Mentor and Athene: supervising professional coaches and mentors

Mead, Geoff; Campbell, Jan; Milan, Mike

doi:10.1108/13620439910279770

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…The counselling and therapy literature suggests that ongoing professional development is essential to protect both client and counsellor, but there does not appear to be any hard evidence that this is indeed the case (compare McLennan, 1999; Hawkins and Shohet, 1989). A similar pattern is emerging in the literature with regard to coaches (see for example, Mead et al (1999) or Stevens (2004)). With the question mark over the value of ongoing professional development, and the definition of CPD possibly being so wide that it could include any conversation, the question arises as to what it is that makes CPD worthy of consideration, and which type of CPD to embark on?…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Becoming simultaneously thicker and thinner skinned

Haan¹

2008

Personnel Review

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PurposeThere is a hidden paradox inherent in the ideal of continuing professional development (CPD) for executive coaches, stemming from the fact that the coach wishes to retain or preserve the freshness and openness of a “beginner”, whilst also acquiring greater robustness and resilience in the face of difficult assignments. The paradox reminds us of the “castle and battlefield” metaphor of Roger Harrison: on the one hand a strong container is needed and on the other vulnerability to allow the coach to be affected and even hurt by the coaching experiences. The objective of this paper is to find ways of resolving this paradox, based on what coaches themselves say about critical moments in their practice.Design/methodology/approachA total of 69 critical moments as reported by 60 coaches are content‐analysed with the help of grounded research.FindingsIn the analysis a picture emerges of doubts (instrumental, relational and existential), which the coaching process opens up for coaches, and which CPD may help them become aware of, explore and lay to rest. The most promising methodology for doing this seems to be coaching supervision, conducted in the safest possible environment.Research limitations/implicationsFrom this qualitative research by a single researcher inter‐rater reliabilities cannot (yet) be reported.Practical implicationsIt emerges that what coaches need most from their CPD is robustness in the face of their instrumental and existential doubts, and vulnerability when it comes to their relational doubts.Originality/valueWith the growth of the executive coaching profession, there is increasing interest in the value of CPD for coaches. Executive coaches are embarking on CPD in large numbers, and are asking what is most relevant to them in their ongoing development. This paper offers empirical data that may inform CPD.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Becoming simultaneously thicker and thinner skinned

Haan¹

2008

Personnel Review

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“…The counselling and therapy literature suggests that ongoing supervision is an important form of support for practitioners (Hawkins & Shohet, 1989). Similar arguments are put forward in the coaching literature (see, for example, Mead et al, 1999;or Stevens, 2004). We anticipated that supervision would be likely to be used by coaches to reflect on and make sense of critical moments within their work.…”

supporting

confidence: 63%

Coaches’ experience of critical moments in the coaching

Day¹,

Haan²,

Sills³

et al. 2008

bpsicpr

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This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research study into Coaches’ experience ofcritical momentsin the coaching relationship. Interviews were completed with a total of 28 experienced coaches. The research highlighted that critical moments are unforeseen and characterised by intense emotions and anxiety within the coaching relationship. These moments were most often seen to be turning points in the work. Coaches reported that they resulted in either insight for their clients or a distancing, or even breakdown, in the coaching relationship. Their accounts indicate that the outcome of these moments is influenced by the coach’s containment of both their and their client’s emotions. This process of containment involved coaches being aware of their own emotions and the reactions of their client, making a link with what was taking place in the coaching relationship and reflecting on their experience with their client in a manner that led to heightened awareness for the client. In situations where a distancing occurred between coach and client, this was associated with either an aggressive response or an avoidant response by one or both parties. Coaches reported using supervision to help them to make sense of critical moments, to gain reassurance that they responded appropriately and to learn from these moments. These findings demonstrate the importance to the coaching process of personal insight on the part of the coach, reflexivity in the coaching relationship and emotional containment by both the coach and the coaching supervisor.

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“…Where it exists, the coaching peer-reviewed literature has tended to focus on a range of themes, including: definitions of coaching and its distinctiveness from other interventions (Bachkirova and Cox, 2004;Clutterbuck, 2008;Griffiths and Campbell, 2008;Hart et al, 2001;Kilburg, 1996); the impact of coaching (Grant, 2003;Green et al, 2005;Spence and Grant, 2004;Wasylyshyn et al, 2006); the relationship between coaching and psychology (Gray, 2006;Kemp, 2005;Seligman, 2007); improving coaching interventions (Britton, 2008;Rock and Donde, 2008); coaching and management/leadership (Ellinger and Bostrom, 1999;Peterson, 1996); coaching and supervision (Clutterbuck, 2008;Gray, 2007;Mead et al, 1999), coaching as a function of human resource development (Hamlin et al, 2008) and the 'manager as coach' (Graham et al, 1993(Graham et al, , 1994Hamlin et al, 2006;McLean et al, 2005) With a few exceptions, relatively few of these studies have been critical of coaching or raised issues of concern (Berglass, 2002;Gray et al, in press;Hall et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Choosing an executive coach: The influence of gender on the coach-coachee matching process

Gray

Goregaokar

2010

Management Learning

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Coaching has enjoyed substantial commercial growth, but empirical support for its effectiveness is limited. Nowhere is this more so than in the matching process between coach and coachee. This study describes the results from a coaching programme in which coachees were asked to reflect on and justify their choice of coach. Initial, qualitative results suggested that female coachees favoured the choice of female coaches, partly as a role model of business success. Male coachees tended to justify the selection of a female coach as more approachable for the discussion of sensitive, personal issues. A minority of male respondents also displayed sexist attitudes in their comments on the selection process. Subsequent quantitative analysis of the data, however, revealed no bias towards the choice of either female or male coaches. While the results show no statistical significance in gender choices, for a minority of coachees, gender is a rather surprising factor in the selection process.

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Mentor and Athene: supervising professional coaches and mentors

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Becoming simultaneously thicker and thinner skinned

Becoming simultaneously thicker and thinner skinned

Coaches’ experience of critical moments in the coaching

Choosing an executive coach: The influence of gender on the coach-coachee matching process

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