EMCC 24th annual conference, Amsterdam, 11-13 April 2018
While coaches believe it’s important as a coach to be coached, not many are investing in coaching as part of their CPD, suggests a survey of 80 coaches.
Eighty per cent of coaches responding to a survey carried out by Paul Stokes and Lis Merrick felt it was important as a coach to receive coaching. However only 28% are currently receiving it.
Presenting at the EMCC’s annual conference in Amsterdam, Stokes said he and Merrick “had a hunch that coaches weren’t getting coaching as part of their CPD”. But, he said, “I was surprised that people rarely talked about the importance of getting coached as part of their development.”
He said there seems to be a blurring around why coaches might get coaching. Coached respondents’ reasons for receiving coaching were: own career development (56%) and developing yourself as a coach (47%).
Merrick said she and Stokes had a hunch, too, that there is an ebb and flow in demand from coaches for coaching, depending on maturity and mastery.
When asked about supervision, 63% of respondents said they were currently being supervised, and 26% that they had been supervised in the past. One participant said, “It’s shocking around 30% are not getting supervision.”
Another participant pointed out that therapists are expected to have both therapy and supervision as part of their CPD, “yet in coaching we don’t seem to have inherited that expectation”.
Professional coaching bodies expect members to receive supervision, but don’t call on them to receive coaching. For some, the survey findings led to the question of whether professional bodies should urge members to get coaching as well as supervision, or as one participant put it, “Should we be adults and seek coaching when we need it?”
Participants explored in pairs and in the group what the differences are between getting supervision and getting coaching on being a coach.
- Have your say: Do you think coaches should be required to have regular coaching as well as supervision as part of their ongoing CPD? http://bit.ly/2MjOCwo