
Mentee has Strayed
from Coaching
By Craig Carr, Suzi Pomerantz
& Victoria Trabosh
14 COACHING MASTERY
Fit for Purpose
By Janet M. Harvey
17 CHOICE BOOKS
Great CEOs are
Great Leaders
By Marnette Falley
46 KALEIDOSCOPE
People = Strength
By Alper Girgin
48 INDUSTRY NEWS
2022 Gay Coaches
Conference
49 INDUSTRY NEWS
ICF Midwest Coaches
Conference
50 FINAL SAY
No, You Really Can’t
Achieve Anything
By Lion Goodman
46
14
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
4
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
With that in mind, we are on a mission to get
a copy of choice, the magazine of professional
coaching into the hands of every coach on the
planet – totally free, with no name or email.
choice is the only unbiased, independent maga-
zine for professional coaches. It is an essential tool
for every coach, providing leading-edge articles
and tools that serve coaches and increase their
impact on their clients.
Will you help us full our mission?
If you have ideas on who might benet
from a free copy of choice, please email me
at garry@choice-online.com and let me know.
Together, we can help more coaches benet
from the power of CHOICE!
From The Publisher
For many years, it seemed that all we
had to support our road to mastery was
mentor coaching. We published an issue
about mentor coaching years ago, and
since then we can now include SUPER-vision!
I share it this way because many of the
articles published in this issue refer to it that
way: super-vision.
And it’s easy to see why. One thing I have
learned is that although mentor coaching is a
very useful tool on the road to mastery, it is
meant as a tool to support technical awareness
and growth. For example, a mentor coach
can hear a mentee coaching a client using the
International Coaching Federation (ICF) Core
Competencies and provide feedback.
But what about seeing the coach from a
broader perspective? What about how they feel
about their coaching and development overall?
Read the wonderful articles in this issue that
explain the dierences between mentor coach-
ing and coaching supervision, along with when
and where to use these wonderful modalities.
I would like to thank everyone who not only
shared their wisdom on this topic but who
agreed to collaborate and write for us. We are
truly honored.
On another note, but still on the topic of
growth and awareness, a very dear friend and
colleague once said to an audience of coaches,
“Every profession has a magazine, and choice is
ours. Every coach should be reading it.” GARRY SCHLEIFER, PCC, CMC
CEO & PUBLISHER
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 5
choice thoughts
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
This issue marks my 16th anniversary
– and 58th issue – as managing editor
of choice Magazine. Wow! Hard to
believe. e time has own by, and
it has been – and continues to be – an honor
and a pleasure to edit this great magazine, build
relationships with our amazing contributors, and
work with Garry and the rest of the team.
Speaking of the team, we have a new member
– Cat Haynes is taking over from Suzanne
Lacorte as the magazine’s art director. We would
like to thank Suzanne for all of her amazing
work over the past four years, and we wish
her all the best as publisher of her very own
magazine for the Canadian optical industry.
Please join us in welcoming Cat to our team.
You’ll no doubt see her creative stamp on our
pages for years to come!
We’ve covered many themes over the past
16 years, and it has been fascinating to see how
certain themes have evolved during that time.
is issue is a prime example, as we explore men-
tor coaching and supervision with a 2023 lens.
Our features look at the evolution of coaching
From The Managing Editor
JANET LEES, B.JOURN.
supervision from ICF, EMCC and personal
perspectives, and whether coaching supervision
is friend or foe (spoiler: it’s your friend!).
We demystify supervision with a look at co-
presencing and an analysis of supervision as a
powerful path to develop our coaching. Rounding
out the supervision side, we explore the value of
the modality in organizations, as a game-changer
to improve the impact of coaching.
On the mentor coaching side, we spotlight
un-learning as the key to mentor coaching, and
make the case for why all coaches should have
a mentor. en, tying it all together, we take
a fascinating journey to coaching maturity
through reections on reecting.
It’s another issue jam-packed with insights, and
I look forward to many more as your editor.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
6
choice thoughts
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Engaged, happy,
Energize your clients through Core Needs coaching
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 7
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Departments
CRAIG CARR, BCC, PCC, CPCC, has more than 25 years’ expe-
rience coaching and mentoring high performance leaders and
open-minded organizations that understand the importance of
evolving the human side of business. Co-founder of The Culture
Dynamics Group, Craig’s background in wholistic medicine and
social psychology, along with coaching mastery, informs his current mission
to bring transformation to workplace culture by working with leaders to apply
the core principles of Systemic Intelligence. Craig is the author of numerous
proprietary works exclusive to his clients, as well as Life Lives Through You, The
Ascendant Leader, The New Client Guidebook to Professional Coaching, and the
forthcoming Systemic Intelligence Handbook for Organizations and Leaders.
craigcarr@theascendantbusiness.com
MARNETTE FALLEY, MS, ACC, is an executive coach, certied
leadership trainer, facilitator, and creative problem solver who
spends a signicant chunk of her free time with her head in
a book. Twenty-ve years of experience in media businesses
cemented her interest in growing professionals’ skills and fueled
her passion for helping teams pivot to new opportunities. In this issue she
reviews The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People Into
World-Class Leaders by Elena L. Botelho and Kim R. Powell.
marnette@sunroadcoaching.com
sunroadcoach.com
ALPER GIRGIN, ACC, has 20 years of professional experience at
global companies in marketing, nance and human resources.
His coaching career kicked o with nine years of volunteer
coaching experience. He received his professional certicate
from Eternal Coaching Academy, and is an accredited ACC (ICF)
and Practitioner (EMCC). Currently, he is a coaching instructor in the fundamen-
tal coaching trainings of Eternal Coaching Academy and works as a university
instructor in Turkey. He runs a social media campaign called Mr. Corporate Life
on Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin and Twitter, which aims to make professionals
familiar to professional life.
alpergirgin@gmail.com
LION GOODMAN, PCC, is a transformational coach and teacher
with a worldwide practice clearing clients’ limiting beliefs,
healing childhood wounds and resolving trauma. More than
500 coaches around the world have graduated from his Clear
Beliefs Coach Training, which is accredited by ICF for 48 hours
of CCEs. Lion is the author of ve books, including Creating On Purpose and
How to Clear Your Clients’ Limiting Beliefs. He has published more than
100 articles on consciousness, beliefs, psychology and inner development.
liongoodman@gmail.com
clearbeliefs.com
JANET M. HARVEY, MCC,CMC, ACS, is a bestselling author,
speaker, leader and ICF master certied coach and accredited
educator who has engaged leaders, teams and global enterprises
for nearly 30 years to invite change that sustains wellbeing and
excellence. As CEO of inviteCHANGE, a coaching and human
development organization, Janet Harvey uses her executive and entrepreneurial
experience to cultivate leaders in sustainable excellence through Generative
Wholeness, a signature coaching and learning process.
janet.harvey@invitechange.com
invitechange.com
ANGI KING helps heart-centered business owners use technolo-
gy with condence and lose the stress, frustration and overwhelm
of building their businesses online. She has spent 30-plus years
teaching thousands of people from all walks of life how to easily
use computers; her clients think of her as their very own “tech
angel.” She gently guides and empowers her clients to create foundational busi-
ness systems that help them attract their ideal clients so they can easily share their
message with the world.
angi@angiking.com.au
angiking.com.au
KRISTI PAVLIK is the founder and corporate cartographer of
Adonai Business Solutions, LLC. Active in business management
for more than 20 years, she guides entrepreneurs on their path to
freedom. With her multifaceted perspective, Kristi understands
how each piece of a client’s business – and their future goals –
work together. She then creates the structure and the systems that result in
improved eciency, increased productivity, and signicant progress toward
scaling their business to the next level.
kristi@adonai-llc.com
adonai-llc.com
SUZI POMERANTZ, MT, MCC, is CEO of Innovative Leadership
International LLC. An award-winning executive coach and
best-selling author of Seal the Deal and 10 other books, Suzi
has 30 years’ experience coaching in 300-plus organizations.
She specializes in leadership strategy and executive inuence,
helping executives and organizations nd clarity in chaos and amplify their
impact. Suzi was in the rst group awarded the ICF Master credential 25 years
ago and is a thought leader in the coaching industry serving on several
boards. She served as faculty at College of Executive Coaching for 12 years.
She co-founded the Library of Professional Coaching in 2007 (the world’s
largest free online library for coaches) and serves as strategic advisor on the
editorial board of choice Magazine.
suzi@innovativeleader.com
suzipomerantz.com
VICTORIA TRABOSH, CDC, CEC, is president of Victoria
Trabosh Executive Coach LLC, helping executives and entre-
preneurs realize their most ambitious performance goals and
achieve excellence, in addition to decades of experience as
an executive herself. She has more than 40 years’ experience
in leading companies and teams across the U.S. in a wide variety of elds and
industries. Victoria is also an international speaker, and author of two books:
Dead Rita’s Wisdom – Simple Words to Help You Live an Extraordinary Life and
Cancer: From Tears to Triumph. She is the host of the podcast, Wisdom with
Victoria Trabosh. One of her passions is the Itafari Foundation, supporting
the people of Rwanda, which she co-founded in 2005.
vicky@victoriatrabosh.com
victoriatrabosh.com
“The journey to maturity invites you
to step into a review of your path so far,
stand still long enough to notice where you
are now, and look towards what lies ahead
for you, both as a coach and as a human
being.” PAGE 41
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
8
contributors
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Features
LAURA BERMAN FORTGANG, MCC, is a pioneer and
30-year veteran in the coaching eld. Also a best-selling author,
professional speaker, TV personality, corporate spokesperson
and interfaith minister, Laura’s Tedx talk currently boasts over
1.8 million views. Laura’s work is published in 13 languages
and has addressed audiences on four continents on topics such as reinvention,
career satisfaction, resilience and change. She has brought coaching to diverse
clients, from celebrities to Fortune 100 C-Suites, to NASA and the US Army
Corps of Engineers. Probably best known for her unique career transition
methodology, Now What?, Laura’s legacy project is The A-List Coach Business
Mentoring Program.
lbf@laurabermanfortgang.com
laurabermanfortgang.com
POYEE DORRIAN, MBA, MCC, has a love for human connection
through creativity, radical self-inquiry and reective dialogues.
She is passionate about systemic transformation and whole-being
personal mastery. PoYee brings a holistic and integral approach to
her practice that has been profoundly shaped by her ethnic and
cultural identity, diverse educational background and broad professional experi-
ences. She is a Master Certied Coach with ICF, an accredited coaching supervisor,
and a faculty member with the Coaching Supervision Academy (CSA) and the
International Coach Academy (ICA). In her private practice, PoYee works globally
with executive coaches, team coaches and leaders worldwide.
poyee@poyeedorrian.com
THEODORA FITZSIMMONS, PHD, PCC, CCM, is an educa-
tor, coach, team coach, coach mentor, accredited coaching
supervisor and leadership development expert with over 30
years in the public and private sector. Having started in higher
education and teaching, she moved to federal service, where
she spearheaded an internal coaching initiative that was honored with two
multinational awards, ATD’s Excellence in Practice Award (2018) and ICF’s Prism
Award as a nalist (2019). She co-authored Coaching in Government, released by
Routledge December 20, 2022. Theodora co-owns Radiance Partners, LLC and
owns Coach Evolving, LLC. She serves on the leads team of the Association of
Coaching Supervisors.
theotz@coachevolving.com
coachevolving.com
AIDA FRESE, MA, MCC ICF, ESIA, EIA EMCC is a passionate
global executive coach and supervisor from Argentina. She is
dedicated to coaching leaders, supervising coaches and training,
and loves being involved in ongoing learning. She works with
executives at dierent levels in various industries, organizations
and Fortune 500 companies. Committed to the highest standards, she has
pursued global credentials, MCC at ICF and ESIA and EIA at EMCC. She is uent in
Spanish, English, French and Italian.
en.bridgetransiciones.com
DR. DAMIAN GOLDVARG, MCC, ESIA, has 30 years’ experi-
ence in leadership development, working with individuals and
organizations in over 60 countries. He is a Master Certied Coach
and received his PhD in Organizational Psychology from Alliant
University. He is also the author and co-author of eight books, a
Professional Certied Speaker (CSP), and an Accredited Coach Supervisor (ESIA)
and Accredited Team Coach (ACTC). He facilitates global virtual certications in
professional coaching, mentor coaching, team coaching and coaching supervision
(ESQA). He was the 2013-2014 International Coaching Federation Global President
and received the 2018 ICF Circle of Distinction Award and the 2019 EMCC Super-
vision Award.
damian@goldvargconsulting.com
goldvargconsulting.com
JEFF NALLY, MBA, PCC, SHRMSCP, is an executive coach,
coaching supervisor and professional speaker inspiring leaders
and coaches through the neuroscience of human interaction.
He is the chief HR ocer and chief coaching ocer at Coach-
Source. Je led the executive coaching practice at Humana and
co-authored Rethinking Human Resources, Humans@Work, and Coaching Wisdom
with coach colleagues. He advocates for coaching as a board member of the SHRM
Foundation and the Gay Coaches Alliance. Je was named one of the Twenty
People to Know in HR by Business First of Louisville, and is the 2021 recipient of
the Thomas J. Leonard Coach Humanitarian Award.
je.nally@coachsource.com
coachsource.com
CLARE NORMAN, MSC, PCC, is a Master Mentor Coach with
more than 20 years of coaching experience. Her laser focus on
mindset shifts and her knack for spotting marginal gains have
made her a go-to person for coaches looking for mentorship and
practical, meaningful ways to improve their practice. Her second
book, The Transformational Coach: Free your Thinking and Break Through to Coach-
ing Mastery, draws together all that she has discovered from mentor coaching
about what coaches need to unlearn in order to be masterful coaches.
clare@clarenormancoachingassociates.com
clarenormancoachingassociates.com
SHERRY MATHESON, CPCC, ORSCC, PCC, ACTC, supports
leaders and teams through their change initiatives, creating high
impact teams as they come together for specic projects, en-
hancing leadership capacity, increasing personal awareness, and
facilitating signicant leadership changes. She develops leaders
capable of creating organizational cultures that innovate, time and time again. She
brings 25 years’ experience working with teams in a variety of settings including
corporate, legal, engineering, health and wellness.
sherrymatheson@live.com
novalda.com
KIMCEE McANALLY, PhD, EIA, ESIA, is an accredited coach
supervisor and a partner at CoachSource. She has extensive
executive level business experience, academic qualications,
coaching certication and accredited Coach Supervisor Indi-
vidual Accreditation. Kimcee is passionate about coaching and
supervision, and contributes to the industry through research, publications and
conference presentations. She co-authored the book, Executive Coaching for
Results: the Denitive Guide for Developing Organizational Leaders, published by
Berrett-Koehler, and contributed recent chapters in Innovations in Leadership
Coaching and Coaching Supervision: Voices from the Americas.
kimcee@coachsource.com
coachsource.com
LARISSA THURLOW has extensive training and experience in
working with individuals, groups and teams in facilitating their
reective practice, learning, growth and development. She prides
herself on creating respectful, trusting peer relationships with her
clients. She believes that safety, vulnerability and humility are the
vital foundation of her coaching supervision practice. Her work provides a safe
and open space for self-challenge and experimentation. She has a deep curiousity
and respect for other cultures and ways of being that supports and challenges her
clients to link intrapersonal, interpersonal and systemic factors.
coachcultureconnection@gmail.com
KERRY WOODCOCK, Phd, CPCC, ORSCC, PCC, ACTC, EMCC, is
director of Novalda, where she leads change for a changing world
by both holding and challenging leaders, organizations and social
systems to amplify the power of relationship to create meaningful
change. Weaving together innovations from the world of change
leadership, leadership maturity development and relationship systems coaching,
she coaches leaders and their teams to develop their core, collective and change
leadership capability and capacity. Described as a BrinkLeader, StoryWeaver and
LightSprite, she is known as an inspiring trainer, mentor and supervisor of leaders
and professional coaches.
kerry@novalda.com
novalda.com
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 9
contributors
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
MAILCHIMP
By Angi King
Mailchimp is more than an email marketing app; it’s an all-in-one marketing platform
for small businesses. Millions of businesses use Mailchimp to connect with their audi-
ence. In fact, more than 14,000 people sign up every day.
