What are the implications of technology for supervision? Sam Isaacson reports in the latest Association of Coaching Supervisors column
Technology is creeping into every corner of the coaching profession. It’s enhancing client outcomes, disrupting how we’ve always done things, and tugging at our assumptions around what works and why.
All of these might be good things, and coaching supervision is well placed to support coaches navigating the changing environment. Technology is developing at an exponential rate with constant new hardware releases bringing upgraded speed and capabilities.
It isn’t hard to feel behind the curve. I like to compare it to the experience of someone living in prehistoric times meeting a group that’s developed writing. Through some kind of magic, they can solve complex problems, and remember things collectively, even across generations. The access that a few early adopters have to advanced technology makes them appear superhuman, leaving the rest of humanity behind. Coaching supervision can play a role in helping coaches answer the question of why and how to use technology. And perhaps the best way to learn that is through using technology in supervision, so let’s look at the impact technology is having.
Enhancing supervision
Some technology tools are designed to be used in a conversation to make it more interesting, engaging or impactful. In my forthcoming book, Superhuman Coaching, I semi-categorise these into collaboration tools, visual stimuli, creative and multi-sensory, systemic and virtual reality technologies. I’ll briefly illustrate each.
Collaboration tools would include technologies like digital whiteboards. Skilful use of these in supervision might allow a coach to reflect on their practice as the supervisor leads them through good questions. They might capture their thoughts on sticky notes, represent enablers and blockers with icons, and explore the space to discover their resourcefulness. The digital whiteboard acts as an extension of the supervision conversation to make that sort of insight easily accessible.
One of the most common tools my 2019 coaching supervisor would take from her bag was a pack of picture cards to trigger thinking around metaphors, so it’s only natural that the 2022 equivalent would be a digital version. There are several options, each with its own character, and as a piece of technology to make a supervision session a bit different it feels like a good place to start.
There are more creative options as well. Take AnswerThePublic, for example, a website that analyses Google search queries to report the most common questions people ask related to any input you choose, as well as the most popular terms related to it. I just typed in ‘inclusive leadership’, and some of the outputs sound like great questions for reflection in supervision: What are inclusive leadership behaviours? Why is inclusive leadership so important? What do inclusive leaders sound like?
Another angle would be to think about systems. Constellations, for example, is an exercise used in a lot of supervision conversations, and there are digital versions of this as well. Ignoring the premium, purpose-built apps for a moment, perhaps the most basic approach would be for a supervisor to populate a simple slide with some appropriate shapes, and allow a coach to experiment on the screen in the same way as they would with objects on a table.
Finally, as immersive technologies such as virtual reality continue to pick up steam, might it be appropriate for a coaching supervisor to hand a headset to a coach, live in the session? They could initiate an experience in which they are guided through a mindfulness exercise, for example. With the headset on there are no distractions, and the coach might gain even greater benefits.
Changing the face of supervision
Other technology can make us to question how supervision ought to take place. Given the ubiquity of the communications technologies today, might it not make more sense for asynchronous supervision to become more mainstream? Instead of group coaching supervision, for example, what would happen if the same supervisor offered supervision through one-to-one instant messaging with the same group at
the same time?
Each coach would take some time in reflection and summarise their reply into a text message, and the supervisor would switch from one conversation to another, increasing the amount of time each coach gets to spend in supervision, with no extra time investment. Newer technologies could make this truly impactful.
Analytics tools that offer summaries of coaching conversations provide a first layer of reflective practice that might inform a supervision conversation. Imagine a coach discovering for the first time that 65% of their questions took more than three minutes to ask. The laser focus of that next supervision session might be the most valuable they’ve had!
Data inputs don’t just have to be from coaching conversations. Supervisors might use an online form before each session that draws out some simple, key metrics across all their sessions.
Something arbitrary and intuitive like “How are you feeling about your practice today, on a scale of 1-10?” might offer a coach additional insight on how things are changing for them over time, and how their perception aligns (or not) with that of other coaches.
Supervision and the coachtech ecosystem
Could the biggest opportunity for coaching supervision right now be with perhaps the most disruptive of technologies in coaching: digital coaching providers?
Digital coaching providers are responsible for ensuring the quality of their coaches, and supervision is an important part of that. At CoachHub, our coach onboarding has always been rigorous, including among other things a commitment to supervision, and we’ve now launched the Digital Coaching Institute to provide ongoing quality assurance and continuous development for our coaches, including coaching supervision.
I couldn’t be more excited for the coaching profession or for coaching supervision! I remember Hawkins and Schwenk’s 2006 research, Coaching Supervision: Maximising the Potential of Coaching (CIPD), which showed fewer than half of coaches were in supervision, and fewer than a quarter of organisations offered it.
Wouldn’t it be great if technology were the catalyst to make it the norm, rather than the exception?
- Sam Isaacson is global director of consulting at CoachHub, a coach, coach supervisor, and author. He was the first person in the world to offer coaching in virtual reality, and sits on working groups for the
ICF and EMCC Global - Sam Isaacson will be speaking on technology in coaching at the Coaching at Work annual conference on 17 November online
FIND OUT MORE
- The Association of Coaching Supervisors (AoCS) is an international community of coach supervisors and source of good practice, where you can easily find an experienced, qualified and often accredited coach supervisor to work with: www.associationofcoachingsupervisors.com