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2014 т. 4 no 1
Topic of the issue: Coach Professional Standard
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- Pages
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4–5
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The initiative for professional standards regulation for all professions has come from the Russian State in 2012. A Presidential decree was issued in May 2012 introducing development of professional standards for all professions not having standards. The corresponding government regulation wasissued in January 2013. The approach to professional standard regulation is blended: involvement of both the state and ofthe professional communities is implied. The state has issued the general regulation, at the same time thegovernment regulation suggests that the standards are developed by professional bodies/associations and submitted for approval to the Ministry of Labor. Thus the introduction of professional standardsfor all professions became part of social and professional reality. The primary initiators of «Coach» professional standard development were three professional bodies: National Guild of Professional Consultants, Professional Association of Russian-Speaking Coaches, and ICF-Russia chapter.
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6–16
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The article describes the social and practical background and conceptual basis of coachingas a developmental practice; it presents the basis for the development of the “Coach” professional standard in the Russian Federation. The impetus for development of coaching as a professional activity starts from the needs and demands of modern society. On the individual level this includes striving for conscious choice in the person’s life; on the business/corporate level – the need for improving the effectiveness of key employess mobilizing their internal capacity. Definitions of coaching as a developmental practice and professional activities are given. Key features of the coaching profession includefocus on development of human potential, self-awareness, proactivity in addressing personal, professional and business objectives, reflexivity and focus on meaning; interactive, non-prescriptive, subject-to-subject character of coaching work. A coach’s role includes neutrality, and non-involvmentin possible conflicts of interests. Research data on perception of coaching in organizations show that the value of coaching is steadily perceived as very high, with coaching priorities being approximately equally distributed between employee development and dealing with specific problems/issues. The basic formats incorporating coaching into educational practice include students support (graduate and post-graduate education), supporting management and organizational changes in educational institutions. A factor hindering development of the profession in all countries is a large number of inadequately trained “coaches”, blurring the boundaries of professional activity, and creating “confusion in the market”. Coaching training fundamentally departs from the traditional knowledge-based teaching, its core is mentoring from an experienced coach. Best practices of quality coaching work include by coaching supervision providing support from a professional supervisor who has considerable experience of coaching andspecial training. The best practices of the profession are based on the work of professional associations/communities that support publicly declared standards of their members, formalised coaching competencies, certification procedures, levels of professional skill, training and supervision requirements, codes of ethics. The article sets the ground for development of the National standard of thecoaching profession in Russia.
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17–24
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The article presents an overview of international coaching market research data of 2007-2012. Against this background the author presents his own coaching market research in Russia in 2013. Data from international studies trusted sources search were compared. Our ownresearch was conducted using an electronic questionnaire to present a survey of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Processing and comparing the results was done based one’s research platform www.monkeysurvey.com. Summarized international surveys data show the dynamics of the coaching global market. Results of research in Russia give data on pricing range, geographical distributionof coaching, professional non-profit associations and level of development of coaching profession. Compared to international statistical data the coaching market in the Russian Federationis in its formation stage. According to statistical indicators such as the density of coaches per million population Russia lags behind from the average by three orders of magnitude. The expert survey data provide a picture of the development of coaching in Russia. Comparison of Russian data with global statistics allow to compare trends in the international and national coaching markets, and development of the coaching profession.
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25–32
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Presentation of the results of Russian coaching market research, conducted by ICF-Russiain 2012. Methodology: the study was designed as on-line questionnaire for the following target audience: practicing coaches, participants of training programs for coaches, individual coaching clients and representatives of organizations purchasing coaching. Processing and comparison of the results was conducted through www.monkeysurvey.com. The research results describe the coaching services market in Russia in 2012 on the following parameters: use of the term “coach”, the level of trainingof coaches, needs coaches have in professional development, specifi cs of coaching practice, coaches’ specialization, experience clients and customers have using coaching, expectations and needs of actualand potential clients. Russian coaching market has the features typical for the early stage of formation: the vast majority of coaches have a small amount of practice and are interested in their practice expansion, customers and clients have issues selecting and using professional coaches, that is caused by insufficient understanding of coaching industry. The study is the most comprehensive among surveys conducted in Russia on the topic of the market of coaching from the point of view of respondents, and it provides significant multilateral description of Russian coaching market.
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33–39
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This article takes a historical look at self-regulation activities, attempts at outside regulationin the United States and other countries, the more recent unifying of global coaching organizations in standards/ethics, and opinions on the benefits and difficulties of becoming a profession. Self-regulation is explored as a current trend in the development of the coaching profession.
