Supervision

Thanks to the overwhelming interest in our Certificate in Supervision for Coaches and NLP Practitioners, we have decided to add a Supervision section to our book shop. If you can recommend any good books or audiovisual resources about supervision, please feel free to let us know.

Ending a relationship with a client can be tricky. You don’t want to sour the hard work you’ve put in together and you don’t want to leave your client stranded. So here are our tips for ending the coach-client relationship professionally and sensitively

1. Contract! Before you even start coaching your new client, you need to establish a coaching contract. This doesn’t need to be formally written and signed by both parties, but you must lay out the boundaries of the coaching relationship and establish a set number of sessions. Usually 6 is a good number to start with. You don’t want to get dragged into an infinite relationship with the client because it will only make them rely on you when they need to rely on themselves.
2. If you feel at any point that you aren’t capable of coaching your client through a particular issue you must refer them to someone who can (of course you must get their permission. Do not break confidentiality!). This can happen if your client is exhibiting signs of needing care from the medical profession, psychologists, or counselors. Don’t bumble along thinking you can talk them through it if you really don’t think you can. Be honest with yourself and be honest with your client.
3. They say: “I don’t want to see anyone else”. Stop and think about this. Has the professional relationship overlapped into something more? You are not their rent-a-friend and you must be wary of becoming one. It’s true that a client must feel rapport with the person they are working with but you are not the only person they can have that with. Part of the learning is to rely on themselves, if they need you in particular you may well have become a crutch. The best thing you can do in this situation is to extricate yourself sensitively. Explain to your client why you don’t feel you are the right person for them to see anymore and give them a few contacts that you think could help. Don’t just say “see someone else”. Names and details are important here. With the client’s permission you can discuss their situation with the person you have recommended to ease the transition.
4. Talk to your supervisor. If you don’t have a supervisor, get one! (We can even help you with this if you like) Your supervisor will be able to help you spot these potential problems before they happen and advise you on what to do. It helps to talk this situation through with someone who knows the position you are in.
5. Finally: make it a clean break. No you can’t still be friends, no they can’t call you when they feel down. I know you want to help and this may be the hardest of things to do but it’s necessary. If you keep the relationship going you will end up coaching them for free and it’ll be even harder to get out of the relationship because you’ll have shed your professional shell. In the long run you have ended the relationship for a reason, stick to it. Remain professional and respect the boundaries you set out to begin with.

What’s coaching supervision all about? Someone watching you, pointing out your mistakes and giving you a bad mark at the end of the session? Is it designed to restrict a coach’s freedom to coach in the way that they want to? Is it to create a mainstream coach, one size fits all?

We’d love to hear your views. At The Performance Solution, our in-house blogger Meg has been asking coaches what they think of supervision and she’s received some really interesting comments and started some controversial debates. But it wouldn’t be fair to ask you if we don’t tell you what we think:

At TPS we’re committed to supervision. Because we see supervision as a power that Super-Coaches have. Just like superman, your supervisor should be able to see into the effects coaching is having on YOU, the coach. We often forget that coaches are not brick walls that the problems of others bounce off, they are sponges who soak up all the concerns that their clients bring to them. And although they are trained not to let these concerns trouble them in their day-to-day life, they are still human (unlike Superman…). So your supervisor is not there to judge or restrict you. Your supervisor is there to coach you, because no matter how good a coach you are, you can always call for back-up.

If you think you could be a coach supervisor, ask us about our 3 day certificate in coaching supervision.

And if you’d like to join the debate, please join us on LinkedIn or Twitter.