The platform has a generous free plan that gives access to most of the available
tools, such as a WYSIWYG and drag and drop editor, email templates and customi-
zations, a landing page builder, list segmentation, surveys, analytics for individual
subscribers, and more.
Mailchimp’s comprehensive reporting tool provides the standard information such
as open, click, bounce and unsubscribe rates, and it also includes additional features
such as a content optimizer, click performance (number of clicks per URL) and informa-
tion on each subscriber’s demographics.
In addition to email marketing, Mailchimp provides marketing tools to promote
and grow your business, such as direct posting on social media platforms, Facebook
and Instagram ads, postcards, eCommerce, signup forms and websites.
The paid versions include customer journey mapping, automations, retargeting ads
and A/B testing.
Mailchimp provides a library of help articles for all subscribers, and is very respon-
sive via email or online chat assistant support.
Mailchimp is fully scalable no matter where you are in your business journey. It’s
worth considering if you are looking for an all-in-one email and marketing platform.
AIRMEET
By Angi King
Airmeet is the fastest-growing platform for
hosting virtual and hybrid events. It supports
all event formats, including conferences,
webinars, meetups, workshops, trade shows,
job fairs, expos and more.
More than 6,500 businesses – including
Forbes, SAP, HP, Volvo and the University
of Toronto – use Airmeet to host events
every month.
Every event on Airmeet takes place in a
virtual ‘ballroom,’ which can be customized
to deliver specic experiences and highly
relevant interactions among the participants.
The conference platform lets you create
virtual booth experiences, add unlimited
sponsors in multiple categories or tiers, host
endless sessions in parallel and manage your
event ticketing.
With Airmeet, you can host unlimited
events of any size and scale your events up to
100,000 participants. There are four dierent
streaming modes (standard, high denition,
lite, and audio-only), so everyone can attend
even with limited connectivity.
Airmeet’s product suite creates one-of-a-
kind experiences. Engagement is increased
with interactive features like a networking
lounge, table chats, raising hands, polls,
Q&As and streaming to social media.
Unlike Zoom, Airmeet does not require
any downloading or installing, and it has free
and paid pricing plans.
Airmeet is a platform that helps people
join together from anywhere, and denitely
worth considering for your next event.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
10
coaching tools
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
By Kristi Pavlik
You deserve to nd a client who is as committed to coaching as you are. It is a coach’s
dream to attract ideal prospects, create meaningful connections and close clients ready to
commit. Magpai helps you nd and double your close rate with ideal clients from enroll-
ment conversations using lead scoring assessments.
This intuitive lead scoring assessment is a web-based tool that enables potential clients
to quickly and easily self-assess where they are on their path to achieving a goal, thereby
shining a light on what’s missing and how you can help.
Your time is your most valuable asset – let the experts at Magpai get you o to a ying
start with a branded, beautifully designed, high-converting assessment of your own.
How does Magpai do this? Glad you asked.
Attract: Incorporating assessments into your sales and marketing process will get you
from making it “all about you” to making it “all about the prospect,” while at the same time
amplifying your authority and building trust.
Select: Magpai automatically sorts leads based on your criteria. Identify highly qualied
leads so you can move them into one-on-one sales calls or automated nurture campaigns,
helping you avoid wasting time with those who are not ready to buy.
Close: Conduct powerfully eective one-on-one sales conversations that lead to a yes,
using the assessment results and Magpai’s proven process.
Are you looking to stand out in your niche, attract ideal clients, spark meaningful inter-
actions and accelerate your sales results? Let the experts at Magpai get you there!
By Kristi Pavlik
I have used Teamwork for several
years now, and could not run
my business without it. It is the
one platform that I have open
on my desktop all day long, and
I use it for everything from task
management to team manage-
ment, client engagement and
even billing.
With Teamwork, you maintain
control over your tasks and sub-
tasks, allowing you to go deeper
into the details and get granular
with assigning work. You can
establish templates for projects
and task lists, reduce time lost
to repetitive admin work, spend
more time adding value for
clients, and ensure consistency
across all of your projects.
Delivering services and
projects on time and on budget
for clients is vital to a successful
coaching business. By giving
clients access to the system,
you set yourself up for stronger
alignment, greater visibility and
better collaboration. You can
even track time spent on work
for detailed breakdowns of re-
sources, more accurate timeline
estimates for new projects, and
deeper insights into each proj-
ect’s protability.
I have tried most of the proj-
ect/task management systems
out there, but keep coming back
to Teamwork. No other platform
has been able to beat its simplic-
ity, ease of use and functionality.
It has allowed me to take my
business from chaos to clarity in
a short amount of time.
By Kristi Pavlik
Having a good CRM is vital to running a coaching practice. Practice is an all-in-one
coaching platform – built by coaches, for coaches – that helps you manage the
entire client relationship, from intake calls and onboarding to actually coaching
your clients. Other features include scheduling, payments, forms, contracts, and a
client portal to let you manage everything under one roof. There are even apps on
iOS and Android so you can access your business from anywhere.
Practice allows you to:
• schedule in real time,
• automatically track how many sessions are left in your coaching packages,
• securely and easily collect payments,
• build workows with payments or forms,
• send private messages, share notes, and track to-do’s.
Spend less time chasing, and more time earning. Practice helps coaches
consolidate clunky, disjointed and annoying systems in one simple place.
Whether you’re growing your coaching business and you’re worried about
missing a step, or you’re starting out and looking for the best coaching manage-
ment software to build from, Practice can help.
Visit partners.practice.do/adonai to nd out more, sign up for a free trial, and
see if Practice is the right t for you.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 11
coaching tools
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Mentee
has Strayed
From
Coaching
within the practice of coaching should be/
are dierent from consulting, advising or
training?” Or is it that you fear there will
be a conict if you tell them what they are
doing isn’t coaching?
Are you afraid to call them out? Are you
not able to have a straight conversation
about their blind spots? If so, I’m not sure
you’re being a coach, let alone a mentor
coach. Are you able to have a direct, clear,
perhaps dicult conversation?
Since I can’t identify from your question
what the context is or what lies beneath
your situation, I’m going to assume that
what might help you best is to have
support crafting a few possible transition
phrases you might use to provide feedback
to your mentee. Try these on for size:
1. “I noticed you were doing [x behav-
ior], which demonstrates a skill that is cate-
gorized as consulting rather than coaching.
Can you tell me which coaching com-
petency you were thinking of when you
did that? Would it serve you if we unpack
The Situation
I’m mentor-coaching
someone who has totally deviated
from the practice of coaching. What
they are doing seems more like
consulting, advising or training.
How do I guide them back to the
core coaching competencies and
principles?
By Suzi Pomerantz, MT, MCC
W
hat am I missing here? If
you’re the mentor coach,
isn’t it your job to tell the
coach that they are not demonstrating
coaching skills? Isn’t it your job to help
them distinguish which of their behav-
iors are consulting, advising or training
behaviors versus coaching behaviors,
and get back on track?
Why wouldn’t you simply ask or remind
them of the core competencies and
principles of coaching and identify the
gap between what they are actually doing
and what good coaching looks like? Why
wouldn’t you state exactly where they are
missing the mark so that they can have an
opportunity to improve?
I also wonder what else is behind this
question. For instance, did you really mean,
“How do I help a coach I’m mentoring to
identify and distinguish which behaviors
together what the dierences between
coaching and consulting might look like in
this instance?”
2. “I notice that you said, ‘xyz,’ which con-
stitutes advising, not coaching. How might
you interrupt your instinct to oer advice
and instead shift to a powerful question
or reective inquiry that would elicit the
client’s engagement? When you have
advice to oer, here is how you can make
it explicit to the client that you are leaving
the coaching conversation and shifting to
an advising conversation…”
3. “I observed that you shared a model
and explained it to the client, which is a
training behavior, and I wonder if you were
aware in the moment that you had shifted
into training and away from coaching?
How might you notice sooner your incli-
nation to train and consciously practice
coaching competencies instead?
The conversation starters above will
help you to steer the discussion towards
guiding them back to coaching.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
12
sticky situations sticky situations
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Are you grappling with a sticky situation?
You don't have to go it alone. Let our senior coaches give you some dierent
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and put “sticky situations” in the subject line.
By Victoria Trabosh, CDC®, CEC
By Craig Carr, BCC, PCC, CPCC
A few days ago, I commented on a
LinkedIn post where a well-known
coaching school founder talked
about a graduate getting results in a session
using lots of advice, yes/no direction and
diagnostic-type language. He said it was
brilliant, and the client gained insight and
value. His point was that ICF-style core
competencies may not always give clients
what they need.
When I break this down and ask myself,
“Was this coaching, or something else?” the
answer falls into the popular and hazy cate-
gory: “It depends.” First things rst, though.
In your case, a lot rests on the guidelines by
which you are serving as a mentor.
Mentoring and coaching are dierent
skill sets, and when you put them together
as “mentor coaching,” you’ve tapped into an
oxymoron, like “wise fool,” “pretty ugly” or
“jumbo shrimp.” It seems like it makes sense,
but the words push in opposite directions
and can nullify any meaning.
That said, your role is to support the
coach in getting up to speed on core skills.
So, with that purpose in mind, let’s get
serious about your responsibility. You’ve
recognized that the coach “seems to be”
exercising skills outside the model they’re
learning, and you’re teaching.
The way to guide them back is for you
to know – really, impeccably know – the
distinctions between coaching and other
approaches, and to have condence in your
ability to spot and articulate those distinc-
tions with clarity and authority.
Start with the assumption that your
student wants to do well and is defaulting
to what they know because they want to
look good and, if possible, give value. This
is entirely normal, but this sticky situation
does not require you to fall into the “look
good and play nice” trap with your mentee.
On LinkedIn, I wrote, “If the coach can
adequately explain why they did what
they did when they did it, I might agree
that this was brilliant coaching.” In other
words, if they could articulate a coherent
mindset behind how and why they
moved between paradigms to serve the
client’s needs, that would be a measure
of brilliance – not whether the client said
they received value.
If your mentee can validate this level of
understanding, you can be reasonably sure
they’re not defaulting to a comfort zone
that gets them by. But I suspect that’s not
what’s happening here.
Remember, it’s also critical to look at
the adequacy of training methods if this
performative outcome is seen across the
trainee cohort. If your students can’t explain
the coaching tools and how to implement
them, and default to known territory, either
they don’t care enough about overcoming
conscious incompetence, or the training
they’re in is not hitting the mark.
You have a great opportunity as
a mentor coach to display active
listening, provide information,
and make suggestions from your experi-
ence based on the coach’s behavior and
comments. As a mentor (not coach), have
you established a strong connection so
that you can say what needs to be com-
municated directly?
Every mentor I have ever had in my
40-plus years in business has given me
some of the best, most honest advice I have
ever received. They have been older, wiser,
and speak from a place of support and
correction to better me and my work. They
have not minced words, said the unhelpful,
“So what do you think is wrong?” or beat
around the bush.
Considering the coach-mentee’s back-
ground before working as a coach, they
may have been unaware that they are
not using coaching techniques; prefer to
consult, advise, or teach; or do not know
coaching competencies and principles.
Depending on their background and coach
training, competencies and principles may
dier slightly or signicantly from those
you have been taught.
When I rst began my executive coach
training in 2001, the principles and com-
petencies were far less dened and not
universal. And frankly, I do not believe they
are universal to this day. So, the opportunity
for you in this situation is three-fold:
1. Have a conversation with your mentee
and be specic about what you believe they
are doing that is not coach centered.
2. Oer a specic area for them to work
on to begin aligning their coaching work
and behavior.
3. Remember, they do not need to take
your advice. In the end, your ultimate value
as a mentor will be to serve as a sounding
board. You will reect your opinion, not of
their work but of how they deliver it and if
it works by your standard. And if you did
not set boundaries for how you would work
together, including honest and direct feed-
back, it is not too late. It is imperative if you
are to bring them value.
Mentoring another is an honor, and
you can be one of the few with the agency
to speak the truth, making your mentee a
better coach.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 13
sticky situations sticky situations
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Eectiveness in mentor coaching and
coaching supervision
By Janet M. Harvey, MCC, CMC, ACS
FIT FOR
PURPOSE
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
14
coaching mastery
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Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Whether you take on the
role of ‘mentor’ or ‘super-
visor’ as part of your job
description or because
you choose to give back in some way, you
usually step in with the idea that you have
knowledge and experience that you want to
provide to another person. ank you for
being inspired in this way, as both practic-
es are essential elements for the coaching
profession to continue growing in quality
and ethical professionalism.
A partnership with the coach-client
who seeks to increase their professional
coaching quality, artistry and well-being
demands a compassionate and learn-
ing-oriented mindset. In this partnership,
you support coach-clients with mindset
expansion, build condence with ethical
practices, witness and encourage unique
and authentic approaches, and serve as an
observer in a reciprocal process of growth
and development.
If you are reading this column as a coach-
client seeking to engage with a mentor coach
or coaching supervisor (hereafter referenced
as a practitioner), use this information to
shape your practitioner choice so you expe-
rience valuable and enjoyable support for
quality and ethical practice.
Processes for mentor coaching and
coaching supervision incorporate obser-
vation, reection, and developmental
feedback on and about practices as a
professional coach for every stage of
development and in any client relation-
ship context – individuals, teams, coach
practitioners, leaders, leaders of coaching
programs, and the systems within enter-
prises that govern those programs.