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40–45
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With the emergence of the coaching profession, there are attempts to regulate it at anational or regional level. The profession has understood how important it is to self-regulate toobtain a clear framework. The paper explores the difficulty that lies in the agreement on one definition of coaching as many of them prevail. For the ICF and other coaching authorities such as the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), coaching is a partnership that allows the clientto find their own solutions based on their own objectives. The author explores the experience in large multinational organizations, when coaching means advising and/or mentoring and/or individual training. The approach to coaching is: advising is torecommend a solution to the client, mentoring and training is to transmit knowledge and experience; in coaching, it is to induce a change of beliefs and encourage the client to make their own decisions and to implement them via their own action plan. Coaching is presented as a true profession, which is duly benchmarked by specific competencies. The most structured approach to the profession was developed by groups of top professionals coming from different countries within the International Coach Federation who strived to determine the coaching core competencies, and to create a Code of ethics. The Code defines the coach’s posture in relationship with the clients and provides guidelines in many professional situations where, for instance, a conflict of interest might emerge. On their side, the 11 competenciesare articulated under four main components: (1) Setting the foundation, (2) Co-creating the relationship, (3) Communicating effectively, (4) Facilitating learning and results. These competencies are the benchmark of the certification. The author explores the issue of coach background: the question is, when dealing with the humanmatters: does a coach to be a professional psychologist to be a credible, or can they originate from other disciplines, such as economy, law, engineering, science, or art to name a few? Comparing two main schools, and their respective lobbies, the author states that coaching is limited to the "hereand now" while psy-based disciplines are healing the past, and digging more deep into emotions and feelings. As such, the two professions are perfectly complementary and should work hand in hand as the perimeter of coaching does not allow professional coaches to deal will all human matters. Against the background of global trends the author looks at the new Russian Coaching Standardto find that it genuinely matches the high standards of both competencies, and ethics of ICF, andadds some extra features, e.g. the competency for coach’s self development, and recommendation for a coach to have supervision not less than twice a year. The Russian Standard combines strong commitment to coaching ethics and values, and broad, inclusive view on coaching embracing different coaching modes and/or styles, as long as they are compatible with the ethics of coaching, and basic coaching functions.
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46–47
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The author argues that we have reached a point where in order to protect the discipline of coaching, the reputation of good coaches and the interests of the clients where some common understanding needs to be created. And with that professional standards. In “professional standards” two areas are involved: the professionalism that any practitioner should bring to their craft and the standards specific to the craft. The first are easier to gain consensus on then the second. There are two things specifically that give rise to the need. The first is the lack of a commonly held definition of coaching and the second is the quality of coaching. As for the definition there are numerous, different approaches, some psychologically based, others practically or experientially based, still others philosophically or spiritually based and worst of those born of some kind of homespun “wisdom”. And there is the vast divergence in the quality of the coaching, from the truly excellent to the truly awful. And the mediocre in between. How can it be that it is still possible to act as a coach with no formal training or, as is the case for so many, to be operating on the basis of a training program attended ten years ago? The author explores the controversy that, to date, the drive for professional standards has been driven by independent self-appointed organisations. While there are many well-intentioned people behind these organisations who give considerable time and energy to promoting the cause of coaching, the nature of these organisations is such that there is an inherent problem that is difficult to get past. In order to have a voice such an organisation must have large numbers of members so they are inevitably inclusive, anyone can join. Inclusivity and excellence do not make easy bedfellows. Suggested part of the solution is tohave on-going accreditation, that each coach should have a renewable license to coach, valid fora maximum of two years. The assessment would be made by a peer group who would speak withclients and player/coaches and either attend sessions or review recordings. The assessment would need to be carried out against an agreed framework of standards. I think of no simpler means thatwould, in a very short period of time transform the experience of coaching for players and clients.
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48–54
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The article describes theconditions and characteristics affecting the development of the Russian coaching market since the beginning of its formation from the second half of the 90s of the XX century. The author highlights separate socio-cultural factors that influence the development of the coaching market and that are influencing the perception of coaching by business in Russia. Special attention is paid to the stereotypes regarding the conduct of business, business planning, money, personal and professional development that existed in the community and in the minds of potential customers at the moment of appearance of coaching as a distinct service in the market of training, learning and development. Analyzing who become consumers of coaching services and what kind of requests clients bring to coaches, the author identifies three most common categories of consumers of coaching, and also describes what challenges coaches face in their practice. The article also focuses on the sources of specialists becoming coaches, the development of the coach training market, and on the most popular coaching requests. Giving specific examples of how coaching works for individual as well as how it is implemented in various organizations, and relating that to the development of professional coaching communities, the author refers to potential prospects and challenges for the development of the coaching profession in Russia.
