Revisiting The Role Of Coaching Supervision

This article address some concerns about the use of professional supervision in coaching. The ambition of coaching communities to become a "proper" profession in the light of current realities is being challenged. The author suggests a new role for coaching supervision that may lead the way even for other more established professions. The idea of coaching supervision still divides coaching communities into those who are keen and practicing and those who are not or less so. In this article I would first like to address some concerns of the unconverted that are quite legitimate. Then I will question the ambition of coaching communities to become a "proper" profession in the light of current realities. And finally I will suggest a new role for coaching supervision that I hope may lead the way even for other more established professions. Addressing concerns One of the first arguments of those who are against supervision is the lack of evidence that it actually improves the quality of coaching. There are usually two angles on the issue of evidence typically mentioned by two different groups of coaches. Those from a business background are inclined to look for the "bottom line": are there hard data that suggest substantial benefits from introducing supervision? In contrast, practitioners with roots in psychology and counselling may be more inclined to look first at the complexity of the coaching relationship: what could go wrong in coaching and can supervision prevent potential problems? Looking at the first perspective, I have to agree that considering coaching supervision as a business case, not much evidence exists as yet to insist on its value. However, to be fair: it is incredibly difficult to design research that would allow exploring a direct link between the process or even the fact of supervision and the effect of this on the practice of the coach. It is even more difficult to demonstrate its impact on the work of the client. At the same time, if we dismiss the value of supervision on this basis, the introduction of many managerial practices and even education as a whole could also be questioned (Bachkirova et al., 2011). Looking at this issue from the second angle brings to the fore the complexity of coaching with its many functions and purposes in different contexts. In fact, in comparison to counselling this complexity is much higher and on this basis I have argued elsewhere that supervision is more important for