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Focusing on Coaching Supervision
12 Plays4 months ago
In this solo episode, Elias shares the exciting news of earning his ESIA accreditation from the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), a coaching supervision certification. But more than a personal milestone, this episode is a deep reflection on the value of supervision in coaching and how it complements mentor coaching, personal growth, and business development.
Elias unpacks the evolving distinctions between mentor coaching and supervision, explores their psychological roots, and makes a strong case for a holistic, integrative approach to supporting coaches. With nearly 15 years of experience as a mentor coach and supervisor, he invites coaches to see supervision as “super-vision”—a bird’s-eye view of their practice that deepens self-awareness, ethical clarity, and professional impact.
Whether you're new to the concept or already using supervision, this episode offers powerful insights and practical encouragement to embrace reflective practice as part of your ongoing development.
📌 Plus: Elias previews the final episode of Season 2 and shares exciting updates from the PRIME community.
🔗 Learn more at primecoachingacademy.com
📺 Check out our latest coaching demo on YouTube
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👥 Join our next PRIME HOUR!
#CoachingSupervision #MentorCoaching #HolisticCoaching #CoachDevelopment #ReflectivePractice #EMCC #ICFCoaching #CoachingStandards #PRIMESPACE #EliasScultori #CoachingPodcast
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Transcript
Introduction to Prime Space Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Prime Space, a Prime Coaching Academy podcast with your host, Elias Scultori.
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello coaches.
00:00:16
Speaker
You may have heard that I got yet another certification recently.
Elias Scultori's Certification Milestone
00:00:26
Speaker
I was awarded the ESIA from the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
00:00:34
Speaker
It's a certification focused primarily on supervision.
00:00:38
Speaker
It's a supervision individual accreditation from the EMCC.
Journey in Mentor Coaching and Supervision
00:00:44
Speaker
And this is a long time coming.
00:00:47
Speaker
I have been a mentor coach and a coach supervisor for many years, close to 15 years now.
00:00:55
Speaker
And ever since we have this new way of looking at supervision, this came about and observing the development of this particular practice, it has always been in my mind like, oh, maybe I should, you know, get more training on this and investigate this practice a little bit more.
00:01:14
Speaker
And
00:01:15
Speaker
Finally, I had a little bit of bandwidth to invest in this process.
00:01:22
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And of course, I took the training.
00:01:24
Speaker
Why not?
00:01:25
Speaker
Let's get the stamp after the training.
00:01:28
Speaker
And I went all the way to getting the certification.
00:01:34
Speaker
I am a huge fan of supervision.
00:01:38
Speaker
Every time prior, even prior to my training, that I had the opportunity to be supervised or to be in an environment of supervision, I left that experience inspired.
The Role and Benefits of Supervision in Coaching
00:01:52
Speaker
There is so much beauty in this practice of stopping and reflecting on how am I showing up for my clients?
00:02:04
Speaker
What are the points, the blind spots that may happen...
00:02:10
Speaker
If there is an ethical question that I have, there is a space for me to work with my supervisor or perhaps even in group supervision to have this conversation and share with my fellow coaches and
00:02:27
Speaker
and with this coach supervisor to support me in reflecting and seeing myself a little bit more broadly and being able to then, when I go back to my client, show up more fully, more presently with a broader awareness of me as a coach and how I present myself to my clients.
00:02:51
Speaker
It's a robust experience
00:02:54
Speaker
refined and tremendously valuable process.
00:02:59
Speaker
And if you have never experienced supervision, I highly encourage you to seek opportunities to be supervised and stay in this space of supervision.
00:03:12
Speaker
The name supervision is a little tricky.
00:03:14
Speaker
And supervision, it feels like a little intimidating.
Historical Evolution of Coaching Support
00:03:22
Speaker
This person is going to supervise me.
00:03:24
Speaker
But we, in coaching, we try to split that word supervision into supervision.
00:03:31
Speaker
This idea that we are taking a bird's eye view of what's happening with me in my practice today.
00:03:37
Speaker
so that I have a broader perspective and be able to show up more presently and more consciously, intentionally with our clients.
00:03:47
Speaker
Phenomenal.
00:03:48
Speaker
Phenomenal process.
00:03:51
Speaker
Since the beginning of the coaching profession, we have noticed the crucial aspect of supporting coaches.
00:04:04
Speaker
And at the time, this is even prior to ICF, we realized that coaches need to have conversations with other coaches and build this ongoing relationship with a more experienced coach so that on a regular basis, we have this space for reflection and growth.