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55–60
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The article emphasizes the importance and timeliness of developing professional standards of the profession/occupation "Coach", which is a significant milestone in the development of this new profession/field. Zone of proximal development of the coaching profession is described from the perspective of a psychologist and a psychoanalyst. The interdisciplinary nature of coaching requires that there is a special profound coaching education. Such an education should include not only the study of the fundamentals of management, psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, but also opportunities for gaining practical experience in coaching so as to create core competencies of coaching. The process of developing and formulating professional competencies of the coach regulates and directs the development of the profession. Certain complex aspects of the coaching position are discussed, especially those aspects associated with the requirement of neutrality of the coach as well as various kinds of resistance to the work of coaching. Specifically the following resistances are discussed: the resistance of the consultant to work in the here and now and his/her corresponding flight into the future; the tendency of the consultant to protect himself or herself from the emotional distress; resistance towards working with behavioral and cognitive level of client’s self-actualization; and the resistance towards more in-depth exploration of the client’s request. Individual mastery of key competencies allows the coach to find a stable coaching identity that nevertheless requires constant further development. This article argues that this identity is characterized by the fact that a consultant acquires a strong and mature coaching Self that allows him or her to not only be truly open to his or her feelings and defenses, but also to experiences and resistances of the client. Such a professional/competent coaching Self can be gained by going through own individual coaching in the role of the client but more importantly it can be gained by going through constant supervision. These supervisions are paramount in developing the coach’s ability to look at himself or herself from a distance, to keep a steady focus on the client's request and to learn to transfer new insights into the reality of actions. According to the author supervision is the highest level of regulation of the coaching profession. It is precisely due to supervising regulation that the core coaching competencies arise. The list of these competencies includes (but is not limited to): developing the coaching Self, having flexible internal boundaries, being able to actively listen to the client without excessive anxiety of falling too deeply into emotions, being able to self-reflect and keep the internal dialogue going. All these and many other critical competencies of the coach are born in and evolve through supervisory regulation. In the course of such work on the basis of the coaching Self a new inner supervisory-coaching Self arises that is capable of conducting to a sufficient degree supervisory self-regulation independently on its own.
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61–68
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Description of job functions included in the professional standard (functional map of the types ofprofessional activity) is presented.
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69–80
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The concept of “competencies” is not in the format of Professional standards specified by the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation. Appropriate template and procedure descriptions profession includes the concept of “General Work Functions”, “Work Functions”, “Knowledge”, “Skills” and “Work Actions”. However, in the international, as well as in Russian coachingpractice the concept of competency is widely used. Competencies serve a foundation of coaching supervision and certification of members of professional bodies and accreditation of coach training programs. Competencies, describing the structure and content of professional coaching, arewidely known in the context of international professional standards of coaching performance. Introduction of competencies into the Standard is intended to make professional standard clearer to HR professionals, coaches and coaching clients and customers, as well as to ensure compatibility with the professional coaching practice all over the world. Description of coaching competenciesis included in the Professional Standard “Coach” as one of the appendices.
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81–86
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Ethical standards are not included in the description of professions, suggested by the Ministry of Labor of Russian Federation. However, in the worldwide coaching practice the Code of Ethics of coaching professional bodies regulates professional activities. Professional ethics is the essential foundation for professional coaching activities: ethical rules governing the position of coach in working with clients, coaching interaction with customers, professional community and society in general. The approach taken by the Working Group is that Ethical Norms are recommended as a basis for formulating Ethical codes of professional coaching bodies in Russian Federation. Norms of ethics are included in Professional Standard “Coach” as one of the appendices. |
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87–89
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The Glossary contains description of key terms used in the text of National standard of the coaching profession in Russia. The format of Professional standards specifiedby the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, does not imply notes for explanations of the terms used in the text. However, not all the terms used in professional coaching, are well known, some of them are understood and used in different ways. The professionof a Coach should be clear not only to professionals, but also to clients and customers of coaching. So Glossary is included in the “Coach” National Professional standard as one of the Appendices. The Glossary lists most commonly used terms from the field of coachingin their most common interpretation shared by professionals, regardless of their belonging to a school or method in coaching.