Mentor coaching enhances skill sets and
competency behaviors inherent in pro-
fessional coaching. Coaching supervision
expands the lens to incorporate elements
that ensure you are “t for purpose” as a
practitioner or leader, focusing attention
on your motivation, beliefs, values, and the
principles that you espouse and embody
in your general practice. Regular engage-
ment with a mentor coach and a coaching
supervisor attest to your dedication to being
client centered and ethical.
Wholeness as a Premise
for Partnership
An artful relationship arises from the
practitioner’s capacity to consistently
perceive the coach-client as a whole,
capable, resourceful and creative human
being and coach. You have specialized
knowledge or experience gained over
time as a mentor or supervisor.
Your coach-client wasn’t born yesterday.
Adult learners are more open to receiving
developmental feedback when acknow-
ledged for what they already know before
Being credentialed and experienced as a professional coach does not necessarily
equate to being an eective practitioner to mentor or supervise coach-clients. Just as
each professional coach is unique in their application of the coaching competencies
and skill sets, so too are mentors and supervisors of coach-clients. Nevertheless, here
are four common elements that that every practitioner should incorporate.
• Develop an organized and comprehensive program structure, to provide a clear
pathway for the working partnership.
• Engage through a written agreement and relationship-setting conversation that
allows maximum receptivity for dialogue and feedback
• Submit partnership guidelines and logistics for sharing, listening and discussing
coaching sessions for feedback and exploration of coaching relationships
(e.g., as a case study to understand dynamics and inuences upon the quality
of client relationships).
• Explore formats for delivering dialogue and feedback, such as verbal only, a com-
bination of oral and written feedback, recording, and/or frequency of conversations.
HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE PRACTITIONER
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 15
coaching mastery
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tackling what they think they don’t
know or may feel a lack of condence
about in their practices.
As a practitioner, what can you
do, say or ask to elicit what your
coach-client already knows, to enable
you to determine what they believe
they want from you? How can you
honor your coach-client’s existing
knowledge and engage together as
colleagues? What attitudes or beliefs
within you might get in the way of
this level of equality? What attitudes
or beliefs within your coach-client
might inuence their ability to absorb
new information?
A conversation between the practi-
tioner and coach-client to discover the
answers to these questions and others
– focused on how you relate with being
“t for purpose” as you begin your jour-
ney together – can form a solid basis to
trust and mutual respect, which produce
the foundation for the partnership to
ourish and succeed.
Approach to the Process
ICF denitions for mentor coaching
and coaching supervision provide a
built-in, focused agenda.
Like any coaching relationship, a
mentor coaching practitioner invites
each coach-client to:
• Take responsibility for declaring
developmental goals toward their
skill development and their quality
of practice as well as design how they
will measure progress;
• Come to the relationship ready to
listen to and candidly discuss feed-
back; and
• Be willing to try on dierent per-
spectives and approaches based on
conversation and exploration, as
mutually agreed.
For optimally shared ownership of the
professional development process, the
coach-client and practitioner agree to
interact as colleagues, partnering in
a learning environment that best suits
the coach-client’s specic needs. Being
collegial generates a non-hierarchical
relationship that nurtures the coach-
client’s unique expression and expertise.
In our work at inviteCHANGE, all of our practitioners embody the following traits,
principles, and qualities when engaging with coach-clients individually and in small
groups for mentor coaching and coaching supervision processes. In addition to being
trained in specialized skillsets and coaching experience levels, several soft skills con-
tribute to ‘being’ an eective practitioner.
PRINCIPLES TRAITS
• Do no harm
• Ensure the coach-client
is best served
• Embody professionalism with a
compassionate human touch
• Set and communicate clear
boundaries that support
healthy interactions, personal
well-being, and presence
• Commit to expanded learning
for self and each coach-client
• Empathy – The ability to ‘inhabit the coach-
client’s skin’ while simultaneously serving
as their objective witness in service to access-
ing broader perspectives and possibilities
for exploration.
• Intuition – The ability to access your
‘hunches’ or ‘gut reactions’, and offer them
without attachment, inviting a coach-client
to explore if/how these may serve as a spring-
board to different perspectives and/or options
in their professional development.
• Feedback Communication Style – The
way a practitioner consciously chooses and
utilizes verbal and written communications
in service to the professional development
of a coach-client.
• Multi-Layered Listening and Perceiving –
The ability to listen and perceive on multiple
levels, (e.g., spoken, and unspoken words,
tones of voice, pacing of the conversation,
opportunities for silence, etc.), when
witnessing/observing a coaching conver-
sation between a coach-client and their
coaching client.
• Sensitivity – Capacity for agile responsive-
ness to how a coach-client thinks, processes,
and learns, and the ability to relate
human-to-human as well as colleague-
to-colleague.
• Curiosity – Ability to inquire from a true
perspective of ‘not knowing’ and/or without
making assumptions regarding the factors
that may be impacting a Coach-client’s
application of skills and competencies.
• Reciprocity – Willingness to intentionally
engage with a Coach-client as mutual con-
tributors to each other’s skill set, knowledge
base and professional artistry.
• Transparency – Openly willing and able to
admit when errors in judgment or process
has occurred and then take appropriate steps
to rectify it.
QUALITIES
• Self-awareness - The
capacity to discern when
a personal bias, belief,
attitude, or personal level
of expertise may be potentially
aecting eectiveness
and/or objectivity.
• Discipline – Commitment
to giving focused attention
to your partnership with a
coach-client.
• Respectful honesty - Ability
to directly express what is
observed in a Coach-client’s
skill set while respecting the
unique expression of that
Coach-client, especially as it
relates to areas for continued
professional development as
well as acknowledging and
celebrating what is being
demonstrated well.
• Advocacy for core coaching
competencies as a focal point
of professional skill develop-
ment as a coach
EMBODIED EFFECTIVENESS
Within this mutually designed, inti-
mate and nurturing learning laboratory,
the practitioner shares knowledge and
experience while simultaneously being
of service, without overlaying personal
bias upon the coach-client’s unique
expression as a coach.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
16
coaching mastery
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Not everyone aspires to be a
CEO, of course. And you
don’t have to, to learn from
e CEO Next Door: e 4
Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People
Into World-Class Leaders.
Authors Elena L. Botelho and Kim R.
Powell, partners at leadership consulting
rm ghSMART, share insights gleaned
by partnering with outside researchers.
ey used time, smarts and technology
to review reams of interview transcripts
collected from ongoing work with
CEOs by colleagues at the rm. (I do
love a data-based approach.)
ey break the book into three
sections: What it takes to be a great
CEO; winning the job; and navigating
the challenges of the role.
I nd the “what it takes” section most
inspiring, because I think the behaviors
they identify contribute to success in
almost any role: decisiveness, engaging
for impact, relentless reliability and
adapting boldly. Plus, many of us run
our own coaching practices – and
that makes us the CEO. So I think
it’s valuable to think about how we
each lean into these behaviors.
1. DECIDE FASTER
Decisive CEOs in the study are 12
times more likely to be high performers.
ey tend to nd a framework that
simplies decision making. For exam-
ple, they set clear business priorities and
then make decisions that align to those
goals – even when that means passing
on potential business wins.
ey save their decision-making
eort for decisions only they can make,
deciding the “what” for the business and
leaving “how” decisions to others. And
they gain speed because they don’t wait
for consensus. ey accept that every
GREAT CEOS
ARE GREAT LEADERS
By Marnette Falley, MS, ACC
4. ADAPT BOLDLY
While the research showed relentless
reliability was the strongest performance
dierentiator, the authors say adapt-
ability is growing fastest in importance.
In today’s fast-changing conditions the
playbook doesn’t exist. And the most
adaptable CEOs take the attitude that
if they’re not uncomfortable, they’re
probably not changing fast enough.
As coaches, we’re tuned into the need
to lean into discomfort and focus on
ongoing learning. So I know you give
clients advice that echoes the sugges-
tions in this section:
• To thrive at the next level of leader-
ship, you need to let go of the very
things that drove your success.
• Great leaders are constantly working
at becoming better, dierent and
more informed.
• Leverage the power of questions –
learn to be the one who tends to ask
the best questions rather than the one
with all the answers.
e CEOs the authors interviewed
also spent more than 40 percent of their
time thinking about the long term.
at’s about twice the time other execs
devote to long-term thinking. is real-
ly caught my attention. I so often hear
from leaders that they don’t have time
to think – and the coaching we provide
oers that chance to step back.
decision is unpopular with some stake-
holders – and they move on anyway.
2. ENGAGE FOR MORE IMPACT
Understanding conicting stakeholder
needs and priorities – while nding a
way to work to the good of the whole –
is an art. To achieve this, a great leader
needs to be nice, but not too nice. ey
need to build trust and relationships
and make dicult decisions and navi-
gate the friction they cause.
e authors say the best CEOs
understand all the players – customers,
the board, direct reports, peers, front-
line employees – and they manage up,
down and across to achieve outcomes.
Many of us run
our own coaching
practices – and that
makes us the CEO. So
I think it’s valuable to
think about how we
each lean into these
behaviors.
3. PRACTICE RELENTLESS
RELIABILITY
CEOs who are known for being reli-
able are 15 times more likely to be
high performing.
Everyone knows what’s expected and
is held accountable. ese CEOs send
the message “We’re going to get this
done.” ey nd ways to set realistic
expectations and follow through on
their commitments—and they embed
that consistency into the organization.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 17
choice books
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
What’s the dierence between mentor coaching and coaching supervision? When would you
access either? What are the benets? What are mentor coaching and coaching supervision best
practices? When is it required or just the right thing to do? What are the ways people engage
with mentor coaching and/or coaching supervision? What to look for in terms of the coach and
process? Join us as we activate mentor coaching and coaching supervision.
EXCELLENCE
ACTIVATING MENTOR COACHING AND COACHING SUPERVISION
JOURNEY
TO
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 19
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COACHING
SUPERVISION
THE EVOLUTION OF
ICF, EMCC and personal perspectives
By Dr. Damian Goldvarg, MCC, ESIA
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
20
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As professional coaching has
continued to grow in pop-
ularity worldwide, coaching
supervision has gained a
signicant role and acceptance in the
last few years.
e development of coaching
supervision started in Europe (UK,
France), and for more than 10 years,
the European Mentoring and Coaching
Council (EMCC) has included the
practice of supervision as an ethical
responsibility and as a requirement
to renew coaching credentials. e
requirements consist of receiving at
least one session quarterly or after every
32 sessions. EMCC oers accreditations
to supervision programs (ESQA) and
Supervision Accreditations, ESIA
(European Supervision Individual
Accreditation). (For more information
go to: emccglobal.org/accreditation/esia)
Since 2018, the International
Coaching Federation (ICF) has recog-
nized supervision as a valued practice and
allowed coaches who need to renew their
credentials to count up to 10 hours
of supervision as Continuing Coach
Education Units (CCEUs). e ICF
position on coaching supervision states:
“ICF supports coaching supervision
for professional coach practitioners as
part of their portfolio of continuing pro-
fessional development (CPD) activities
designed to keep them t for purpose.
“Coaching supervision is suciently
dierent from coaching, so training to
provide the knowledge and opportu-
nity to practice Coaching Supervision
skills is needed. As such, all coaching
supervisors should receive coaching
supervision training.”
e ICF research team developed
three papers on the state of coaching
supervision in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
(ese papers are available on the web-
site: coachingfederation.org/research/
academic-research)
In 2022, the ICF required all team
coaches applying for a credential in the
pilot program to have received at least
10 hours of team coaching supervi-
sion to be eligible to apply for it. ICF
decided to lower the requirement to ve
hours starting with the Team Coaching
Credentials in 2023.
One of the challenges in the under-
standing and development of coaching
supervision is that the word “supervi-
sion” may have a negative connotation
associated with management, guidance
or quality control. I prefer to separate
the word in two – super-vision – to
emphasize the nature of the reective
practice focused on oering a space to
learn about our work for new coaches as
well as for very experienced coaches. It
oers the opportunity to explore blind
spots, challenges, dilemmas, emotions,
and develop new awareness about how
“the personal may intrude into the
professional.” (EMCC, 2015)
I will continue to use “supervision”
when discussing or quoting specic
bodies or authors, as that is their usage,
but my personal observations will use
my preferred spelling of “super-vision.”
One of the challenges in
the understanding and
development of coaching
supervision is that the word
“supervision” may have
a negative connotation
associated with management,
guidance or quality control.
DEFINITIONS OF COACHING
SUPERVISION
e European Mentoring and Coaching
Council (EMCC) denes coaching su-
pervision as: “the interaction that occurs
when a mentor or coach bring their
coaching or mentoring work experiences
to a supervisor in order to be supported
and to engage in reective dialogue and
collaborative learning for the develop-
ment and benet of the mentor or coach,
their clients and their organizations.”
e ICF holds a similar view: “Coach-
ing supervision is a collaborative learning
practice to continually build the capacity
of the coach through reective dialogue
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 21
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and benet to his or her clients and the
overall system.” (ICF, 2018)
Based on my experience training
coaching super-visors for the last seven
years, I developed and adopted this
denition: “the collaborative reec-
tive process to enhance the work of
the supervisee for the benet of all
stakeholders.” In this denition, I like
to emphasize:
• the collaborative nature of the
supervisory relationship;
• the reective characteristic of the
activity;
• all stakeholders who benet from
the activity.
Coaching super-vision serves three
functions, which have been broadly
accepted by professional bodies:
1The Developmental Function
Focus on development of skills,
understanding, and capacities of the
coach/mentor.
2The Resourcing Function
Providing a supportive space for
the coach to process the experiences
they have had when working with their
clients. A space to explore emotions and
recharge batteries.
3The Normative Function
Concerned with quality, work stan-
dards, ethical dilemmas, and integrity.
(Hawkins & Smith, 2006)
SUPERVISION COMPETENCIES
e EMCC has developed a coaching
supervision competency model that pro-
vides guidance to the practitioners. It is
the foundation for accrediting supervi-
sion programs as well as practitioners.
Follow the three functions of the super-
visor explained above and the systemic
perspective presented by the Seven Eyed
Model from Hawkins and Shohet.
ese are the eight EMCC Supervi-
sion competencies:
1Manages the Supervision
Contract and Process
Establishes and maintains a working
contract with the supervisee (and rele-
vant stakeholders)
RESOURCES
• Bachkirova,T., Jackson, P., & Clutterbuck, D.
(2021). Coaching and Mentoring Supervision.
Maidenhead: McGraw Hill.
• Cochrane, H., & Newton,T. (2018). Supervision
and Coaching, Growth and Learning in Professional
Practice. London: Routledge.
