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November 06, 2008
Doing and reflecting
At a recent coaching conference I ran a session entitled "Making the Most of our Supervision". This was an appreciative inquiry for delegates to explore what was working most effectively for them in their coaching practice.
Because of the size of the group and the time allocated for the session, we didn't have much opportunity for discussion, so I invited people to write down their questions so I could respond to common themes rather than specific issues.
I've kept the questions with me and think that it may be interesting to explore some of these over the next couple of weeks. I'd welcome any comments from those of you who are following this trail.
In your experience, what is the ideal/minimum ratio of doing to reflecting?
I'd like to start responding to this question with a brief description of my own practice. As many of you know, I work as an executive coach and a coaching supervisor. The mix of hours/clients in each domain varies from one month to the next.
So, rather than trying to find a formula, what has worked for me during the past three years is to have a two hour session with my supervisor every 4-5 weeks. In fact, because of our respective overseas commitments, we usually end up having between eight and 10 sessions over a 12 month period. I take my coaching work, I take my supervision work, I take other professional dilemmas and issues that may impact on my effectiveness, and on occasion I'll also share significant personal incidents.
This latter content is an interesting one. I don't expect us to resolve personal issues which I would take to therapy, but we've acknowledged that such events are likely to impact on me somehow and could run the risk of getting in the way of my clarity and person-centred attention when I'm with my clients. To this end, reporting on it as part of my whole system helps me to clear the way to review and reflect on my client work and professional development.
So, what about for others?
I believe that regularity and frequency are more important than an actual number of hours of reflection or supervision time. Again, let me speak from my own perspective as supervisor. I see that both of us, supervisee and supervisor, gain a huge amount through our relationship which, as it deepens, can result in huge learning and development. With too long gaps of time between sessions, for me it almost feels as though we are starting again each time.
So let's experiment. How about an hour every 4-5 weeks for a coach who is seeing for instance an average of 10 clients, and doing approximately 20+ hours of coaching.
I'd offer two caveats here. One is that if a particularly difficult issue arises that the coach has an option to have supervision on that issue between sessions. The other is that the fact that a coach may be extremely experienced isn't necessarily the determinant. Arguably, a more experienced coach may be taking on more demanding clients and would benefit from the support of sharing and exploring some of the depth or complexity that they are holding in their coaching relationships.
If readers here have different experience and views, then I'd love to hear them. And do let me know if you're happy for me to share these in subsequent postings.
Posted by Alison at November 6, 2008 09:09 PM