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90–95
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The author examines the ethical guidelines for professional coaching - Code of Ethics ICF (International Coach Federation) and Professional Ethics of the Russian standard “Couch”. This article proposes an approach of how ethical standards can be used as guidelines and “hints” in the analysis of specific situations for coaching practice. According to the author, a successfu lprofessional activity based on three grounds: 1) practice (be able to see patterns and to preventthe system complexity), 2) the analysis and interpretation of your coach practice (supervision as a tool), 3) professional guidance: Code of Ethics, professional coahing competencies.The author takes three typical situations (objectives and results of coaching, feedback and interim meetings, recommendations) to analyze and understand what potential contradictions and complexity they contain these situations can hide and what kind of decisions can be taken relying on ethical standards.
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96–100
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The Paper illustrates the practical applications of professional standard “Coach”. The purpose of this paper is to describe how guidelines of the professional standard, created in 2013 influence the efficiency of coaching. The case presents an example of working with resistance, which is typical in the context of corporate coaching. The paradox of the case situation is that coaching work with the client starts before the formal beginning of the coaching program. Coach’s attitude to resistanceis explored. Attitude-1 is detecting resistance to fight with and to overcome. Attitude-2 issensing resistance, and treating it as a natural component of coach-client interaction. In the story presented here the coach took a "non-formal" approach to the Client’s request about delaying the first meeting, yet making the client responsible for this decision. Accepting attitude expressed by the coach was intertwined with her attention to both the client’s concern, and the frame of the coaching engagement, even though the engagement has not formally started. In the analysis of the situation competencies outlined in the professional standard are used not as “recipes”, but rather as the basis for working with client to ensure positive results. The process of building relationships with the customer and the client is seen from the perspective of developing productive collaboration. The Case analysis demonstrates applicability of core competencies and Ethical guidelines to influence quality of coach-client collaboration as a basis for coaching effectiveness.
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101–102
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Since January 2014, the Working Group on the development of professional standard “Coach” with the support of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) has taken the initiative: to test the proposed professional standard in real coaching work. Activities were designed as a series of public professional weekly evening meetings during which invited coaches would run a half-hour coaching demo sessions followed by the supervisory analysis and discussion in the context of a professional standard. The purpose of the events was: 1) agree on the application of professional standards and implement using the proposed Professional Standard “Coach” to the real practice of coaching; 2) to promote supervision as included in the proposed Professional Standard. By Summer 2014 there were 18 meetings held. This section contains a number of impressions of the coaches about their experiences of supervised coaching work and discussing it against the background of the proposed professional standard “Coach”.
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103–107
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The article reflects the impressions and their analysis regarding author’s supervised demo-session that took place at a working session of group dedicated to the development of professional coaching standards. The Author’s coaching approach is close to humanistic as well as cognitive-behavioural approach. It allows to consider the client’s request from the pointof realisation of his life mission, and to work on existential themes in coaching. It also makes itpossible to use fine calibration and to develop realisation plan, that is to be executed by the client to bring the results of coaching insights into his/her life and to create new thinking and behavioura lpatterns. The analysis of supervised demo-coaching session was done according to the following structure: 1) What is/was happening? 2) Why it was important to behave this specific way? 3) What was the role of coach? 4) What were the results those actions had been taken for? 5) Had the actions led to the desired results? 6) What are the resume that I came to as the resultof this case? The few opinions that were expressed during the feedback at the end of the session, could be grouped as follows. It’s very important to make the precise contracting for the coaching as well as to keep the flexibility, that allows to refine-add client’s request, to make it more clear and actual. For the coach to be able to come to balanced position to manage his/her states and to give feed-back to the client through verbal and non-verbal mirroring, and to use clear and understandable language for the client. It was mentioned that the lightness and humor led the client up to the defined goal to create clear coaching position as a person, who is, first of all, interested to explore client’s reality. The coach has his/her own experience and opinion that could be expressed but shouldn’t dominate client. The event allows to get specific and developmental feedback from the colleagues and to share my own reflections.
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108–110
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The author describes her feelings during the demo coaching session. Besides the coachand client making a whole (like horse and rider) in the process of a good session, in this demosession there was the professional audience making you watch from a third perspective. However, the coach’s task was to work, demonstrating competencies of a professional coach. Using the language of Gestalt psychology, we can imagine working with a client as a «figure», and the format of the supervisory observations based on professional standards – as «background» of the coach’s professional perception. The presence of this background helps the coach shape their work with the client. The background becomes invisible as if it “disappears” from the field of perception. Professional standard for the coaching community works as a highly productive background for creative work.
