Sheena Reid
I work as a coach to both teams and individuals, as a coach supervisor, and as a mentor to people applying for their MCC accreditation with the International Coach Federation. This bìog focuses on what I offer as a coach supervisor.
You can also read more about my MCC Mentoring work on this website. If you want to know more about me as a coach, please take a look at my coach bìog on www.talentdynamics.co.uk
Coach Supervision
“Sheena has been my Coach Supervisor for 4 years and throughout this time, I have found her to be an extremely valuable source of support and challenge. Her appreciative and thoughtful style has created the space for me to explore and articulate a wider range of ways forward than I could have imagined. I really value our time together with every session delivering huge benefit to me as a coach and to my practice.”
What is Coach Supervision for ?:
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I offer professional coach supervision, for individual coaches and to groups of coaches wishing to explore, learn and develop together.
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My clients work, like me, in the corporate world, or in other organisations whether public sector, charity or sport.
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I like to think of supervision as an opportunity for colleagues to learn and explore together – for me it has always been the space in which I get to exercise the part of me that loves to step back and look at the bigger picture of what is going on, and to rummage around in that place with other creative, intelligent minds.
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So I love that supervision looks systemically – at not only the coaching relationship and the coaching work being done, but at the whole context in which that work is taking place – relationships, ethical context, professional approach, the ‘stuff’ that the coach may bring, what is helpful, what is
not and so on.. -
I also love that it differs from coaching in that there is a place for supervision to be very non directive and ‘coach like’, but also for the supervisor to move to the more directive end of the spectrum if that is needed.
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So as a supervisor I may be ‘wiser in the moment’, but I know that I am not in any way intrinsically ‘wiser’, nor necessarily even more experienced, than my supervisee – the wisdom comes from our shared exploration and from standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at the coaching work and the context within which it is happening.
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So in delivering supervision, I have a different experience of myself, and my clients also have a different experience of me, from the one they would have if I were their coach.
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In summary, supervision is all about the development of my clients as coaches, but also, through our colleague to colleague relationship, very
much about each of us continuing our own development and learning as a supervisor, coach and human beings.
Why I do this work:
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I began by observing the growing interest in supervision from the sidelines some 10 years ago, and watched with a healthy dose of reserve about whether this was going to be a bit of a ‘bandwagon’ !
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I decided that the best way to decide was to dive in and see what I found – so I did two things.
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Firstly, I got myself a supervisor – I thought that having an experience of supervision and seeing if it added anything worthwhile was probably
a useful step. -
I also signed up to do an ICF accredited supervision training – one of the first – to learn about what it really was, and, separately, to see whether I thought I might be any good at it, knowing that a good coach doesn’t necessarily make a good supervisor.
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My own experience of being supervised was so valuable that I have never looked back, and all these years later I continue to work with a supervisor regularly. It allows me to look at my work through so many lenses, to see patterns, explore trends, focus in on a particular piece of work and on how I can do it better and so on.
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I also loved the process of really getting to grips with what supervision is, is not, and how it differs from coaching – it took a while,
but I believe Iget it now ! -
So I do this work, simply, because of the immense value I get from being supervised. For me it’s now unthinkable to work as a coach without taking supervision myself – I honestly believe I would be short-changing my coaching clients if I didn’t take the time to think about how I am working with them in this way.
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I also believe that good supervision provides a level of rigour and self reflection that, over time, will enhance the reputation of the
coaching profession as a whole.
How it works:
Individuals:
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I supervise individual coaches, and groups of coaches depending on the context.
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Individual clients will typically work with me by phone – individual supervision lends itself to sessions of about an hour, and so phone or Skype is a practical way to work for both parties.
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I ask clients to work with me regularly, so that as their supervisor, I can ‘stand behind’ their work – that is, I can vouch for them as professional coaches who apply rigour to their work. ‘Regularly’ means different things for different clients however, depending mainly on how much coaching work they are doing.
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I often work with a client over a long period, which allows a strong colleague to colleague relationship to be built, and allows us to draw on a rich back catalogue of shared explorations and ponderings over time.
Groups:
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With groups of coaches, I would more commonly work face to face, and potentially with an additional supervisor depending on the context and numbers, setting aside a longer period of time in which to work, because of there being more people. There is a lot of shared learning that arises from working in this way, provided of course that boundaries and contracts are clearly stated and managed.
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Groups can be a collection of individual coaches without any other connection, or a group of coaches operating, for example, as internal coaches within an organization.
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As with individuals, I would expect to work regularly with a group, and over time, developing not only the individuals, but also, in an organization, building the capability and professionalism of the coaching being offered, and creating a pool of coaches who naturally peer supervise, and regard that as a key part of their development.
My approach and training
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There are a number of bodies who now professionally accredit coach supervisors – I am accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF).
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My approach is strongly rooted in Transactional Analysis, which I have found to be a very highly developed, and extremely useful perspective on the systems and relationships that arise in coaching.
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I have completed basic TA training, and have built on this by completing specific supervision training which has its roots in TA, but ranges
beyond that as well. -
My own supervisor has a similar supervision background, is an accredited professional coach, but brings in addition experience as a counselor (and therefore has experience of supervision in that context). So she brings additional expertise which I don’t have. I find this mix to be hugely valuable.
A bit about me
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I have worked full time as a professional coach since 1999 when I set up Talent Dynamics Ltd, and throughout that time my business has been a roughly equal mix of coaching individuals and coaching teams to operate at their best.
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Together with my close colleagues, we pioneered a tried and tested approach to team dynamic coaching long before it became
the buzz word that it now is. -
I am known for stating what I see, robustly, but with respect, so that clients are able to reflect in an environment of real honesty and trust.
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I help my clients to make what may seem complex into something simple that is freeing, and allows them to move forward.
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I hold to the strongest of ethical boundaries, and clients rapidly trust me, and so are able to be completely honest, with themselves as well as with me, and so do the work that really needs to be done.
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I was awarded my PCC (Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF in 2005, and in 2016 joined the relatively small number of people in the UK who have been awarded their MCC (Master Certified Coach) accreditation.
In my free time I love the big outdoors and can often be found with my family up a mountain, on skis, in a boat or simply heading off with a rucksack and a bike. I am a keen amateur musician and have been steeped in Scottish traditional music throughout my life, playing piano, accordion, tin whistle and latterly subjecting my nearest and dearest to the strains of the fiddle – a true test of our relationships !
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