• Hawkins, P., & Smith, N. (2006). Coaching, Men-
toring and Organizational Consulting: Supervision
and development. Maidenhead:
Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill.
• Goldvarg, D. (2017). Supervision de coaching
para el desarrollo professional del coach. Buenos
Aires: Granica.
• ICF – coachingfederation.org/creden-
tials-and-standards/coaching-supervision
• EMCC – emccouncil.org/src/ultimo/models/
Download/7.pdf www.emccouncil.org/eu/en/
accreditation/esia
2Facilitates Development
Enables the supervisee to improve
the standard of their practice through a
process of facilitated reection.
3Provides Support
Provides a supportive space for the
supervisee to process the experiences
they have with clients and to prioritize
their wellbeing as a coach.
4Promotes Professional Standards
Supports high standards relating
to professional, ethical and reective
practice.
5Self-Awareness
Consciously uses and develops the
‘self’ in service of the supervision rela-
tionship and process.
6Relationship Awareness
Understands and works with the
layers of relationship that exist in the
supervision process.
7Systemic Awareness
Is able to recognize and work with
the dynamics of human systems.
8Facilitates Group Supervision
Skillfully handles supervision
group dynamics.
SUPERVISION AND
MENTOR COACHING
It is important to distinguish that
for the ICF, mentor coaching and
supervision are two dierent activities.
Mentor coaching focuses on providing
feedback on coaching skills. e
mentor coach needs to observe the
coach demonstrating the skills and
provide feedback based on the level
of the coach (associate, professional,
or master). Mentor coaching is a
mandatory activity during coaching
training, to renew ACC credentials,
and to apply for the MCC credential.
Mentor coaches need to be trained to
be able to identify specic behaviors
expected for each competency and
provide feedback in a respectful,
supportive, and eective manner.
Super-vision does not focus on coach-
ing skills, but rather on the coach’s ca-
pacity and reecting on the work done.
e exploration on the “being of the
coach,” challenges, taking some distance
and looking at the work done.
In 2022, Routledge published Coach-
ing Supervision: Voices from the Amer-
icas, written by the pioneers of coaching
supervision in the Americas. Francine
Campone, Joel DeGirolamo, Lily Seto
and I edited the book with contributions
from 30 supervisors from Canada, USA,
Mexico, Argentina, and guests from
the UK and France. Some of the topics
include: culturally sensitive coaching
supervision, a study of perceptions and
practices in the Americas, resistance to
coaching supervision, resourcing, restor-
ing and responding through coaching
supervision, group coaching supervision,
working with virtual technology, and
internal supervision.
As coaching keeps developing to
meet the needs of clients worldwide,
super-vision is becoming a practice not
only appreciated by coaches, but also
by clients. ere is a trend for global
companies to request super-vision for
the coaches as part of the contracts.
is may provide a competitive edge to
companies that understand its value and
are willing to invest in super-vision for
their coaches.
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FRIEND OR
FOE?
COACHING SUPERVISION:
By Theodora Fitzsimmons, PhD, PCC, CCM
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 23
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towards individual credential renewal,
coaching supervision is not required
either during initial training or after-
wards. So why pay attention to it?
Coaching supervision is more
common in Europe and Asia, as many
organizations require coaches to provide
proof of receiving coaching supervision
before hiring them. ese organizations
know that the best coaches are pursuing
selfcare and development as coaches.
In the Americas, the notion is only
just starting to be noticed in the private
and public sectors. And while most
coach training programs do not require
supervision, Hudson Institute (HI)
is an exception to that rule, oering
discounted supervision for new gradu-
ates of the coaching program.
In time, as more coaches nd out
about it, coaching supervision will
be equally recognized as a required
practice.
Supervision as a practice has existed
for many decades as a resource to those
in the helping professions. It gives
practitioners an opportunity – and a
safe place – to talk about issues that
come up for them while helping oth-
ers. For example, it might be that the
practitioner nds themselves “stuck” or
“triggered” by a certain client or type
of client or is experiencing self-doubt
about their performance.
In the 1980s, coaching professionals
with backgrounds in counseling
psychology recognized that coaches
needed the same benets from super-
vision as those in the helping professions.
Peter Hawkins, David Clutterbuck,
Eve Turner, Edna Murdock and others
were among those who developed
coaching supervision as a distinct eld.
ey held on to the theoretical back-
ground of supervision training
for helping professionals and created
models and approaches that were a
better t for coaching. ese models
and content made their way into coach-
ing supervision training programs and
textbooks on the subject.
For those who think advanced
capabilities in coaching are enough,
it is helpful to compare coaching
supervision to coaching. First, rather
than being focused on a goal, super-
vision is an exploration of the coach’s
internal processes through reection.
e supervisor may guide the coach
through a review of contexts surround-
ing an issue. ere may be reection
on psychological, physical, implicit
and explicit contexts. ere may be a
focus on ethical issues and uncovering
blind spots. ere may be perspective
taken from the environment, including
the systems that play a part.
Coaching supervision benets coaches
and clients alike, as it allows coaches to
increase their objectivity, condence and
self-awareness. ey feel less isolated as a
When I further explain that supervi-
sion and mentoring are dierent, while
some still give me a blank look, others
react negatively to the notion. “I know
this is just another way to make money
o of coaches.” And “I am a profes-
sional coach, and I know what I need
to be successful.”
is negativity towards coaching
supervision from coaches in North
and South America is understandable.
Coaches can easily nd others in their
coaching communities with whom to
corroborate a negative point of view
because it was simply not presented as
necessary to them. ey didn’t learn
about coaching supervision in their
own coach education programs. ey
learned about coaching competencies
and were given opportunities to prac-
tice coaching and to receive feedback
from coach mentors.
Coach mentoring ensures that the
new coach is reasonably skilled. After
completing their certication program,
coaches are expected to practice coach-
ing and to improve over time only with
more experience and mentoring.
e non-committal or negative
attitude of coaches in the Americas
towards coaching supervision is sup-
ported by the current position of the
International Coaching Federation
(ICF) on the subject. ough the ICF
recognizes coaching supervision as
distinct from coach mentoring, and
allows coaching supervision credit
After completing their certication program, coaches are expected to
practice coaching and to improve over time only with more experience
and mentoring.
As a coaching supervisor in
the U.S., I often encounter
competent coaches who look
at me blankly when I tell
them I am an Accredited Coaching
Supervisor. They say, “I had a great
mentor coach when I was studying
coaching, too …”
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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
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coach as their experiences are normalized
through supervision. And they learn to
be more resourceful.
Not everyone can be a coaching
supervisor. A candidate for a coaching
supervision training program must have
a strong foundation as a coach. Typical
training from coach education programs
is presumed.
Like coaching, supervision occurs in
one-on-one sessions focused on a parti-
cular topic(s). Unlike coaching, the
topic is usually about the supervisee
and their clients, and what transpires in
coaching supervision is dierent.
A coaching supervision training pro-
gram is also very dierent from a coach
training program. Here is a avor of the
typical range of topics in Supervision
training and how they apply:
➜ Transactional Analysis (TA)
provides a framework to analyze
social interactions (or “transac-
tions”) as a basis for understanding
behavior.
➜ Transference is the redirection
of feelings about a specic person
onto someone else. Counter-
transference is the redirection of a
supervisor’s feelings. Discovering
the presence of either of these can
be helpful.
➜ Parallel Process: What the
coach is describing may also be
happening in parallel to another
relationship, perhaps even in the
relationship between supervisor
and coach.
➜ The “Field” is the space
where coaching and supervision
take place. As an entity and a
conduit, it plays a dynamic role
in all relationships.
➜ Quantum Physics, the study of
time and space, may be helpful
in revealing what exists outside of
time and space.
➜ The Seven Eye Model provides
a framework from which to view
a client-coach relationship from
several perspectives.
➜ The Full-Spectrum Model:
Another model that provides for
more perspective-taking.
➜ Additional Creative Tools and
methods can be used to examine
situations in an abstract way.
Some examples are “the magic
box,” “the empty chair,” and using
picture cards.
➜ Self as Instrument is the practice
of the supervisor paying close
attention to themselves during the
supervision process. is becomes
data for consideration.
AN EXAMPLE OF SUPERVISION
Earlier in my coaching, I had a client
who had me stumped and doubting
my capabilities as a coach. e client
came to several sessions with the same
unresolved situation.
Shortly after arriving, they would
start to cry. After ve minutes, the
crying would stop, and we would
commence coaching. When asked about
the crying, the client would wave it
away. By the end of the session, there
would be resolution and action items.
However, at the next meeting, the client
would report not having completed the
actions, and the session would begin
with another ve-minute crying spell.
Why couldn’t I help my client move
from a seemingly endless loop of
repeating events? I turned to a coaching
supervisor. As my supervisor examined
the relationship through the lenses of
the Seven Eye model, I understood that
there was a parallel process going on
between the client and myself.
We were both frustrated about mov-
ing “our situations” forward and were
caught in a continuous loop.
We also shared a lack of condence in
our abilities to resolve our issues. One
insight I had was that I was not respon-
sible to resolve the client’s issue nor to
make the client act. Mine was to reect
on what was happening in the sessions.
e next coaching session was more
productive. e client never explained
what the tears were about, but, interest-
ingly, I let go of the need to know.
While just one small example, every
supervision session is dierent and
reveals often profound insight. As my
trainer, Sam Magill said, coaching super-
vision “is like a walk in the garden.”
FREQUENCY OF SUPERVISION
e need for coaching supervision de-
pends on the coach and the frequency
of coaching. If one were coaching 30
hours a week, having a supervision
session every week may be helpful. If
the coaching was less frequent, then
supervision may be less frequent as well.
e key is for the coach to keep a diary
of “topics” for supervision that they can
bring to their next supervision session.
So, is coaching supervision a friend
or foe of coaches? I would argue that
it’s a friend. It aligns with the notion of
adults as life-long learners.
In my view as a coach trainer, coach
mentor and coaching supervisor, I be-
lieve that coaches should have ongoing
mentoring for coaching competence
and they should receive coaching
supervision for selfcare, an opportunity
to reect, to uncover and resolved blind
spots, and for continuous growth.
For more information about coaching
supervision, see or join the Association
of Coaching Supervisors (AOCS), an
association dedicated to informing the
public about coaching supervision. Coaches
can nd a directory of coaching supervisors,
resources and learning opportunities at:
associationofcoachingsupervisors.com
The supervisor may guide the coach through a review of contexts
surrounding an issue. There may be reection on psychological,
physical, implicit and explicit contexts.
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CO
PRESENCING
Demystifying coaching supervision
By PoYee Dorrian, MBA, MCC
“What is the dierence between coaching and supervision?”
“How do you dene supervision?”
ese questions are probably impossible to answer because the distinction be-
tween coaching and supervision is elastic and individualized. I have always wondered
whether the wanting to nd a denition at the onset of learning deters them from
wondering and exploring. A few thought leaders and pioneers steeped in the eld of
coaching supervision shared their points of view as follows:
■ “Coaching supervision is a formal
process of professional support
which ensures continuing devel-
opment of the coach and eective-
ness of his/her coaching practice
through interactive reection,
interpretative evaluation and the
sharing of expertise” (Bachkirova,
Stevens and Willis, 2005)
■ “Supervision is a forum where
supervisees (in this case coaches)
review and reect on their work
in order to do it better ... In a
relationship of trust and transpar-
ency, supervisees talk about their
work and through reection and
thoughtfulness learn from it
and return to do it dierently.”
(Carrol, 2007)
There are a couple of common
questions I often hear from
my experience in developing
coach supervisors:
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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
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if a melody has not reached its end, it
has not reached its goal.”
HOW I GOT HERE
My rst super-vision experience left an
indelible mark on me, which became
the impetus for my own growth and
transformation. e genesis of my path
to super-vision dates back to my nal
year living in Asia, where I reconnected
with a colleague in Seoul, Korea, at an
APAC conference.
I respected and admired her as an
exceptional leader and executive coach.
When I saw her, it was instant that I
sensed she was dierent. ere was an
aura of condence, groundedness, ease,
and grace, an eervescent quality to her
that I had not seen in the years past.
When I inquired about the change
in her life, without missing a beat,
she shared her transformative growth
both personally and professionally in
super-vision, a term that was unfamiliar
to me in the context of coaching. My
interest was piqued.
Guided by both of our spontaneous
energy, she took me through a super-vi-
sion experience. At the end of that im-
promptu session, I felt renewed and en-
riched, as if a part of me was awakened.
Intrigued and surprised by my feelings, I
embarked on a journey and determined
to know more about super-vision.
at inspiration led me to the adven-
ture of becoming a trained supervisor,
where I was immersed in a rigorous
year-long diploma program. e
profundity and inner transformation
during that time have gifted me with a
deeper knowing of myself. It was com-
ing home to my own brilliance, as titled
in my nal reection paper.
■ “Supervision is the process by
which a Coach/Mentor/Consultant
with the help of a Supervisor, who
is not working directly with the
client, can attend to understand-
ing better both the client system
and themselves as part of the
client-coach/mentor system, and
transform their work.” (Hawkins
and Smith, 2007)
While there are many denitions of
coaching supervision – including those
provided by coaching organizations
such as the International Coaching
Federation (ICF) and the European
Mentoring and Coaching Council
(EMCC) – they all encompass the
elements of reective practice. Super-
vision is a safe space that expands the
capacity, development and resource-
fulness of coaches and practitioners in
their coaching practice for the benet
of their clients and stakeholders.
Remember the analogy of “learn-
ing to ride a bike” that we often hear
coaches use to distinguish the dif-
ference between being a consultant,
therapist, mentor and coach? I would
introduce two hidden characters to
the bicycle story: a mentor coach and
a coach supervisor. ey are coach
educators who play the backstage,
supporting role.
Specically in the Americas, a mentor
coach may focus primarily on upgrad-
ing the coach’s skills from a techni-
cal perspective. A coach supervisor,
however, explores the various aspects of
self-awareness, relational dynamics and
systemic dimensions, to help uncover
invisible inuences that may hinder the
quality of their coaching and expres-
sions of those skills.
If the purpose of coaching is to
support clients in making improve-
ments and achieving goals, then the
purpose of supervision is to widen
coaches’ aperture to examine their
paradigm and perceive the multi-
faceted relationships – the connec-
tions and the space within, without,
and with the interweaving systems
in which they operate.
Given the complexity of interlocking
webs, reection is the goal. Reection
is central to coaching supervision.
e general understanding of the
term supervision implies a power
structure in a restrictive and hierarchi-
cal relationship, which could elicit the
feeling of being assessed and scrutinized.
On the contrary, supervision is a space
for co-visioning and expansion. It oers
coaches multitudinous approaches and
lenses beyond models to facilitate their
reection on their coaching practice.