00:04:24
Speaker
At that time, prior to ICF, I emphasize that, we labeled that practice, we labeled it mentor coaching.
00:04:32
Speaker
That was what the practice was.
00:04:34
Speaker
We didn't have all of this information that came from supervision later, and we called it mentor coaching.
00:04:40
Speaker
And this was this process of supporting the growth and development of this other coach.
00:04:46
Speaker
And in all aspects of their practice, skills development, personal development, business development, we had those three legs that we used to call and that we used to identify.
00:04:58
Speaker
But bottom line was this holistic process of supporting the development, the ongoing development of the coach.
00:05:09
Speaker
When the ICF came and later when the ICF started setting the standards for the profession and standards for certification, the ICF set one specific requirement for the process of certification.
00:05:25
Speaker
Make sure that in this ongoing process that you have with your mentor coach,
00:05:34
Speaker
Make sure that prior to your certification, you dedicate at minimum of 10 hours talking about skills and polishing your coaching skills.
Integrative Psychological Practices in Coaching
00:05:47
Speaker
Work with your mentor coach and reflect on what are the stretches and the opportunities for growth in your skills that
00:06:00
Speaker
development specific so that you have a successful certification process.
00:06:07
Speaker
At that time, the ICF never defined that mentor coaching is skills development.
00:06:15
Speaker
It was just an ask requirement that spend at least 10 hours so that you are well prepared for the process.
00:06:27
Speaker
Later on, the community, primarily coming from EMCC, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, which is a community highly influenced by psychology specialists, came and said, hey, we have this practice in psychology, the practice of supervision, that can be tremendously powerful and helpful to coaches.
00:06:54
Speaker
Why don't we bring supervision, the process of supervision to coaching?
00:07:02
Speaker
Fabulous.
00:07:04
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:07:07
Speaker
I've said this before.
00:07:08
Speaker
I'm a firm believer that coaching can be enriched and become an even more robust process.
00:07:18
Speaker
When we incorporate knowledge and experiences from other practices, at the same time that coaching came to be as a profession, we had several other parallel modalities that came to be as well.
00:07:33
Speaker
Motivational interviewing.
00:07:37
Speaker
positive psychology we have appreciative inquiry we have all of these wonderful modalities happening why not learn from all of them right so then comes supervision well why not bring supervision to coaching
00:07:55
Speaker
Right now, in the development of this whole process and the continued development of our profession, we have very hard lines set between coaching and mental coaching and coaching supervision, and it's interesting to see this development.
00:08:14
Speaker
I am a firm believer that coaching is, and the proposition of coaching, is holistic and integrative.
00:08:22
Speaker
We work with the whole human being and we realize that all parts of that human being in the development of that human being are interconnected.
00:08:32
Speaker
So it's a little interesting, even funny to see us separating and this is one thing, this is the other thing.
00:08:42
Speaker
When in fact, when we are in front of this coach and we are supporting this coach, it's a whole person.
00:08:50
Speaker
So I don't understand how can we possibly support skills development without coaching.
00:09:01
Speaker
How can we possibly support skills development without a reflective practice just like supervision?
00:09:08
Speaker
I don't understand how we
Holistic Approach to Coaching Development
00:09:10
Speaker
can only do reflective practice without talking about skills development or that we will talk about skills development, but then maybe business is a part of that process.
00:09:23
Speaker
It's all intertwined.
00:09:26
Speaker
So I do believe in a much more integrative process, and I hope that this is the future, that we will be able to develop supervision and mentor coaching, and this is going to come together.
00:09:41
Speaker
Because the bottom line is that we are there, I'm there when I'm working with my coaches, I'm there to support that whole individual.
00:09:48
Speaker
And sometimes there is a little bit more need to focus on skills.
00:09:52
Speaker
Sometimes there is a little bit more need to look at a particular client case.
00:09:58
Speaker
Sometimes there is some personal development that needs to happen.
00:10:01
Speaker
Sometimes the coach is more concerned with their business and building their business practice.
00:10:08
Speaker
All of this is happening within that individual.
00:10:12
Speaker
How can I, as a professional that has invested in this process of supporting coaches, how can I support that individual holistically?
00:10:22
Speaker
And that's why I went and I learned a little bit more about the process of supervision because I do believe in the integrative process.
00:10:32
Speaker
Coaching is a holistic practice.
00:10:36
Speaker
Coaching is about integration.
