Coaching Supervision: Advancing Practice, Changing Landscapes

by Jo Birch (Editor), Peter Welch (Editor)

Coaching and mentoring supervision is a rapidly expanding field. This book is a curated collection of contemporary thinking; presenting cutting-edge contributions from international writers, leaders in the professional field, academics and practitioners who offer a range of accessible applied research, practice examples, case studies, guidelines and reflective prompts to readers. As in art galleries, some pieces require reflection – and return visits may be necessary. The work is edgy and new, and yet totally grounded in the coaching and mentoring supervisor experience, bringing pragmatic solutions to current complex challenges. Over the last decade coaching supervision has moved from a rare and privileged audience to being common place amongst ‘best practice’ coaches. This book harnesses the current surge in curiosity, knowledge and practice in coaching and mentoring supervision and provides a collective statement of our times. Each chapter, in its highly individual way, equips us to face the demands of the VUCA environment. In turn, the book resources coaching and mentoring supervisors to support their supervisees – coaches and mentors who work with leaders, grappling with global, community and personal challenges, in this uncertain, fast moving world. Supervision for mentors is developing alongside coaching supervision and at present there appears to be no obvious distinctions with little current research focussing on the mentoring supervision experience. However, its distinctive identity is still forming. We invite mentors, and mentor supervisors, as they read these works, to consider the emerging similarities and differences in addressing requirements for mentoring supervision. The book brings together pioneering research and practice and as such will remain current for many years. This book will be popular with experienced professionals who want to stretch and deepen their practice, keep up-to-date with current studies, challenge and catalyse their own thinking, and embrace learning from real-world practitioner examples and applied research.

228 pages, Paperback

Published May 21, 2019

Reviews

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 'recommended' read for my Coaching Supervision course, this book is a selection of essays bringing together different approaches and perspectives on coaching and coaching supervision in a VUCA work (volitile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, for those, like me, who had to unpick this acronym every time I hit it).

As a supervision novice and internal coach (which means coaching as part of my day job, with wobbly skills and confidence in the discipline) some of this content was a real struggle for me. There were some chapters that just didn't speak to me at all - confouding me with jargon and acronyms. There are a number of big name authors who have trademarked their own models and explainors and some of the essays felt like sales pitches for their approaches. I have written question marks and exclamation marks in the margins. Some contributions are not for the faint hearted, and made me worry that I might not be cut out for supervising coaches, as it might have been written in Greek.

However, other essays did chime and offered things I could take. The chaper of 'coaching in darkness' - letting go of the continuing push to 'succeed' and in fact using hardship and challenge to learn and decide how to respond to difficulty was an eye-opener - in coaching and supervision. The section on using observational data was helpful and throws up much to consider. Katharine St John-Brooks hits many nails on the head in her commentary of internal coaching supervision. The opening chapter 'supervision and the seventh eye' (yes, these are typical chapter headings) did teach me a lot, but I still don't know what the seventh eye is. This is typical of the book.

I wish it hadn't scared me and been a more coherent piece, but it should allow me to find lots of gaps in my knowledge and practice for the PLP I have to write this month!