Hence, separating the word into two
components, super-vision, depicts the
most accurate and purist intention of
the work.
Super-vision goes beyond the
conventional mentoring approach – a
functional, outside-in (Carroll, 2001)
aspect of employing a technique for
remedial intervention. Super-vision is
an inside-out process where “What do
you do in coaching supervision?” fades
into the background. Instead, super-vi-
sion emerges from who the supervisor
is, as with the expression “Who you
are, is how you supervise.” (Murdoch,
Arnold, 2013).
Super-vision is a continuously unfold-
ing and evolving collaborative rela-
tionship of co-presencing, with shared
learning at its heart. It is like having
both the supervisor and the supervisee
holding up their respective mirrors to
each other to reveal the interplay of the
unseen and the unspoken exist on the
individual and collective levels across
dierent overlapping systems.
e essence of super-vision is
captured well by Friedrich Nietzsche’s
quote, “Not every end is the goal. e
end of a melody is not its goal, and yet
Supervision oers coaches multitudinous approaches and lenses
beyond models to facilitate their reection on their coaching practice.
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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 27
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WHY COACHING SUPERVISION?
“Supervision interrupts practice. It
wakes us up to what we are doing.
When we are alive to what we are do-
ing, we wake up to what is, instead of
falling asleep in the comfort stories of
our … routines and daily practice. e
supervisory voice acts as an irritator
interrupting repetitive stories (comfort
stories) and facilitating the creation of
new stories.” (S. Ryan, 2004)
Super-vision has been a key pillar to
my learning and growth, and I have no-
ticed its impact on coaches who engage
in this practice regularly. ey are more
aware and attune to bringing the best of
themselves to work with their clients.
e benets and value of super-vision
spring from the core tenets of this prac-
tice. Having its roots traced back to the
eld of other helping professions such
as counselling, psychotherapy, clinical
psychology, etc., super-vision adapted
the three functions as the purpose:
1. Normative or Qualitative –
Quality-focused in nature, con-
cerned with “coach as an ethical
professional” practicing in align-
ment with coaching standards and
codes of ethics);
2. Formative or Developmental –
Educative in nature, pertaining to
“coach as a coach” growing and
learning through skill development
and knowledge application;
3. Restorative or Resourcing –
Supportive in nature, tending to
“coach as a human being,” feeling
nurtured and restored through a
sense of belonging and emotional
resourcefulness.
e nature of client situations
explored in the sessions may vary, but
they largely fall into those three func-
tions. Below are samples of inquiries
that have been brought to super-vision
by coaches that may resonate with you:
■ “When I coach this client, I often
feel I am put on a pedestal as the
expert, and the truth is that I like
it. What is going on with my rela-
tionship with that client?”
■ “I found out that my client is being
bullied in a system. I am now siding
with my client against the organiza-
tion that is paying for this engage-
ment as the common enemy!”
■ “I need the work, and I am
good at what I do. But I feel
un-inspired by clients who seem
to lack self-awareness and look
for tips and tricks for supercial
improvements.”
■ “I struggle coaching clients who
don’t seem to be engaged. It feels
exhausting to work hard in order
to pull things out of them!”
■ “My client is playing a victim role
and only sees faults in others. I
can’t seem to help them see beyond
that narrative.”
■ “I feel uneasy and conicted with
the information shared by my
client. What can I do next with
what I know?”
■ “During the session, I nd that
I may have stepped into the space
of therapy and may have used a
therapeutic approach. Did I fall
out of integrity in being a coach?
Regardless of the topics for reection
and the models, theories, philosophies
or processes the supervisor choses to use,
the depth and breadth of the conver-
sation in super-vision is an essential
feature. e quality of supervision comes
not from the supervisor having a mental
checklist on competencies, but rather,
stillness that prepares a temenos of emp-
tiness, openness and the possibility for
an open mind, open heart and open will
(Scharmer, 2009) to emerge.
is is fertile ground that enables
us to gain multi-dimensional thinking
through purposeful reection and
reexivity, where coaches can step up
to become more expansive, spacious
and available regarding all of their
abilities. Such beauty of super-vision
reminds me of a saying from a supervi-
sor, “… We never arrive; we are always
on a journey … and there are no
directions, just how you approach
the road you take.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
After practicing in the eld of super-
vision for nearly a decade and having
gone through the phases of discovering,
imagining, searching and dening what
it is, I am arriving at a personal articu-
lation that super-vision is the animation
of consciousness and connectedness
in a relationship through generative
dialogues, moment-by-moment, and
present in the space with the other.
To me, super-vision is spirituality
and love in action:
■ Spirituality – embracing our inter-
connectedness and tapping into
the knowing and bonding with the
wider sphere.
■ Love – the unadulterated beauty
of sitting with others with appre-
ciative inquiry, void of othering
and fear, only togetherness and
seeing someone through the eyes
of love.
Our creation reects who we are. e
quality of our coaching reects our in-
ner being. us, excellence at our work
is an inside job; as leadership visionary
Bob Anderson says, “the inner game
drives the outer game.” Super-vision
provides a unique container for coaches
to dive into their inner game so they
come out ready for creating excellence
anew in the outer game.
Super-vision is a continuously unfolding and evolving collaborative
relationship of co-presencing, with shared learning at its heart.
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Supervision
A powerful path to develop our coaching
By Aida Frese, MA, MCC (ICF), ESIA, EIA (EMCC)
When we are most stuck, we can most grow
if we have a space to reect with another who
will both support and challenge us.
– In Love with Supervision, Robin Shohet & Joan Shohet
Supervision is an opportunity
for coaches to learn from the
inside out by reecting on the
coaching practice, and explor-
ing achievements and challenges experi-
enced that will help to develop the best
version of themselves.
As passionate coaches, we love to
serve and accompany people to unleash
their potential and thrive. We are always
ready for our clients at every session,
and we value their trust, vulnerability
and willingness to move forward. We
stand by them while oering our full
presence, deep listening, challenging
questions, or just providing silence for
further reection.
From that passion and responsibility,
we are aware that to better serve our
clients, we must live in an “ongoing
learning process.”
As we move from beginners to more
experienced coaches, we face dierent
situations and become aware of our
needs in our developmental journey. is
requires training, practice, reection,
vulnerability and commitment. In that
journey, we may use dierent paths that
may range from courses, books, podcasts
and webinars to more personal practices
such as mentoring or supervision.
Both are important, but they are
dierent in their approach and focus. In
mentor coaching, the mentor observes
the development of coaching compe-
tencies and shares their knowledge and
skills, with appreciative and develop-
mental feedback.
In supervision, the focus is on the
coach’s development based on real
practice, taking distance from the case
to reect and learn from it. As stated by
the European Mentoring and Coaching
Council (EMCC), and later by the In-
ternational Coaching Federation (ICF),
supervision is a safe and collaborative
space where a coach shares the coaching
work with the supervisor in a reective
dialogue to improve and develop the
practice and wellbeing of the coach.
Supervision impacts the coach, the
client, and the organization where the
clients work.
Supervision brings a Super vision. As
coaches, we take a step back and observe
ourselves from some distance. We may
work one to one with a supervisor or
in group supervision with supervisor
and coach peers contributing on the
reection of the case. e supervisee
shares a coaching case (individual or
team coaching), always protecting
their client from any identication and
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condentiality issues. We may bring to
our practice the ritual to stop, look and
reect on the session, developing our
internal supervisor. In our own reec-
tion we may realize that we had a great
session, or sometimes wonder what we
could have done better. We may identify
thoughts, feelings, doubts, lack of clear
agreement, or even some inner con-
versations that appeared and may have
blocked us from being at our best.
Let’s think about your practice, and if
any of the following questions resonate
with you, supervision could be a good
path to explore.
➤ Do you ever feel lonely in your jour-
ney while you honor condentiality?
➤ Are you sometimes over-empathetic
with your client?
➤ How do your clients’ stories, chal-
lenges and situations resonate with
your personal life?
➤ How can you untangle the doubts
on ethical boundaries that may arise
during or after the coaching session?
Shifts happen to us during the coach-
ing session, and it is essential to consider
who can support us as coaches.
Supervision oers us the possibility
to condentially explore a coaching case
with a professional supervisor to under-
stand our performance, emotions and
blind spots, helping us to keep learning
for future sessions. We may work in an
individual supervision setting or in group
supervision, where the coaches participat-
ing contribute with their reections with
the supervisee and learn for themselves.
Supervision invites coaches to “expe-
rience learning” and, as Proctor armed
in 1986, it has three main functions
for coaches. It helps coaches reect on
themselves (reective), evaluate their pro-
fessional standards (normative) and also
explore their professional practice consid-
ering models and resources (formative).
Supervisors and coaches develop a
partnership where a coach presents a
case (this could be an individual or team
coaching case), and both bring their
awareness to examine their work, con-
sidering the relationship with the client,
the coach, the systems involved, and
the patterns. It is important to clarify
that supervision does NOT control the
quality of coaching.
What may bring us to supervision?
When we connect to clients with our
hearts and consider the humanity
involved in a coaching relationship, we
see that our clients bring challenges,
emotions, and sometimes issues that
we have not been able to solve in our
own lives. We may wonder: What is this
client telling me about me?
We have explored the value of
supervision, its purpose, benets, and
logistics. It’s important to highlight that
to be in supervision requires courage,
humility, commitment, responsibility
and openness.
In supervision, we coaches must be
willing to be vulnerable as we share
cases with the supervisor (or the group).
We must also be specic in asking
for support during the session. Is it
simple or easy to share what does not
work for you, along with your failures
and doubts? I’m pretty sure it is not
that easy, and we take risks asking for
supervision. Sometimes, perfectionism
or pride may block us under a protec-
tive mask to keep growing by hiding
our true self and looking for a quick
solution rather than reecting about it.
(Brené Brown, Dare to Lead)
We are driven by the desire to become
better, to keep learning, to discover
what we do not see, and to face it with
appreciation, whereas in a self-protec-
tive mode, we may avoid challenging
ourselves and keep our practice in the
comfort zone.
Both coaching and supervision
require the courage to be vulnerable.
Brené Brown says that we need courage
to show up when we cannot control
the outcome, and while coaching, we
don’t know what will happen in the
session. It also takes courage to super-
vise our coaching.
My invitation is to walk the talk. We
are proud when our coaching clients
have courage to overcome their chal-
lenges. What would it be like to bring
the courage to share our fears and
doubts, and work on our challenges as
coaches in supervision? Only when we
see ourselves, can we truly see others!
Continuing our journey as coaches
with others is an exponential develop-
ment as we share and learn from practice,
challenging ourselves while looking at
our cases (or the cases of other coaches if
working in group). We all learn – even
the supervisors who bring their own
selves into the session. From this heli-
copter view in the session, with dierent
tools and approaches, we reect on
WHO the coach was in that session with
that client under those circumstances.
At this point my questions are:
➤ Who do you want to be as a coach?
➤ How will you develop that best self?
➤ Will you limit your learning to books,
courses, webinars, etc. to expand
your professional stand?
➤ Are you ready to open your heart,
take care of you as a coach, and be
a better coach for your clients in the
sessions to come?
Supervision is an act of love and
responsibility with us and our clients. It
allows us to learn from mistakes, leverage
achievements and see what happen to us
to consider in our next session. It is the
oxygen mask that replenishes coaches to
be better prepared to serve others.
Supervision oers us the possibility to condentially explore a coaching
case with a professional supervisor to understand our performance,
emotions and blind spots.
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COACHING
SUPERVISION
IN ORGANIZATIONS
A game-changer to improve the impact of coaching
By Je Nally, MBA, PCC, SHRM-SCP & Kimcee McAnally, PhD, EIA, ESIA
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supporter… in the professional development journey and not
that of an assessor” (Hemmer et al.)
is article is intended for organizations and coaches who
are curious about supervision – how it works, the benets,
and how to incorporate coaching supervision for yourself as
a coach, or in an organization.
THE BUSINESS CASE
Coach practice leaders in organizations have a variety of
responsibilities to meet internal operational requirements.
For example, organizations are increasingly requiring external
coaching services to be vetted and contracted through internal
procurement or supplier management requirements. Such re-
quirements include a measure of continuous improvement or
quality assurance for coaching services. Coaching supervision
is highly regarded as a continuous improvement or quality
assurance practice that increases credibility for the coaches and
the coaching program.
Organizational settings provide additional layers of context,
stakeholders, relationships and ecosystems that impact the
coach, the coachee and their coaching experience. Coaching
supervision is one eective way to help the coach unpack their
reections on the impact of the organizational context and
systems, acknowledge complexity without having it detract
from the coaching experience, and reect on the similarities
and dierences between coaching in a variety of organizations.
Coaching supervision for internal coaches provides a
unique way to reect, develop and grow. While many internal
coaches create coaching circles or peer groups, these are often
focused on knowledge gathering and sharing rather than a
professionally guided reective space. e advantage of coach-
ing supervision led by a trained and certied supervisor for
internal coaches is an intentional way that cases and coaching
situations can be brought forward without identifying people
or departments. is helps preserve strict condentiality
while maintaining the primary focus of reection.
Group supervision can create even deeper layers of reec-
tion as the wisdom of the group and their collective reections
may contribute to coaches presenting a variety of coaching
cases or client situations. When the group is composed of
coaches who coach in the same organization or industry, there
The thought of working with an experienced coach
to support leaders is a well-accepted practice across
corporations and industries around the world.
Leaders readily engage with coaches during leader-
ship transitions, challenging situations, and to enhance their
own skills as leaders in their organizations.
But who takes care of and develops the coach? Often
times, coaches are independent and run their own busi-
ness, fending for themselves when it comes to their own
self-care and personal development. Coaching supervision
is a well-established practice in many parts of the world
to support the coaches themselves as they coach organiza-
tional leaders.
e purpose of coaching supervision is to enable coaches
to introspectively look at themselves, how they coach, and
about their professional health as a coach. As a result, coaches
are better able to develop and enhance their own skills so they
can better support the leaders and organizations. Acccording
to a 2021 publication, “e role of the supervisor is that of a
THE EUROPEAN MENTORING AND COACHING
COUNCIL (EMCC GLOBAL, 2022) DEFINES
SUPERVISION AS:
“A safe space for reective dialogue with a practicing
supervisor, supporting the supervisee's practice,
development, and well-being. The purpose of
supervision is to ensure the supervisee maintains
appropriate professional standards.”
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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 33
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can be additional shared insights, observations and learning
about the overall context in which coaching occurs. is helps
each coach understand the organization or industry beyond
their own coaching engagements.
UP YOUR COACHING GAME
Supervision is one of the best practices for coaches’ continual
professional development. It enables the coach to step back –
look at themselves and consider who they are being as a coach
– and bring real-world or hypothetical, practical or ambig-
uous issues and challenges to supervision. e supervision
experience supports the coach to maintain a healthy outlook,
disposition, and ability to handle the challenges of being a
coach (McAnally et al., 2020a).
