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July 31, 2008
Supervision in an age of trauma
I've just had a wonderfully stimulating weekend at the annual conference of BASPR (British Association for Supervision Practice and Research), immersed in supervision. The theme of this year's conference was "Supervision in an Age of Trauma". Recurring themes included working in war zones, and with victims of terrorism, refugees, asylum seekers and victims of abuse.
While some of the workshops seemed a long way from some of my clients in the executive coaching boardroom, at the same time, there was a lot that could be applied in the organisational arena. We may not know what previous experiences our clients have lived through, and in fact many of our ostensibly "well" clients may themselves have some history of personal trauma, which does not enter the coaching contract at a conscious level.
Professor Kim Etherington from Bristol explored the notion of "vicarious traumatisation", when therapists may take on elements (and even somatic symptoms) of their traumatised clients. Then she looked at how, as therapists, we may find ways to empathically resist the highly charged emotional experiences of working with trauma victims as a way of managing our own process. This is a valuable awareness for us to hold, both as coaches and when supervising coaches.
Mooli Lahad from Israel and the International Community Stress Prevention Center explored the phenomenon of compassion fatigue and how this differs from vicarious traumatisation. In my experience of working with business executives and executive coaches, I don't often meet clients who have experienced significant trauma, and if they have, the coaching arena is not necessarily where they share it. At the same time, I need to be mindful of the cumulative impact of constantly empathising with my clients.
The conundrum for the "helper" in the extreme trauma arena is one of "there is nothing I can do for this person", counterbalanced by the myth of the saviour, which suggests that "I am the only one who can help this person". Here Mooli Lahad highlighted the power and value of supervision as the place for practitioners to share, offload and rebalance. It was evident from the practical exercise – and completing a compassion fatigue test – that all of us need to take care to ensure we don't reach burnout in our attempts to support our clients. Supervision is an invaluable place to help manage this.
I came away with renewed understanding of the power of sharing our experience with another person. I was also reminded of the value of this practice called "supervision", which in the world of coaching is still being debated, to find an approach that is appropriate to the context, which at some level is very different from the task of supervision in the helping professions.
This is an annual event in the last weekend of July and is held at St Mary's College, Twickenham. Next year's dates are 25 and 26 July 2009, when the theme will be: "Effective Supervisors: what they are and what they do".
Posted by Alison at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2008
Coaching or mentoring... or both?
At the recent West London AC Co-Coaching Forum, a common theme in the group was managing the boundaries between coaching and mentoring (facilitating and advising was our brief and rough distinction). We explored questions around if and when it is ok to give advice and how do we choose or decide to do this. Four of us then worked as a coaching team (each coach spending 3-4 minutes) with one coachee who wanted to explore this in the context of a current client.
What became clear to us all through this process was the importance of clear contracting (again!), setting realistic session and/or achievable contract goals, and involving the client in clarifying their expectations of the coaching and/or mentoring process. It was fascinating to see how our overall coaching process escalated in getting to the nub of the issue as the coachee shared their thinking and reflections with us.
Posted by Alison at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2008
The process of accreditation
I've been working with a member of the Association for Coaching as they prepare their portfolio for accreditation... I went through the process myself last year.
It took a considerable amount of work and included:
> collating a history of coaching hours
> a record of my supervision with supporting references
> a record my continuing professional development, with supporting documents
> a case study of a coaching project
> my philosophy of coaching and the theories and models that underpin my practice
At the time I remarked to myself that this was all "evidence on paper" and no one in the assessor team has actually heard me coaching. This raised questions in my mind about the efficacy of the process. However, as the head of accreditation remarked on this aspect, taping calls for scrutiny does not necessarily bring out the best in some of us, while the process of critically reflecting on a piece of work gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our awareness of self and other, our knowledge of the process and the part that we play in co-creating the coaching relationship.
In fact, while it took time and thought, I found this whole exercise extremely rewarding and affirming. In reflecting on my work from so many different angles in the context of many years of training and practice, again I became aware of the complexity and depth of the work that we do as coaches.
I also feel very privileged to share with another person, the coachee, the process of identifying and facilitating some of the changes they wish to make. I was pleased when my application was successful and I am now an Accredited Coach with Association of Coaching.
Posted by Alison at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2008
The future of leadership: developing a coaching culture and approach
I really enjoyed a session with Sir John Whitmore at my local West London Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) branch last Thursday evening. He posed some provocative questions about the current paradigm of leadership in a capitalist society and invited us to consider the differences between consumerism and sustainability.
We considered the many challenges facing leaders today in a global economy, where short term delivery can take precedence over long term, responsible awareness. He offered a very convincing argument that highlights the essential weakness of a leadership approach determined by hierarchy, and the impact that this has on developing self-autonomy and personal responsibility.
This formed the platform for his proposal that we need to adopt a coaching management style to ensure lasting success and achievement when, by contrast, the current trend of "top down" authority, where potentially fear-based control dissolves trust and commitment. This in turn results in a loss of individuality, creativity and people failing to take personal responsibility.
With a coaching approach to leadership, individuals learn to think and make decisions for themselves, they develop a self-sufficiency that then enables them to become interdependent and collaborative, and in turn work with natural systems rather than trying to control them.
For Sir John, we need a new paradigm of leadership for our world to survive. To address the global issues in the organisational context and beyond, we need to be looking for leaders who demonstrate agility in terms of responsiveness and openness to change; authenticity and the accompanying emotional intelligence to support this at an individual and group level; the capacity to self-manage with its associated openness, honesty and humility, and a self-awareness and freedom from fear to enable innovative and courageous thinking and creativity.
For further details about CIPD activities, events and membership, visit their website. And follow this link to find out more about John's work.
Philippe Rosinski is running a three-day Cross Cultural Coaching Seminar in Brussels in November. Find out more here. You can also get hold of his book, Coaching Across Cultures, here or at Amazon.
Posted by Alison at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
