What is Coaching Supervision?

"A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be. "

- Tom Landry

As coaches, we spend our professional lives holding space for others — supporting reflection, growth, learning and transformation.

Yet who holds that space for us? This is where coaching supervision plays a vital and often transformative role in professional coaching practice. While working on my accreditation the space that my supervisor created for me was one safe and reflective and I could change perspectives over my practice, my habits as a coach and over my whole presence. It was the place where I was creating the time to think about how I elevate my development, how it serves to my clients and what I need in order to go to the next level of the professional journey.

I am writing this article as I am approaching the final modules of my one year school of coaching supervision. Already with 25 hours under my belt as a coaching supervisor, I am just in the beginning and I have so much more to learn and to get deeper, from the state of doing into the state of being.

But what is coaching supervision? If you feel like experiencing a session - you can always drop pe an email :)

Coaching supervision is best understood as a reflective, collaborative partnership where coaches step back from their client work and explore it with another experienced practitioner. The purpose is not evaluation or judgement, but learning, ethical practice, and professional renewal. One of the books I read when I started with this journey: Full Spectrum Supervision, says that supervision is a potentially a transformative conversation, it involves a coach bringing their coaching experiences into a reflective dialogue with a supervisor to support development and enhance outcomes for all elements of the system, the coach and their client, and also the supervisor.

At its heart, coaching supervision is about creating a safe and generative space for reflection, moving the coach. In many ways, it mirrors coaching itself — grounded in curiosity, trust and meaningful conversation. Through supervision, coaches can examine their practice, consider ethical dilemmas, deepen their awareness and strengthen their effectiveness. I love that in our studies I also return to Otto Sharmer’s work and I need to mention it cause I feel that his words really represent the supervision space. Sharmer outlines that there are some key elements for successful conversations: co-sensing, co-creating, co-evolving and seeing from the emerging whole. He suggests a quality of presence in conversation where you “attend with your mind wide open” - and this is how I experience and practice my supervision space. Cause I do it fully.

And it makes sense cause in CSA (Coaching Supervision Academy) where I do my studies in supervision - it is this notion ”who you are is how you supervise” and it is one of the most powerful ideas emerging from Full Spectrum Supervision book - one of the books I feel opened up this chapter for me.

”Who you are is how you supervise” - highlights the deeply relational nature of supervision and the relational presence that is need in the co-creation of the space. It recognizes that coaching is never purely technical; it is influenced by the coach’s presence, beliefs, emotions and personal patterns. Supervision provides a space to explore how these elements show up in coaching work and how they may support or hinder the coaching relationship.

Another helpful framework describes supervision as serving 3 core functions by Inskipp and Proctor:

• Restorative - providing emotional resourcing for the coach;

• Formative - supporting professional development;

• Normative - maintaining quality and ethical standards.
  

These dimensions are essential in sustaining coaching practice, particularly given the complex relational and psychological dynamics coaches often encounter in their work. (There are newer conversations in the space that build on these dimensions - Hawkins and Smith’s look at supervision dimensions through Resourcing, Developmental and Qualitative. And Lucas and Larcombe goes through the lenses of Personal, Technical, Ethical andCommercial - but about these in a another article)

For the moment I am guiding my work based on the restorative, formative and normative functions of the supervision and I find it as a deeply transformational process because is not just about improving skills or gaining knowledge, but about sifting perspectives and ways of understanding experiences. Transformational learning happens when coaches step outside of their usual assumptions and reflect on how they construct meaning in their work and relationships.

This deep learning is rarely achieved in isolation, on our own. Supervision relies on relationship and dialogue as catalysts for insight. It takes open, reflective conversation, coaches can safely explore uncertainty, vulnerability and emotional responses triggered by client work. These moments often lead to deeper self-awareness, fresh perspectives and new professional choices. In the books I read so far, from the practice and the training I’ve done reflection allows experiences to become meaningful learning rather than simply events that pass by unnoticed. And in the coaching world we continuu develop and learn, it is one of the professions that allow us to gain knowledge on top of all we have learned until one point. It is a beautiful journey that lasts as long as you are in this environment.

Supervision also supports coaches in recognising the emotional impact of their work. Coaching can involve complex relational dynamics, and supervision provides a space where coaches can acknowledge and explore these responses, that are natural and normal and can happen for both junior and senior coaches - experience is not a factor in this. By bringing these topics into supervision coaches gain greater clarity about their clients’ needs and maintain professional wellbeing and resilience. And especially in this field where you work with wellbeing of other, and you create a safe space for them to explore you also need to be well with yourself first.

What I want you to take out is that supervision is not a remedial process or a sign of difficulty. It is a commitment to professionalism, ethical practice and lifelong learning. Many coaching bodies increasingly view regular supervision as a hallmark of quality coaching practice. For EMCC having a supervision in place as a coach is part of the accreditation process and also shows the importance that the organization is giving to the wellbeing and mindset of coaches and mentors.

For me, as both a coach and a coaching supervisor, supervision remains one of the most enriching aspects of professional practice. It offers me a rare opportunity to pause, reflect, celebrate successes, navigate challenges and continue growing as a practitioner. Supervision reminds me that coaching is not just about supporting others to develop — it is also about staying open to our own ongoing learning journey. Supervision empowers coaches to remain reflective, intentional and responsive in their work.

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Photo: personal archive