As a seasoned coach who has only recently started
supervision, Debra Kopelman described her experience
after three group supervision sessions: “It can be helpful
… to show coaches what they’re not seeing themselves;
their blind spots. ere were at least one or two things that
really either shifted my perspective or gave me something
tangible to do.”
e types of topics a coach may bring to supervision are
vast and unlimited. Common examples are reecting on the
eectiveness of a recent coaching session; diculties with a
leader who is resistant to coaching; patterns the coach has
noticed lately about how the coach is behaving during sessions
(e.g., interrupting or being impatient); or recognizing one’s
own assumptions, biases, or triggers as a coach.
One global research study found that the vast majority
of coaches in Europe consistently partner with a coach
supervisor. While supervision is less prominent for coaches
in Asia and North America, it is gaining popularity with the
realization of its benets (McAnally et al. 2020b). Accord-
ing to the authors of a 2017 research study, “Supervision
of coaches… is now considered a normal way to ensure the
REFERENCES:
• European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC Global). 2022.
emccglobal.org
• Hemmer, Natalie; Margariti, Marialexia; Moral, Michel; Oliviera Pinto,
Ana; van Vlerken, Anita. 2021. EMCC Global. Continuous Professional
Development (CPD).
• McAnally, K., Abrams, L., Asmus, M. J., & Hildebrandt, T. H. (2020a).
“Coaching Supervision.” In T. H. Hildebrandt, F. Campone, K. Norwood,
& E. J. Ostrowski (Eds.), Innovations in Leadership Coaching: Research and
Practice (pp. 395-417). Fielding Graduate University.
• McAnally, K., Abrams, L., Asmus, M. J., & Hildebrandt, T. H. (2020b).
Global Coaching Supervision: A study of the perceptions and practices
around the world.
• coachingsupervisionresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/
Global_Coaching_Supervision_Report_FINAL.pdf Moral, Michel;
Menaul, Julia; Turner, Eve. July, 2018. “Supervision on Supervision –
State of the Art: a Survey.” Presentation at the European Mentoring and
Coaching Council (EMCC Global) Mentoring, Coaching and Supervision
Research Conference. emccglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/
EMCC-book-2018-research-conference-eBook.pdf
A global pharmaceutical company with executive
coaching programs required coaching supervision
for continuous improvement and quality assurance
for coaches with engagements in the organization.
Coaches experience one, 90-minute group supervision
session for every thirty hours of coaching completed at
the company. The coaches have been able to identify
emerging themes of leadership challenges and acceler-
ate their understanding of the organizational contexts
and ecosystems as coaches by condentially sharing
cases and coaching dilemmas. The shared reection
among coaches has contributed to their readiness as a
coach and to the impact of their coaching for leaders in
the organization.
professionalism and the quality of their work for the benet
of their clients” (Moral et al. 2018).
Realistic questions for a coach are – “what happens if I
don’t have supervision? I’ve been coaching for a long time
– why would I need supervision now – what’s in it for me?”
While it is true that many successful coaches have never
had supervision – the adage “you don’t know what you are
missing” is perhaps applicable here. It is our perspective that
all coaches can benet from coaching supervision, no matter
how experienced or successful the coach may be. To not do so
is to deprive yourself as a coach and your clients of an eective
means to stay at the top of your game.
INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL
APPROACHES TO SUPERVISION
e authors propose that coaching supervision benets all
coaches – whether they are just getting started as a coach –
or already have a thriving practice.
So how can you begin supervision? As a coach, it starts
with nding a trained, certied Coach Supervisor who will
guide you through the process. As you reect together, you
will quickly see how supervision benets you, and the positive
impact it has on your practice, and well-being as a coach.
As an organization, it is oftentimes better to contract
with outside resources for coaching supervision, to preserve
condentiality and objectivity. Coaching supervision is very
useful as a means of ensuring the quality of the coaches’ work
and giving coaches an outlet for challenges, surprises, and
curiosities – all in order to support the coaching engagements
with your leaders.
Supervision will be essential as organizations seek ways to
ensure higher-quality coaching and develop coaches to create
greater impact with leaders, teams and the organization.
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“Transformation is often more about un-
learning than learning,” wrote Richard
Rohr. If you believe that to be the case, as
I do, what does it mean for us as coaches?
What do we need to unlearn in order to go through our
own transformation towards mastery in our coaching?
Before we became coaches, we each developed ways of see-
ing the world that kept us safe or gave us a sense of belonging
to the “tribe,” whether that tribe was a family system, a peer
group, a team or our coach training cohort.
rough eld research, observing and giving feedback
to more than 250 coaches on their coaching, I have
noticed that it is these previously formed mindsets that
we need to unlearn.
e best coaching works on the “who” of the thinker, so
that the “what” falls into place with ease (per Marcia Reynolds
in Coach the Person, Not the Problem). e same holds true for
learning to coach.
e best training and the best mentor coaching work on
the “who” of the coach, their beliefs, mindsets and paradigms,
so that the “what” of the coaching competencies falls into
place with ease. Perhaps we should call this mentor coaching
the person, not the competencies?
So what kind of mindsets am I referring to? e impor-
tance of coaching the person, not the problem is a belief
in and of itself, but so often I see the opposite happening
in practice, that I start to wonder whether the coach really
believes that solving the problem is more important than
coaching the person. Some of the tell-tale signs that the
coach believes that coaching is about problem-solving and
improving performance show up as:
• Few, if any, questions about the thinker’s emotions
and feelings, even when the thinker drops those into
the conversation. More questions that are about the
perceived task in hand.
• Asking action-orientated questions really early in a
session; questions like: “so what could you do?” It’s too
early to be asking solution-based questions before they
have explored the root causes, the barriers to action, the
beliefs that are stopping them, the values that are being
triggered, etc.
• Pushing from the coach to resolve everything that has
been brought to the session rather than helping the
thinker to identify the most important aspect to be
working on and going deep on that.
• Creating lists, to-dos and action plans as an output
from the coaching that aren’t underpinned by changes
in mindset.
Un-learning
The key to mentor coaching
By Clare Norman
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Let’s take another mindset example: the favorite expres-
sion that those we work with are “creative, resourceful
and whole” (Whitworth et al). We might say this aloud,
as though we believe it, and yet I so often see coaching in
practice that belies this belief.
When the coach is asked about this, they might disclose
their real belief that value is created when they lead the
thinker to what the coach knows to be “the” answer – an
answer that has worked for them and others in the past.
Or the belief that the person they are working with doesn’t
have enough experience to access the “right” answer. ere
is no one right answer, except where there is a law or a
policy that needs to be followed.
Neither of these beliefs allows the coach to treat the
thinker as creative, resourceful and whole, but rather
uncreative, unresourceful and decient.
I hear coaches talking a good game when it comes to the
mindsets that guide us towards coaching mastery. But then I
see something dierent in practice, which tells me that these
are espoused values rather than values in action. In mentor
coaching, we need to uncover the real values and mindsets
and support the coach to make a dierent choice that will
then inuence their competency development.
Changing behavior without changing our mental model is
certainly possible in the short-term, just to be able to record a
coaching session that passes an assessment, but the coach will
quickly fall back into their old ways, because they have not
updated their operating system that runs in the background.
Just as we know happens with our thinkers, when we
have not worked with them on their own operating systems,
but moved directly to a transactional list of things to do
dierently. If they are not seeing the world dierently, they
will not do things dierently (at least not on a consistent,
REFERENCES
• Rohr, R. (2013) Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life,
London: SPCK Publishing.
• Franklin, M. (2019) The Heart of Laser-Focused Coaching: A Revolutionary
Approach to Masterful Coaching, Wilmington: Thomas Noble Books.
• Reynolds, M. (2020) Coach the Person, Not the Problem: A Guide to Using
Reective Inquiry, Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
• Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H. and Sandahl, P. (1998) Co-active
Coaching, Palo Alto, CA: Davies Black Publishing.
• Covey, S. (1999) The 7 Habits of Highly Eective People, New York:
Simon & Schuster.
• Norman, C.E. (2022) The Transformational Coach: Free your thinking
and break through to coaching mastery, Bristol, Right Book Company.
• Bachkirova, T. (2015a) “Self-deception in coaches: An issue of principles
and a challenge for supervision,” Coaching: An International Journal of
Theory, Research and Practice, 8 (1): 4–19.
• Benjamin J. (2017) Beyond Doer and Done To: An Intersubjective View
of Thirdness. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Kline N. (2002) Time to Think. London: Cassell.
long-term basis) and will therefore get the same results that
they have always got (Covey).
is goes for coaches, too – if they do not identify and
detach themselves from old beliefs and replace them with
new ones, they will not do things dierently and will there-
fore get the same results that they have always got.
Transformation might feel a bit big; a bit scary; a bit hard.
It will take us to and through a liminal space, to a place
where we have shed our old identity and are slowly attempt-
ing to embrace a new identity.
I get how tough that is, having stepped over that thresh-
old myself. It caused me to feel vulnerable – and at times
decient and not quite belonging to my old identity nor
a new one. It’s a space of not knowing (good practice for
being a great coach) and that is uncomfortable. But if you
take one mindset at a time, your coaching will make leaps
and bounds. I can promise you that, as I have seen it with
my own eyes in the people I have worked with, and I have
experienced it myself.
With a growth mindset and a beginner’s mind, even the
most seasoned coaches have upped their game, by updating
the mindsets that are holding them back.
But sometimes we need a fresh pair of ears to listen to
our coaching, so that we can amplify the things we don’t
know about ourselves. Tatiana Bachkirova has found
that we coaches are self-deceiving when we reect on our
own coaching – maybe exaggerating or underplaying our
strengths. So it’s useful to work with an experienced coach
who can listen with you for the clues in your coaching that
reveal your underlying mindsets.
ere is so much to unlearn, so let’s keep returning to
mentor coaching as a way of supporting our growth for the
benet of our thinkers.
✔ you trust to provide you with enough psycho-
logical safety to do this unlearning, whilst also
challenging you to step away from those mindsets
that no longer serve your thinkers;
✔ understands the connection between mindset
shift and competency development;
✔ is laser-focused on mindsets;
✔ can take you through a process of unlearning
those unhelpful mindsets and learning replace-
ment mindsets that will enable you to help your
thinker to get to new thinking;
✔ can help you to spot marginal gains;
✔ will give you objective, evidence-based feedback
about your strengths and your stretches.
CHOOSE A MENTOR
COACH WHO:
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MENTOR
COACHES
By Laura Berman Fortgang, MCC
The case for having one
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With a front-row seat to
the birth and growth of
the coaching profession,
I’ve seen the denitions
of coaching become diluted and the de-
nition of a mentor coach change from
what I knew it to be almost 30 years ago
to something unrecognizable today.
Like having beautiful colors of paint
on a canvas only to blend them together
until they become one muddy brown
color, mentor coaching has mutated,
resulting in the onus being on you – the
seeker of a mentor coach – to identify
what is really going to make the dier-
ence. I hope to oer assistance.
When I started coaching, a mentor
coach was someone who could help you
build your practice and your coaching
skillset by modeling it in your coaching
relationship with them, and by receiv-
ing direct growth and goal-oriented
guidance as prescribed by the mile-
stones you wanted to reach. Now, we
have a vast ocean of choices that extend
beyond one-on-one coaching, which
vary in price point, content, instruction
and goals. It’s overwhelming! How do
you choose?
■ How many years of
experience do they have?
■ Do they have a coaching
credential?
■ Do you like them and feel
a rapport?
■ Have they accomplished
what you hope to do?
■ Does their coaching style
resonate with you?
■ Did your consultation
yield any insights that
resonated with you?
CHOOSING
YOUR MENTOR
COACH
It might help to draw a distinction
between a mentor coach and a ‘do-it-
for-you’ pro. e marketplace is ooded
with oers to teach you how to market
your coaching business, reach six or sev-
en gures, master social media, become a
LinkedIn expert to gain leads, along with
a myriad of more specic tools. ose
are not mentors. Most are not coaches,
either, but rather, teachers of a skill you
might want to assimilate. You may need
some of these areas of expertise, but let’s
get back to mentor coaches.
In the corporate world, when some-
one asks what the dierence is between
a mentor and a coach, we usually draw
the distinction that a mentor has walked
the path you hope to take and can
advise and maybe even open doors to
where you want to go. A coach diers,
in that they are less directive and use
more of an inquiry model to help you
grow to your next steps and reach your
desired destination. is doesn’t mean
that a coach couldn’t also have come
from an industry or corporate position
and hold that dual role with you.
Research from e Association of
Talent Development (ATD) – which
studied mentoring programs oered in
companies among a sampling of 292
individual participants – states that
mentoring can yield professional de-
velopment and a better understanding
of organizational culture for mentees.
e main benets for the organization
are higher employee engagement and
retention and supporting growth of
high-potential employees.*
According to the International
Coaching Federation (ICF), a mentor
coach supports you to master the core
competencies of the coach’s skillset. In-
herent in the relationship is modeling,
skill transfer, accountability, and goal/
outcome focus. I’d add that you get a
mentor and coach in one, as compared
to the corporate example above.
Your mentor coach should have
accomplished something you’re look-
ing to do, like have a certain level of
business revenue or model or reach
a level of content development you
hope to attain. ey may be a Mas-
ter Credentialed Coach (MCC), and
that path may appeal to you. You’d be
experiencing master-level coaching,
and that will advance your skills more
quickly as well.
Drawing comparisons between cor-
porate mentoring and mentor coaching
(for coaches) shows that although dif-
ferent in structure and focus, the results
of keeping coaches in the eld and
supporting high-potential coach leaders
would be benecial, as ICF’s own statis-
tic is that 82% of coaches close up shop
within two years of starting.
My earliest mentor coach was a skills
guide, a practice-building guide, my life
coach, and ultimately a great role model
for the MCC status I’d attain. I’m
forever grateful. I didn’t stray away from
having a mentor coach until it became
evident that my business acumen need-
ed more work than my coaching skills.
It was then that I shopped for coaches
to support other aspects of my growth.
Today, the noisy cacophony of mar-
keters, inuencers and celebrity status
gurus makes it hard to stay in your lane.
However, I assert that being a really good
coach is one of the best marketing strate-
gies you can have. If you produce results,
your clients will do the selling for you.
HOW IT WORKS
To give you an idea of how you can
fast-track your growth with a mentor
coach, allow me to illustrate through
A mentor has walked the path you hope to take and can advise and
maybe even open doors to where you want to go.
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an experience I had. I was asked to
mentor coach someone as their MCC
mentor on their way to get their creden-
tial. As is customary, I was listening to
an audio recording of the coach’s session
with a client.
