This book locates 101 practical coaching supervision techniques in their theoretical context. It is organised into ten chapters, each reflecting a different philosophical basis for the coaching supervision work: Existential, Gestalt, Person Centred, Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic, Solution Focused, Systemic, Thinking Environment, Transpersonal and finally an Eclectic chapter.
With contributions and insights from leaders in the field, this book outlines the different philosophies and their principles and explains their application in practice. The book will help readers determine which technique to use and when, as well as offering a step-by-step guide to implementing or adapting it for their own work. With a breadth of techniques, the book will help all supervisors broaden their repertoire and ultimately become a better practitioner.
Accessible and practical, this book is a valuable resource for experienced and novice supervisors as well as their supervisees. It will inspire them to keep their supervision and coaching practices both current and fresh, offering a diverse range of techniques to experiment with.
One of the great things about being a coach supervisor is the richness of the issues that coaches bring to explore. Inevitably, these are not the humdrum, predictable topics covered in coach training â they are more typically manifestations of complex, adaptive systems, human dramas and deep uncertainties. The collaborative endeavour that is coaching supervision almost always prompts the supervisor to come away from a session with an experienced coach carrying ideas for their own further development.
When coaches describe themselves as a Transactional Analysis (TA) coach or a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) coach or even a âlife coachâ, it generates confusion. What does this really mean? Are they a coach who uses TA as a part of their practice; or a TA practitioner who sometimes does some coaching? Eclectic supervisors take the view that no one toolkit is applicable to all the diversity of issues, circumstances and objectives that clients bring. The eclectic supervisor recognises that the complexity of the issues brought to supervision requires a portfolio of responses from an eclectic base of multiple disciplines and theoretical approaches. Just like much of the work of coaches is to help clients view the world through different lenses than their norm.
What are the underpinning principles and beliefs of this philosophy?
A core model of eclectic supervisory practice seems like a contradiction of terms! If it is eclectic, it must draw upon numerous models and precepts. Here we talk of a meta-wisdom approach and describe some of the elements that might underpin this. For example:
Valuing a multiplicity of approaches. In supervision we often spend time deconstructing a coaching session. How do we establish what happened, how and why? What forces were at play that influenced behaviours, thought patterns and outcomes? How did the coachâs own fears, insecurities and assumptions affect the coaching conversation? Lancer et al.âs (2016) framework of the seven coaching conversations (the spoken conversation and six silent conversations before, during and after the coaching session); or Hawkins and Smith (2006) seven eyes model can both be a useful starting point for deconstruction. Used on their own, however, these and other models present only one way of looking at a coaching session. An eclectic perspective asks: âWhat other model could we apply here, which might give a different story about the events we are discussing?â
In coaching generally, we are constantly reminded of the dangers of taking a single perspective. If a client complains their boss is unreasonable, we would expect to explore the issue from the bossâ perspective as well. The same principle holds true for supervision. If we apply one model only, we risk creating a one-dimensional picture of a multi-dimensional situation.
The paradox of knowledge. Intense curiosity, learning by experiment and the humility to be comfortable with the extent of our unknowing â these are a universe away from the stock picture of the supervisor as a coach with a greater store of knowledge. One way to compare a ânormalâ supervisor with an eclectic supervisor is that the former may expect to be valued by the supervisee for their expertise; the latter has at least as much expertise, but remembers that an expert is someone whose great knowledge gets in the way of their learning. In short, an eclectic supervisor has so much knowledge that they are able to see the limitations of its value.
What is the role of the coach supervisor in the context of this philosophy?
Normative function. Managing boundaries and other aspects of client safety lie at the core of the normative function, but these tend to be preventative or remedial interventions. To support coaches in becoming more mature, the supervisor has a role in raising the coachâs ethical awareness and ethical resilience. Boundary and safety issues are relatively easy to pin down â not least because of the professional bodiesâ codes of conduct. But ethicality goes to the core of what it means to be human. Itâs also highly dependent on shifting context â which requires an eclectic knowledge and variable frameworks.
Formative function. Systemic eclectic coaches draw on a wide range of concepts and philosophies but having a lot of models doesnât in itself make someone a better coach or supervisor. It is how you integrate and apply them that counts. An eclectic approach starts from the assumption that nothing I know is more than a partial truth. One team coach with a provocative style contracts with a team that he will share partially formed observations and hypotheses, with the expectation that every now and then he would have to apologise and say: âI was wrong â but what have we learned as a consequence?â
Restorative function. An eclectic supervisor brings compassion, not just for the coach, but for the entire system and the players within it. Anecdotally, in a recent discussion about sociopaths in the workplace we considered the question âWhat must it be like, to be a someone with this personality disorder?â From an eclectic standpoint, even where someone has a malign influence on a system, understanding the systems that drive them may lead to more fluid and imaginative ways of working with them.
How would you prepare yourself to work congruently with this approach?
In 2010 Clutterbuck wrote about âmanaged eclecticismâ highlighting that an eclectic practitioner does more than offer a âpick n mixâ approach to the work; they have a solid understanding of where different models come from and they blend them seamlessly into a bespoke service for their client.
Leifer and Steinert (2011) suggest that supervision requires higher order reasoning skills that encompass triple loop learning. Similarly, the eclectic supervisor needs to develop an ability to hold and work within apparently or real contradiction, and a multifocal perspective, recognising at least some of the interactions and influences between complex systems.
A supervisor can only develop these foundations by engaging with (reading, discussing, experimenting) many different approaches, reflecting deeply upon them and developing their own mental maps of how they inter-relate. It can also be argued that eclectic supervisors need to possess one of the essential qualities of a mentor â wisdom. If we accept the definition of wisdom as the product of constant reflection on and learning from experience, three further categories can be identified (Clutterbuck, 2020):
Lean wisdom â context (task) specific.
Broad wisdom â reflection on life experience (personal and vicarious).
Meta-wisdom â brings together multiple, shifting perspectives.
From a philosophical, if not empirical, perspective, it is at the third level of wisdom that eclectic supervisors can provide the most valuable support to coaches and enable the greatest change. At a practical level therefore, the eclectic supervisor must prepare themselves to work with the duality of both accepting and rejecting their experience simultaneously. As we seek to understand the superviseeâs perspecti...
