Simon Laurie
About Me
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My name is Simon Laurie.
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My early career was based around working in a FTSE 100 company (GrandMet, now part of the merger which produced Diageo) initially as a line manager in the UK, Middle East and North Africa and then in Learning and Development and internal consulting roles
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I left in 1992, joining a small boutique consultancy – CEDAR International – at the time when coaching was beginning to play a part in organisations, supporting the development of teams and leaders. I worked on coaching and L&D engagements with clients across sectors and across Europe, becoming Director of the L&D function
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In 2000 I left to establish my own coaching practice
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I have been working with Blue Sky since 2010
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My practice includes
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Coaching in organisations in the private and not for profit sectors with teams and senior leaders
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Coach supervision with both groups and individuals
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Development and delivery of programmes around coaching related areas including
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Leadership, Change and Coaching skills
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Establishing and supervising cadres of internal coaches within organisations
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Delivering on internal ILM5 Coaching Programmes
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In terms of my coaching and coach supervision development:
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I completed both
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NLP European Coaching Certificate in 2000
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ICF Accredited Coaching Certificate in 2006
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I am accredited with the ICF – a PCC since 2002
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I am a member of the EMCC and the Association of Coaching Supervisors
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My interest in coach supervision came about as I was looking for further professional development to enhance my coaching practice
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I was not attracted to the notion of “advanced” coaching programmes and in 2005 I had a conversation with a colleague about coach supervision which was just starting to gain traction in the UK, based around the practice of supervision in the counselling and therapeutic professions
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In 2006 I undertook the CIPD’s first Certificate in Advanced Professional Practice in Coach Mentoring (Supervision)
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I found myself a supervisor
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And began to attract supervisees!
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The experience of being supervised and supervising others has been a revelation and enhanced my reflective learning to a level that I have never lost and has had an extraordinary impact in the way I engage with my coaching clients and in all other elements of my working and personal life
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In 2009 I undertook further development of my coach supervision skills with the Certificate in Coach Supervision delivered by Coaching Development which is accredited by the ICF
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Since then I have had my current supervisor who has a high reputation in the field of supervision and TA
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I have four hours of supervision a quarter – two one hour calls and one two hour face to face meeting
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My coaching log shows that I have undertaken some 6000 hours of paid coaching and supervision work with clients in the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and the US
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I continue to undertake CPD in the order of between 10 and 20 days a year, following such areas as TA, NLP and Trauma Counselling
My Approach to Coach Supervision -
My philosophy is Clarity Wins™. My experience – and belief – is that when someone gets clarity about the direction they want to take, or greater awareness of a situation or themselves, then there is the possibility and opportunity for action. We achieve a greater sense of purpose – what we are doing and why
A philosophy of supervision that I hold to strongly is that presented by Michael Carroll and Maria Gilbert
The focus of supervision is learning. Supervisees learn from their work and from their supervision where they present their work in order that they may give better quality service to their client group. Supervisors are facilitators of learning.
They aim to create the kind of collaborative relationship and the sort of learning environment that sustains learning supervisees. What I have learnt and strongly believe is that supervision is for supervisees, not for supervisors.
Their definition is:
"Supervision is a working alliance between two professionals where supervisees offer an account of their work, reflect on it, receive feedback, and receive guidance if appropriate. The object of this alliance is to enable the worker to gain in ethical competency, confidence and a creativity so as to give the best possible service to clients"
What emerges from all these definitions is that Supervision has a number of features:
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To ensure the welfare and best quality service to clients.
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To enhance the personal professional development of supervisees through ongoing reflection that results in advanced learning.
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To gate-keep and monitor those who wish to enter and remain within their profession.
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To benefit from the input of others as this applies to their work.
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To draw on the wisdom and experience of another.
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To build an accountability of the quality of the supervisee’s work at all levels and offer assurances to those who need to
monitor that accountability.
I see a number of elements that go to make up supervision:
A forum for reflection
Supervision is a forum where workers reflect on their work and learn from that reflection through their interaction with another who takes
on the role of supervisor.
A forum for accountability
Supervision is a process where clients’ cases are presented and the supervisee’s work with them is monitored, considered, reviewed, dissected with learning being brought forth. It is also process of accountability were ethical and professional issues are considered and stakeholders in the supervision process (clients, organisations, professional associations and those who pay for the work) are assured that quality is being maintained.
A focus on experiential learning
Experiential learning is the type of learning most appropriate to supervision. Not the only type, but the one most often used.
Supervision is built on the reflection/action model where the practice of coaching becomes the vehicle for learning
As well as the 7 Eyed Model that you have seen in our proposal, there is another framework that I apply and use in the contracting process
with my supervisees
Case Studies
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Reflecting on two recent supervisions:
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A 1:1
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A Group
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1:1
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The supervisee is a coach with a client coming to the end of their coaching engagement
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Two more sessions
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Out of the blue, she received an email from her client asking for a call
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During the call it emerged that the client had a partner of 18 months standing, who had always demonstrated unusual and manipulative behaviour. The client had now discovered that the individual was married, and was distressed and angry.
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As a result the client wanted to expose this:
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To the individual’s employer – a charity with a strong ethical philosophy
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To the pastor of the church where the man attended with his wife
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Before she had a second call with her client my supervisee wanted to be clear about how she approached this
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We looked at this from the Educational and Managerial elements of the Supervision Triangle
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We stepped back
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Considered the notion of making ethical decisions
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RIGHT
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We then explored how she might apply the RIGHT model in this context and clarify what her contract was with her client – up until then, their contract was to work within the context of her role at work. This was outside that contract.
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The outcome of our supervision was a number of points:
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The imperative to keep her client safe – her partner had access to her apartment and knew where she worked, so it was important to understand what steps she had taken
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This new situation required a “recontract” so that both parties were clear about the degree to which this situation might be discussed and the role that the coach would play. New boundaries would have to be agreed
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We reflected that my supervisee might challenge the intention to publicise the discovery with the employer and pastor – what was the intended outcome? What might be the unintended consequences on her?
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As a result of this, during the second call the coachee reflected on the situation and realised that her immediate response was likely to do more harm to her than she had realised and they discussed where she might find support amongst friends and family and move on from the event
Group:
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Working with a group of internal coaches supporting clients within a university. All of them have achieved ILM 5 in Coaching. We meet quarterly
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Four themes came out of the supervision:
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The importance of not just contracting at the start of the coaching engagement, but continually revisiting the contract as the engagement progressed. Further discussion reflected on the complexity of the coaching contract, where four or more interested parties might be involved
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The preparation for the ending – to support and prepare the coachee as the work moves towards the end goal and reflecting on how they will take the learning forward, not just something to deal with in the final session
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The relationship that their clients have with their line managers and the challenge of the three-way meetings. Often there is an expectation that the coach is somehow going to take on the responsibilities of the line manager during the coaching engagement
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The work with some clients where the coaching is around the First 100 Days and dealing with perceptions around culture and climate of the organisation and the degree to which clients feel they can trust a coach who is part of that institution
A further element of these group supervision sessions is a period of time used to introduce a new coaching model or framework to enhance the skills and expertise of the coaches. These are discussed in the Group so that an intervention can be planned for the next meeting, and agreed with the commissioning client in the organisation.
Reflection
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Reflecting on my supervision work, I learn so much for my own practice.
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Understanding positive intentions, contracting, ethics and boundaries
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Someone told me once that “your coachees bring your stuff to you”. Now, my only observation would be that not half as much as your supervisees do!
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