Within the rst ve minutes of the
coaching session, the client made a
statement that revealed a stumbling
block. e coach let that statement go,
and the rest of the coaching session
involved a lot of storytelling from the
client and unhelpful questions and
prompts from the coach.
It became a circular conversation
with little movement, growth, action or
understanding of self resulting. When I
had the chance to review the session with
the mentee, I asked if she knew what
she missed in the rst ve minutes. She
didn’t know. I mentioned what I heard
and what I saw as an opportunity to
coach the client through an obstacle.
When somebody says: “Why do I
need a coach? What can they do that
a friend or spouse or boss can’t do?”, hear
the subtleties. Understand unmet needs.
Get to the source of a problem more
quickly so it can be addressed or even
eliminated. Your mentor coach can do
the same for you.
e beloved skill set of coaching is
what is at stake when you are deciding
if it’s worth having a mentor coach. e
profession needs you to say yes. Unmud-
dy the paint, make the colors clear and
vibrant again, and become very skilled.
It’ll grow you. It’ll grow your life. It’ll
grow your business.
This is an opportunity to
grow, and your mentor
coach can help. Their help
will accelerate your growth
and your ability to create
results for your clients.
“Oh, we got to that a couple of
sessions later!,” she exclaimed, as if
congratulations were in order.
Addressing the issue two sessions later,
the problem persisted because it was
mentioned again, and it took the coach
hearing it again to catch the incongruity.
Not MCC level yet.
Stepping over an issue could be due
to not recognizing it, being afraid to
address it, or even being nervous about
interrupting a client’s train of thought.
All deferent to telling the truth as soon
as you know it. is is an opportunity
to grow, and your mentor coach can
help. eir help will accelerate your
growth and your ability to create results
for your clients.
SELFASSESSMENT FOR YOUR
MENTOR COACHING NEEDS
Ask: Where do I feel insecure?
■ Getting results
■ Finding clients
■ Enrolling/closing clients
■ Organizing myself to run
my practice
■ Running an eective client
session
■ Talking about what I do
■ I have Impostor Syndrome
(i.e., What business do I have
doing this?)
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Reflecting on
REFLECTION
REFLECTION
TABLE 1: THREE PRACTICES OF REFLECTING
Practice Pre-ective Reexive Reective
Reecting Prior-to-Action In-Action On-Action
Metaphor Crystal Ball Mirror Rearview Mirror
Source: Woodcock, Matheson & Thurlow, 2022. (After Schön, 1984.)
The journey to coaching maturity
By Kerry Woodcock, PhD, CPCC, ORSCC, PCC, ACTC, EMCC-SP,
Larissa Thurlow PCC, ACTC, ITCA, EMCC-SP, ESIA, CEC, ORCC
& Sherry Matheson CPCC, ORSCC, PCC, ACTC
Are some coaches more mature than others? And how have you matured
along your coaching journey? We recognize and honour that as coaches,
we are all at dierent levels of maturity. Reecting in and on our prac-
tice, where do we consciously and unconsciously enable or inhibit our
development and journey to coaching mastery?
e journey to maturity invites you to step into a review of your path so far, stand
still long enough to notice where you are now, and look towards what lies ahead for
you, both as a coach and as a human being. In other words, to develop your capa-
bility and capacity to be reective, reexive and pre-ective (Schön, 1984) through
practice (See Table 1).
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REFLECTING THROUGH
THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
As you look back through the rear
view mirror of your coaching journey,
what has supported and challenged you
the most to be pre-reective, reexive
and reective as a coach? What are the
peak moments you have experienced?
For the authors of this article, be-
coming a team coach who co-coaches
was one of the milestones that had the
biggest impact on our overall reective
practice. e greater complexity of team
coaching and the alignment process with
our co-coaches requires a considerable
commitment to pre-ective practice
(re-ecting-prior-to-action) through
prepping and brieng with our co-coach
before a team coaching session and
reective practice (reecting-on-action)
through de-brieng with our co-coach
after a team coaching session.
We supplemented these practices
with receiving coach mentoring and
supervision – recalling what we think
happened, interpreting meaning,
considering alternative courses of action
and planning for application of learn-
ings. Additionally, providing mentoring
and training for coaches, supported our
introspection and further reection.
REFLECTION PRACTICES
• There are three dierent forms of reecting:
• reective (reecting-on-action),
• reexive (reecting-in-action) and
• pre-ective (reecting-prior-to-action).
• Noticing what has supported and challenged
the coach on the reective practice journey
gives clues as to where the coach is on their
journey to maturity.
• There are dierent ways to support the entering
of reective spaces.
• Meaning-making applied to reection can be
aligned with stages of maturity.
• Supervision and supervision training can be seen
as developmental moves.
We generally nd that the intensity
of pre-ective and reective practice
isn’t as strong in individual coaching.
Most coaches tend to lean more into
these practices in relational dialogue
with their clients in the immediacy of
the beginning and end of each individ-
ual coaching session.
e ability to be reexive (reect-
ing-in-action) developed over time,
in relationship with individuals and
teams, through the awareness and
acknowledgement of parallel processes.
Becoming coach supervisors (and later
a supervisor trainers) amplied our re-
exive practice through the awareness of
transference and countertransference in
the supervisor-supervisee relationship.
Outside of coaching, writing (ction
and non-ction), painting, listening
to narrative interviews, journalling,
dialoguing with friends, and retreats
serve the more conventional reective
practice, while dancing and breathwork
serves a more reexive practice, and
walking and talking a less developed
pre-ective practice.
On reection, what has suppor-
ted and challenged our reective
practice the most is as co-learner
through relationship.
What about you?
REFLECTING FROM
WITHIN EXPERIENCES
As you look into the mirror and see
where you are now on your coaching
journey, what do you notice supports
you to enter a reective space?
is inquiry arose from one of the
students in a Team Coaching Super-
vision Training Program noticing in
the moment that they were nding it
challenging to enter into a reective
space. Some of the ways we have found
As you look back through the rear-view mirror of your coaching
journey, what has supported and challenged you the most to be
pre-reective, reexive and reective as a coach?
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
42
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Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
TABLE 2: REFLECTIONS ON REFLECTION
Leadership Maturity Framework
Level of
Maturity
Stage
Name
Key Drivers What Matters
Most?
Approaches
to Reecting
Reections On Reection
6 Unitive All-Embracing
& Witnessing Nonevaluative,
integrative
witnessing of
5/6 Construct-
Aware Noticing
Constructs &
Ego Traps
Interplay of
awareness,
thought, action
and eects;
transforming
self & others
Reecting through
the mirror of the
world; reecting
back universal irts
Reection allows us to
carve statues of insight and
meaning from the rubble of
coaching conversations.
5 Self-
Actualizing Integrating &
Transforming Linking theory
and principles
with practice,
dynamic
systems
interactions
Reecting
through the
self-as-instrument
To be reective involves
thinking from within experi-
ence, or as the Oxford English
Dictionary puts it, “turned
back or reected back on
the mind itself.”
4/5 Self-
Questioning Relativizing &
Contextualizing Self-discovery,
questioning
system
Reecting as a
co-learner through
relationship
Reection gives the brain an
opportunity to pause admidst
the chaos, untangle and sort
through observations and
experiences, consider multi-
ple possible interpretations,
and create meaning. This
meaning becomes learning,
which can then inform future
mindsets and actions.
4 Self-
Determining Analyzing &
Achieving Goal setting,
achievement
and eective-
ness, objectiv-
ity, contractual
agreements
Reecting as a
teacher through
what worked and
what didn't
Reection is necessary to be
the best version of yourself as
a coach and in life.
3/4 Skill-
Centric Comparing &
Perfecting Craft expertise,
procedures and
eciency
Reection is about careful
thought.
3 Group-
Centric Conforming &
Belonging Approval,
acceptance,
rules and norms
2/3 Self-
Centric Getting &
Defending Own;
immediate
needs, self-
protection
Source, Woodcock, Matheson & Thurlow, 2022. After Sharma, 2021.
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 43
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to enter into a reective space through
either connecting into our internal
world by being attentive to in-the-
moment body sensations, or through
breathwork, and/or connecting to our
external world through catching what
is reected back to us from the world
channel through visual and auditory
channels.
In reection, what supports us most
in entering into reective practice is
through self-as-instrument and
the mirror of the world reecting
back to us.
What about you?
REFLECTING THROUGH
THE CRYSTAL BALL
As you peer into the crystal ball,
towards what lies ahead for you on
your coaching journey, what glimpse
do you get of new ways of viewing
reection? And how might new forms
of meaning support and challenge
you today?
Perhaps reection is about careful
thought. Or perhaps reection is neces-
sary to be the best version of yourself as
a coach and in life.
➤ “Reection gives the brain an
opportunity to pause amidst the
chaos, untangle and sort through
observations and experiences,
consider multiple possible interpre-
tations, and create meaning. is
meaning becomes learning, which
can then inform future mindsets
and actions.” (Porter, 2017)
➤ “Reecting helps you to develop
your skills and review your eec-
tiveness, rather than just carry on
doing things as you have always
done them. It is about questioning,
in a positive way, what you do and
why you do it and then deciding
whether there is a better, or more
ecient, way of doing it in the
future.” (e Open University)
➤ “To be reexive involves thinking
from within experiences, or as the
Oxford English Dictionary puts it
‘turned or reected back upon the
mind itself.’” (Bolton, 2009)
REFERENCES
• Bolton, (2009). https://uk.sagepub.com/
sites/default/les/upm-binaries/32441_01_
Bolton_3e_Ch_01.pdf
• Porter, Jennifer (2017), “Why You Should Make
Time for Self Reection (Even If You Hate
Doing It).” Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-you-should-
make-time-for-self-reection-even-if-you-
hate-doing-it
• Sharma, Beena (2021), “Maturity Coaching:
Enabling Vertical Development in Leaders.”
In English, Susan Sabatine, Janice Manzi and
Philip Brownell (Eds), Professional Coaching:
Principles and Practice, Chapter 21: p.247-260
• Sinclair, Tracy (2022). https://tracysinclair.com/
reective-practice/
• The Open University (2022).
https://www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison/
develop/my-skills/self-reection
➤ “Reection allows us to carve stat-
ues of insight and meaning from
the rubble of coaching conversa-
tions.” (Sinclair, 2022)
Perhaps, for you, it is none or all of
these, and more.
See Table 2 for reections on
reection and how the authors may
see these align with stages of maturity,
as dened by the Vertical Development
Institute’s (VEDA) Leadership
Maturity Framework (Sharma, 2021).
Please note: these are the authors’
reections and they have not been
validated with VEDA.
SUPERVISION &
SUPERVISION TRAINING
AS A DEVELOPMENTAL MOVE
ere are a myriad of ways to develop
reective practice, as demonstrated
through our individual reections
through this article. Developmental
moves (Sharma, 2021) that may sup-
port an increase in the capability and
capacity to reect may include consoli-
dating where you are currently in your
reective practice, integrating what
you may have overlooked, ignored or
even marginalized from earlier stages of
meaning making around reection and
reective practice, and transitioning to
later stages through new practices.
Professional coaching supervision is
one way to support these developmen-
tal moves. With formats for supervi-
sion including one-on-one, group and
co-coach supervision, there are ample
opportunities for coaches to reect as
co-learners through relationship with
professional supervisors, their peers
and their co-coaches. Yet coaching
supervision provides a unique and
individualized learning support and
opportunity to examine, celebrate and
develop a coach’s understanding and
awareness of who they are and how
they work, regardless of their level of
maturity or experience.
As more coaches realize the value of
supervision for themselves, their clients
and their practice, there is an increase
in demand for professionally trained
and accredited supervisors. Training to
be a supervisor supported and chal-
lenged us to develop the capability to
reect through self as instrument. In
this way, these authors suggest that
training to become a supervisor has the
potential to be a developmental move
in itself.
Supported by supervision, the jour-
ney to coaching maturity – and dare we
say, supervising maturity – is through
the coach and supervisor looking back
on themselves prior-to, in and on action
through the supervision experience.
How very meta!
As more coaches realize the value of supervision for themselves, their
clients and their practice, there is an increase in demand for profession-
ally trained and accredited supervisors.
feature
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
44
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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 45
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Diversity & Inclusion.
Culture & Capability
Development. ese
are the popular modern
concepts on which today’s businesses
concentrate to enrich their talent pipe-
line. ey aim to nd the best talent
in a scarce talent environment, and
then develop each person’s strengths by
orienting their cultural attributes.
ese companies expect employees to
be unique and diverse while growing the
business through stretch targets. is
means eort, and it comes with a cost.
e cost seems obvious. D&I requires
a robust strategy, resource planning,
commitment and follow-up. More-
PEOPLE =
STRENGTH
Why coaching is the new D&I and
growth driver for organizations
By Alper Girgin, ACC
over, process owners and stakeholders
could be in various functions, requiring
collaboration in order to perform at the
highest level for the organization.
So let’s dive into the issue, starting
with the question: “How can talent
remain diverse and unique if organi-
zations want to instill similar skills to
achieve company targets?”
at is the paradox that may aect
the talent strategies of organizations.
Most companies dene talent capa-
bility sets according company growth
plans, and advise their people to devel-
op themselves in those areas. On the
other hand, they want their talent to be
unique, creative and diverse, to bring
value to the company. But how can
they keep this balance while supporting
D&I in their culture?
Diversity means having various
perspectives, enabling organizations to
face today’s challenges and become the
best versions of themselves. If a busi-
ness leader has dierent perspectives on
their team, then they have opportuni-
ties to enrich the team. e leader can
hear dierent voices in dierent situa-
tions, and utilize the total energy of the
team. As famous management scientist
Mary Parker Follet indicated, the leader
will connect the dots to nd solutions
with the help of the team (Follet called
this “participative leadership”).
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
46
kaleidoscope
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is kind of diversity in team or
company culture fosters collabora-
tion, healthy conict and productive
discussion. Transformation in the
culture shows up as creativity, agility
and resilience. So making diversity and
inclusion a priority is an investment
with big ROI.
According to research, with every
10 percent increase in diversity on
executive teams, organizations created
an eight percent increase in protabil-
ity (manobyte.com). And according to
Forbes, rms are 33 percent more likely
to experience industry-leading prot-
ability if their executive teams represent
more cultural and ethnic minorities.
As a professional coach and talent
developer, I recommend a simple, four-
step approach to make talent strategy
eective in supporting D&I culture:
DACA.
All great plans have a starting
point and an awakening. Awakening
comes from the discoveries made
through coaching sessions, and this
awakening triggers development,
as the individual comes to the self-
realization that they are unique within
the organization.
Following the rst three DACA
steps (Develop-Assign-Coach), they
complete the process with Assess. But
I’m not talking about assessments like
personal inventories and tests.
