Lifting the Lid on Coaching Supervision Clare Norman & Steve Ridgley

Today Clare and Steve explore the topic of ethics - please don't switch off! Our podcasters challenge the notion that ethics are clear and that there is an answer as to what is right or wrong when we coach.

We explore how ethics and moral codes are inter-connected, and how what might be the right or wrong way forward in an ethical dilemma might be more a function of your personal moral code, your client's, the relationship and the contextual situation than it is anything else. It certainly may not be as simple as your supervisor's view, what the coaching bodies say, what your training taught you or a chapter in a book.

There are many shades of grey - we couldn't comment on how many !

Steve and Clare have a wide-ranging conversation with Yannick Jacob about the question “Who are you?” Why is this important? Because who you are is how you coach. And being your authentic self is how you differentiate yourself from the other coaches in the marketplace; and how you make connections (or not) with potential clients. We talk about the role of supervision in supporting this exploration, the role of reflective practice and the role of our initial training. You can connect with Yannick via his:
Website for coaches: www.RocketSupervision.comCoaching Lab: www.GoCoachingLab.comCoaching website: www.existential.coachFree resources for coaches: https://rocketsupervision.com/free-stuff/ (including my Positive Psychology for Coaches eBook)Yannick Jacob is a coach, trainer and supervisor with a master's degree in existential coaching and applied positive psychology. He is part of the teaching faculties at Cambridge University and the International Centre for Coaching Supervision, and he’s the course director of the School of Positive Transformation’s Accredited Certificate in Integrative Coaching, for which he gathered many of the world’s most influential coaches and earliest pioneers.

Formerly programme leader of the MSc Coaching Psychology at the University of East London, Yannick now presents at conferences internationally and his book, An Introduction to Existential Coaching, was published by Routledge. Committed to helping other coaches be the best coaches they can be, Yannick founded and hosts Yannick’s Coaching Lab which gives novice and seasoned coaches an opportunity to witness experienced coaches live in action, and he is the host of Animas Centre for Coaching's popular podcast Coaching Uncaged, as well as his own podcasts Talking about Coaching and Talking about Coaching and Psychedelics.

In today’s episode, Steve and Clare talk about the confusion that can happen – for both coach and thinker – when the coach changes hats. That might be moving from:
consultant or mentor to coach and backleadership trainer to coach and backemployee to coach and backpsychometrics feedback giver to coach and backWe talk about how to make that clean such that the thinker knows which role you are playing – and so that you avoid a repositioning of power in this relationship of supposed equals.

We also talk about the hats that supervisors might sometimes be invited to wear by supervisees – and which of those hats we hand back as soon as we can!

What does Mr Benn have to do with it? If you grew up, like us, in the seventies in the UK, you will remember him going into the changing rooms and coming out wearing different outfits – not just different hats - then going off on an adventure based on that outfit. We found it funny anyway!

Clare and Steve are joined by Charly Cox from Climate Change Coaches and together we explore working with climate change.

The largest single topic for us all as human beings today, Charly talks about her work training and guiding coaches to deal with the enormity of this vast subject area and the emotional connection that can come with it for both client and coach. We notice how collusion and judgement can be present and how emotions such as fear and guilt can emerge, yet we also reflect on how, with the support of supervision, coaches can discover patterns, resources and learning in their work, which can help them both to thrive with their clients, and also to develop their own approach to coaching and change.

This is a topic we all need to embrace, so why not start here?

Some links from our guest...
https://climatechangecoaches.com/our-book/ ( a free chapter download on this page of our book and it has links to where to buy it )https://climatechangecoaches.com/coaches/ (coach training programme. beginning mid March)https://www.linkedin.com/in/charly-cox-co-founder-climate-change-coaches-cert-b-corp-907bb719/ (Charly on LinkedIn)

Clare and Steve explore how to evaluate our coaching (and also our supervision):
How do we balance our needs with whether we are meeting those of our clients?How do we know?What can we pay attention to, and how can our self-awareness and self-development be used to support this process of evaluation?And what about feedback?
Exploring this topic leaves our podcasters with new learning and a sense of gratitude.

In today’s podcast, Steve and Clare discuss ways to start a coaching session. We’ve talked a good deal about endings, but less about beginnings. Here, we notice how the first minute in a coaching session provides rich data and that if we meet them where they are at that time, we can support the thinker to talk out loud and iterate in the moment about what’s most important to bring to this coaching session – much more than going into a standard question such as “what do you want to work on today?”