00:10:40
Speaker
When we set these very clear boundaries, we are kind of like splitting the individual into different segments, which is actually absolutely against the whole concept of coaching.
00:10:56
Speaker
Coaching is about the whole human being.
00:10:59
Speaker
And that is my commitment.
00:11:01
Speaker
It's to bring these concepts of supervision and what I have learned from supervision to
00:11:08
Speaker
not only to when I am supporting coaches, but if supervision is so beautiful, why not bring some of these concepts of supervision to coaching?
00:11:19
Speaker
There is absolutely nothing new in the concept of supervision.
00:11:24
Speaker
There is a different way of verbalizing them.
00:11:28
Speaker
Let's pick one particular point of supervision, which is this idea of utilizing ourselves, the practitioner, as an instrument to support the coach.
00:11:39
Speaker
Well, this is, and I've said this many times here in the podcast, this is already embedded in our core competencies.
00:11:47
Speaker
Standard 7.11 asks us to be free to share our own observations, to share the insights, what is coming to surface inside of us in the coaching process.
00:12:01
Speaker
It's just that sometimes we are a little shy as coaches to do that.
00:12:05
Speaker
for a number of reasons that I've mentioned before and that I can expand this a little bit more in future episodes.
Commitment to Integrating Supervision
00:12:14
Speaker
But it's already there.
00:12:15
Speaker
And this is part of the supervision, the wonderful contribution of supervision to coaching.
00:12:24
Speaker
So let's incorporate even in coaching.
00:12:26
Speaker
I believe that that is a beautiful practice here.
00:12:31
Speaker
So, yes, I do have my experience in mentor coaching and skills development.
00:12:37
Speaker
I am a trainer.
00:12:39
Speaker
Now I invested quite some time in investigating and learning more about this new way of looking at supervision.
00:12:51
Speaker
And all of this is based on my commitment to support my coach clients in their holistic development as human beings and as practitioners and as professionals.
00:13:07
Speaker
So I encourage you to consider working in that more integrative approach as well.
00:13:15
Speaker
I always say if we are a coach, we need a coach.
00:13:20
Speaker
It's an ethical issue.
00:13:22
Speaker
How in the world can we go and...
00:13:24
Speaker
to our prospect clients and promote coaching and say that coaching is such a valuable and powerful process if we don't believe that for ourselves.
00:13:36
Speaker
It's a matter of integrity, I believe.
00:13:39
Speaker
So we as coaches, we need to work with coaches.
00:13:43
Speaker
And I would encourage you as you're looking to build a long-term and sustainable relationship with a coach,
00:13:54
Speaker
to look for a professional that is an exquisite coach with very solid experience as a coach, but also someone who is an expert in the standards and the skills of coaching that can support you in developing specific skills.
00:14:15
Speaker
Also look for someone who is capable and is versed in this new language of supervision.
00:14:23
Speaker
Look for someone who has a thriving practice as well.
00:14:27
Speaker
All of these components.
00:14:29
Speaker
See if you can find someone who has all of these capabilities to support your learning and development in a holistic practice.
Encouragement and Next Steps
00:14:40
Speaker
I believe that that is fundamental and super important for us as coaches to invest on for ourselves.
00:14:48
Speaker
So that's my encouragement for you.
00:14:51
Speaker
Consider this process of supervision.
00:14:54
Speaker
Consider understanding this a little bit more if you haven't heard about it or if you have minimal knowledge of it because there is a lot of richness and beauty in that process.
00:15:06
Speaker
Bottom line is that we as coaches need to continue in our reflective practice and need to continue to pay attention to where we are so that we can better serve our clients.
00:15:21
Speaker
Those are my thoughts for today.
00:15:22
Speaker
Next week we will bring Amy back.
00:15:26
Speaker
She's going to be here in our final episode for season two of Prime Space.
00:15:32
Speaker
I can't believe that we are finishing season two.
00:15:36
Speaker
And so stay tuned for next week's episode with Amy.
00:15:41
Speaker
Also pay attention to our YouTube channel.
00:15:44
Speaker
I just published a coaching demonstration there that I think you will enjoy watching and listening to it.
00:15:51
Speaker
Our LinkedIn page is very active.
00:15:54
Speaker
Please follow our LinkedIn page, subscribe to the podcast, and consider showing up for one of our prime hours as well.
00:16:03
Speaker
You can get all of this information at primecoachingacademy.com.
00:16:07
Speaker
Enjoy your week, everyone, and I will see you next time.
00:16:11
Speaker
Take care.