DACA assessment includes 360-
degree feedback sessions with their
coaches and team leader, supported
by business and personal development
progress. is instant feedback will lead
them to explore more about themselves
while identifying and taking advantage
of opportunities that arise.
rough this combined eort
with all parties – team leader, HR,
coaches and talent – organizations can
foster new capabilities while celebrating
uniqueness along the way. In this way,
they can preserve D&I principles while
shining a spotlight on the strengths
of their employees, and achieve com-
pany goals with the help of their most
irreplaceable resource: people.
For talent, coaching is one of the
best tools, not only for self-awareness,
but for exploring the diversity and
uniqueness of one’s own potential.
enable the entire system to move ahead
in an integrated way. Denitions and
expectations should be very clear, and
employees should internalize what that
means for them.
Once these capabilities are dened,
next comes the assignment of the
roles (step two in the DACA process).
Again, this should be a partnership
between HR and business leaders, col-
laborating to nd the best t for each
of the roles, with talent’s involvement
and consent. Talent’s buy-in to the
process also makes a dierence, because
if someone is assigned to a role without
any commitment, that will be an issue
in next steps.
After the setup is completed, next
comes the grow and learn phase. But
talent should remain diverse and
unique while they are developing
capabilities in similar ways and roles.
At this stage of the process, coach-
ing shows up. Coaching reminds the
talent that they are unique and diverse,
with specic strengths to deliver on
the job they are assigned. rough the
coaching process, they connect their
uniqueness with their development
plans. So they focus on their strengths
while achieving their targets, both per-
sonal and corporate. is will increase
engagement numbers, as talent takes
ownership of their careers and develop
a sense of belonging.
Diversity means having various
perspectives, enabling organizations
to face today’s challenges and become
the best versions of themselves.
DDEVELOP
AASSIGN
CCOACH
AASSESS
is approach is a combination of
talent development frameworks and
coaching processes.
Companies that want to shape the
future invest in their people. According
to McKinsey research, 77 percent of
business leaders believe that retaining
talent is crucial for the future of the or-
ganization. Talent retention is possible
with recognition and development, so
the DACA process starts by dening
the future capabilities of the organi-
zation. is then kicks o develop-
ment plans to help the team members
become capable of these skills.
ese plans, managed by human
resources and team leaders, enable the
company to develop its talent based on
future needs. e growth mindset starts
with this link. When the company sets
the skill sets to t future plans, this will
rough coaching, people recognize
their potential, value and resources, and
learn how to convert them to achievable
targets for their development and the
success of the organization. By claring
attachment points for their own life,
and how they will use their strengths
as resources, it becomes easier to build
their plan and strategy.
And coaching also has major benets
for companies, because organizations
are made up of unique and diverse
people who are the best growth drivers.
Helping people explore and learn
more about themselves while utilizing
their diverse potential for growing
together will enable a better future for
each organization.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 47
kaleidoscope
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Reproduced with the permission of choice Magazine, www.choice-online.
A Better
World
Inspiration from the
2022 GCA Conference
The sun came out to greet the
coaches from across North
America and Europe who
gathered together for the
International Gay Coaches Conference
2022, which took place in May 2022 at
Easton Mountain Retreat Center in
Greenwich, New York, further lighting
up a wonderful and inspiring event.
The theme of this year’s conference
was Waking Up: Coaching for a More
Conscious World, exploring how the
world has changed in the three years
since the last in-person Gay Coaches
Alliance (GCA) conference in 2019.
An important element of the theme
was the role of gay coaches in creating
a kinder, fairer, more loving world.
And there was plenty of love as huge
hugs, beaming smiles and a unique
In addition to the main workshop
schedule, there was a rich program of
additional activities for attendees to
enjoy, including early morning yoga and
meditation sessions and a live music
performance on the Friday night.
This conference was about more than
the program, as the opportunity to spend
time outside in the spectacular natural
setting of Easton Mountain enabled
attendees time for breaks alone or with
new friends, enjoying beautiful surround-
ings and amenities.
As is tradition, the conference included
the presention of the Thomas J. Leonard
Humanitarian Award, named after the
founder of the International Coaching
Federation, who was also an out and
proud gay man.
The recipient of this year’s Thomas J.
Leonard award was Chris Cooper, who
lives in Manchester, UK. Special awards
were also presented to Allen Siewart and
Arnie Katz, recognizing their rich contri-
butions to the Gay Coaches Alliance.
After such a hugely successful, uplifting
and inspiring conference, the GCA looks
forward to returning to Easton Mountain
in May 2023 for the 10th in-person Inter-
national Gay Coaches Conference.
feeling of connection was cultivated
between all the men who attended.
Over the four days of the confer-
ence, delegates attended a wide range
of workshop sessions – aligned with
coaching competences and oering ICF
CCEUs – alongside workshops related
more specically to the identity of the
attendees as gay men. This created a
strong sense of community, belonging
and shared experience that built as the
conference unfolded.
A team of coaches celebrated the unveiling of Coaching Wisdom – the very rst book by the
Gay Coaches Alliance.
Conference attendees took in the fullness of a sunset at Easton Mountain.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
48
industry news
A Beloved Community
ICF Midwest Coaches Conference 2022
More than 200 professional
coaches met in downtown
Milwaukee in September,
2022 for the 7th ICF
Midwest Coaches Conference.
“It was thrilling to hear how much
coaches were getting out of the expe-
rience. It was a peak experience in my
coaching career,” said Nicki McClusky,
PCC, president of the Midwest Coaches
Development Council (MCDC), which
organizes and manages the conference.
The council is made up of the chapter
leadership of each of the 13 US Midwest
chapters of the International Coaching
Federation (ICF).
Attendees participated in three
keynote sessions from coaching leaders
such as LaTonya Wilkins, an author,
speaker and coach who specializes in
leading “below the surface” to build
psychologically safe relationships across
dierences; Dr. Melissa Peet, founder
of the Generative Knowledge Institute
Many coaches described the environ-
ment as nudging them slightly out of
their comfort zone, making for an ideal
learning environment.
Amy Kulisheck, an ACC from Cleveland,
especially appreciated the experience
of seeing other coaches at work during
the breakout sessions. “As an indepen-
dent coach, the Midwest Coaches
Conference is extremely energizing,”
she said. “I want to learn about new
ideas and trends across the industry
and use the opportunity to strengthen
my skills. No amount of denitions, de-
scriptions, or explanations can
replace the value of experience.”
Visit icf-midwest.com for more infor-
mation about the conference, including
the highlight video. Planning has already
begun for the 2024 event in a yet-to-be-
named Midwestern city.
from the University of Michigan; and
Dr. Damian Goldvarg, former president
of the ICF’s global board.
The conference also included more
than 20 breakout sessions on topics
including coaching supervision, the
use of metaphor in coaching, lever-
aging nature as a co-coach, business
development strategy, and the use of
assessments in coaching.
“To me, the Midwest Coaches
Conference strikes a perfect balance,”
said conference chair Nicole Pulito.
“It is large enough to create a vibrant
experience and attract exceptional
speakers, yet intimate enough to feel
like you are in a safe and comfortable
learning environment.”
Post-conference survey respondents
reported a highly positive conference
experience, with comments such as, “I
walked away feeling like I was part of a
beloved community” and “Everyone left
with a wonderful growth experience.”
SAVE THESE DATES
APRIL 28 & 29
6th Annual Americas Supervision
Virtual Conference
Via Zoom
americassupervisionnetwork.com
MAY 21 23
Association for Talent
Development Conference & Expo
San Diego, California
atdconference.td.org
JUNE 1 & 2
Leadership and Coaching
Conference
Virtual
conference-board.org/events/
leadership-coaching
AUGUST 23 26
ICF Converge 2023
Orlando, Florida
coachingfederation.org/events/
icf-converge
More than 200 coaches gathered in downtown Milwaukee for the 7th ICF Midwest
Coaches Conference.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1 49
industry news
NO, YOU REALLY
CAN’T ACHIEVE
ANYTHING
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich,
wrote, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive
and believe, it can achieve.” His book drew on
stories of successful millionaires of his time to
illustrate what he called the Law of Success.
He asked, “What makes a winner?” A winner requires a game
to win. The game Hill focused on was the capitalist game of
materialism and imperialism – the acquisition of more – without
regard to its impact on others. He popularized the “ego takes all”
approach to life.
We help our clients win the more game by supporting their
success in conceiving, believing and achieving. But is it true that
we can achieve anything?
By Lion Goodman, PCC
The answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. It is
true that our beliefs create our experience of reality. They act as
colored lenses in front of our eyes. We see and experience what
we believe. These belief-lenses color our vision of who we are,
what the world is, and our place in it.
Our beliefs determine our mindset, our self-image, our rela-
tionships with others, and our response to what happens. They
also limit the opportunities we can see in front of us.
People once dreamt of ight, and our human ingenuity
created a new form of worldwide transportation. People dreamt
of automating menial and repetitive tasks, and we now employ
robots who can work 24 hours a day without food, bathroom
breaks or complaints.
Humans have also dreamt of a peaceful world; the end of
hunger; prosperity and justice for all; and equal opportunity. We
haven’t yet created those dreams. Are they possible? Yes, but it
requires us to become unied in our vision and action together.
This is “political will.”
On an individual level, can you achieve anything you con-
ceive and believe? Here, the answer is clearly NO. Otherwise,
you would have already achieved it. Conceiving and believing
take place in the mind, where our limiting beliefs live. Even with
the best of intentions, a person with negative internal para-
digms (“I’ll never be able to do that ... It will certainly fail, so why
bother?”) will not achieve much.
What’s needed is a technology for clearing negative and lim-
iting beliefs. Otherwise, your clients will continue to experience
internal resistance and self-sabotage. If their inner landscape
includes a big STOP sign, all of your cheerleading and guidance
won’t get them where they want to go.
This is a little-known mechanism of the mind: Whenever you
make a commitment to something, or take a step forward, your
old beliefs immediately jump up and re-assert themselves. Most
people can’t get past their negative voices. Glorious plans fail
because of this internal mechanism. It’s an automatic function
that must be understood, dealt with, and mastered.
The primary cause of going o course or quitting are internal
limiting and negative beliefs. If you conceive and believe, you
CAN achieve – but only IF you have a clear vision, an action
plan, take the actions necessary, persevere, and clear beliefs
that crop up along the way.
Most people can’t get past
their negative voices. Glorious
plans fail because of this internal
mechanism.
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1
50
nal say
V21N2 – June 2023
Articial Intelligence
What is Articial Intelligence (AI) and how does it impact coaching? Where
does AI exist now in the coaching profession? Is it helping or hurting the impact?
Should coaches fear or welcome AI? Can AI replace person-to-person coaching?
This issue will explore the ways in which AI aects coaching now, and what the
future holds.
ARTICLE DEADLINE: Closed
ADVERTISING DEADLINE: April 15, 2023
MAIL DATE: Late June, 2023
V21N3 – September 2023
Humanizing Healthcare
What is changing in the global healthcare picture that invites innovation in coaching?
How can coaching help administrative and clinical leaders work more closely together
and in sync? How can coaching inspire healthcare to prioritize a wellness and
prevention focus while retaining excellence? What is unique or dierent about
coaching healthcare professionals/leaders? What are recent evidence-based successes
of coaching in healthcare?
ARTICLE DEADLINE: June 1, 2023
ADVERTISING DEADLINE: July 15, 2023
MAIL DATE: Late September, 2023
V21N4 – December 2023
Business Builder
What is needed to have a successful coaching business? This issue will explore how to
attract, manage and keep clients; how to market ourselves and reach nancial success;
what structures and systems are needed for a successful business; how to gain the
competence, condence and commitment to deliver the best for our clients; and more.
ARTICLE DEADLINE: September 1, 2023
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MAIL DATE: Mid December, 2023
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IS NOW!
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Updated Marcch 2023. Subject to change.
VOLUME 20 • NUMBER 3
choice-online.com
TRANSFORMATION • TEAM COACHING • STEWARDSHIP & ETHICS • ACTIVE LISTENING
NEW HORIZONS
in Leadership
Pushing boundaries
in coaching
SHAPING A
WORLD WHERE
PEOPLE LOVE
THEIR LIFE’S
WORK
WE SUPPORT YOU TO:
invitechange.com enroll@invitechange.com 1-425-778-3505
Develop
Coaching
Capability
Earn
Your ICF
Credential
Advance Your
Artistry &
Effectiveness
Earn
ICF CCE
Credits
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO PURSUE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
• Expand your services for your clients
• Contribute to a ourishing humanity.
• Embody coaching more boldly.
• Strengthen your purpose driven work.
Our programs are experiential and relevant for immediate application in life,
personally and professionally. Our Generative Wholeness™ Practitioners invite you to
engage boldly, coach purposefully, partner respectfully and lead authentically.
BEING GENERATIVE
PROFESIONAL
COACHES
BEING GENERATIVE
PROFESIONAL
COACHES
ADVANCED
GENERATIVE
COACHING
CONTINUING
COACHING
EDUCATION
Begin your journey
to become an ICF
Credentialed Coach.
60 Level 1 Contact
Learning Hours.
Expand into Artful
Generativity as a
Coach.
130 Level 2 Contact
Learning Hours
Rene your coaching
competence and
impact.
75 Level 3 Contact
Learning Hours
• Certication for
Mentor Coaching
• Coaching
Supervision
• Generative Team
Coaching
• Mentor Coaching
SHAPING A
WORLD WHERE
PEOPLE LOVE
THEIR LIFE’S
WORK
WE SUPPORT YOU TO:
invitechange.com
enroll@invitechange.com
1-425-778-3505
Develop
Coaching
Capability
Earn
Your ICF
Credential
Advance Your
Artistry &
Effectiveness
Earn
ICF CCE
Credits
WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO PURSUE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?
• Expand your services for your clients
• Contribute to a ourishing humanity.
• Embody coaching more boldly.
• Strengthen your purpose driven work.
Our programs are experiential and relevant for immediate application in life,
personally and professionally. Our Generative Wholeness™ Practitioners invite you to
engage boldly, coach purposefully, partner respectfully and lead authentically.
BEING GENERATIVE
PROFESIONAL
COACHES
BEING GENERATIVE
PROFESIONAL
COACHES
ADVANCED
GENERATIVE
COACHING
CONTINUING
COACHING
EDUCATION
Begin your journey
to become an ICF
Credentialed Coach.
60 Level 1 Contact
Learning Hours.
Expand into Artful
Generativity as a
Coach.
130 Level 2 Contact
Learning Hours
Rene your coaching
competence and
impact.
75 Level 3 Contact
Learning Hours
• Certication for
Mentor Coaching
• Coaching
Supervision
• Generative Team
Coaching
• Mentor Coaching