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111–115
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The article reflects the author’s impressions related to the author’s work in the supervised demo session in the framework of the working group on the development of professional standards “Coach”. Coaching demo sessions were based on the general approach, including three main stages: 1) accepting the format and the professional competencies of coaching professional standards; 2) conducting a coaching demo session; 3) fnalyzing and discussing the coaching demo session through the prism of the Standard.
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116–118
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The author describes the personal experience of coaching demo session followed by the supervisory analysis and feedback. Comments received can be divided into two groups. First — the comments that were given from the position of supervisor; each of the statements conveyed the feeling behind the observations, and professionalism. The second group, comments not related to my work or the client process, demonstrating observers’ own ideas. It is important that the Moderator closely followed the speciаfied format, and returned the process back to supervision format. The author notes the benefit of the event in this format, a rare opportunity for students mastering coaching —this format helps them work easier “to enter the profession”. The author believes regularsupervised demo sessions are important for the professional community as they form aunified understanding of the field and allow novice coach see the work of more experienced colleagues, thus adapting to the format of supervision, taking professional norms set out in the professional standards “Coach”.
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119–121
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My article is essentially a reflection of an experience I shared with an audience of around 80 Russian coaches in Moscow, in March this year. I was a guest of the Association of Russian Coaches, who had invited me to demonstrate a 30-minute coaching session at one of their weekly competence-based coaching supervision events. These events are organized by a volunteer working group, who have tasked themselves to develop the “Standard for the Russian Coaching Profession”.These particular events are designed to help Russian coaches develop their awareness, understanding and practice of the Russian "coach professional standard" competences. The article presents reflective writing approach, within the same structured framework that I offer to my coaching clients, to encourage and develop their own reflective practice and enrich their personal learning. The framework comprises these four questions: What happened and what caused it to happen that way? How did I behave, think and feel as it was happening? What were the main learning points from this experience? How will I apply that learning to my future behaviour? My main finding from this experience was the powerful role of compassion in a coaching conversation– even a short conversation between two people meeting for the first time – to generate a space of mutual trust and safety. By focussing on my “being” rather than “doing”, I was able to be fullypresent. My client felt safe to share and explore and this helped him generate the internal shift hewas looking for.
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122–124
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The purpose of this essay was to present a participant’s view of the new Russian coaching supervision sessions. I had the rare opportunity (as an American based “coach”) to present a master coaching demonstration. This paper presents my observations of the process and interactions of the group. I was asked to show the nonverbal dimension of my coaching style in 30 minutes. What I would like to speak about is the group process that followed the session. The group was asked to first offer feedback based on the coaching competencies and rules of engagement. As we know, it is difficult not to leap into questions and critiques, however, the supervision session leader respectfully brought us back to clear and useful feedback. What I found most fascinating was the breadth and depth of the questions and comments. People spoke from a wide range of coaching and psychological methodologies, personal experiences, and values. And with a very positive spirit they challenged each other’s viewpoints, continually raising the intellectual and emotional level of the conversation. Using my East/West approach as a focus, questions and realizations emerged that brought greater clarity and depth to the “simple” coaching competenciesthat framed the purpose for which we met.Listening to the words through the inestimable supportof my translator while reading and experiencing the nonverbal energies that moved through the room, I saw the power of this new type of “graduate” education process. Questions that I have had for years about the coaching process and the profession itself were answered and new possibilities arose. In my opinion, this new graduate supervision session developed in the Russian federation should become an international standard.
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125–128
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This article address some concerns about the use of professional supervision in coaching.The ambition of coaching communities to become a "proper" profession in the light of current realities is being challenged. The author suggests a new role for coaching supervision that may lead the way even for other more established professions.
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129–132
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The article reflects the author’s impressions related to the author’s work in the supervised demo session in the framework of the working group on the development of professional standards “Coach”. My key theses are as follows. 1. Supervision is a must. 2. Supervision in a group of colleagues and clients is invaluable for development. From the outset, was defined constructive discussion format – feedback is given “the facts” and in both aspects, namely: What was positive, worth supporting in the future?; What to look for as the zone of development? Another very important point was the “the clarification of concepts”, exploring the diversity of vision and perception. The most interesting and useful in group supervision, although not always the most pleasant is definition of development zones, areas for future growth. Especially if these observations come from different people, and, in from different perspectives, both from clients and colleagues. This practice of supervisory workshops completes the path necessary for the development and growth of professionalism and institutionalization of coaching as a profession. There was plenty of feedback based on concrete facts. The most valuable of feedback information I got included this: (1) I see how clearly people perceived my inner doubts which gives me a hint that it is better to “bring them to the surface” and share them with the client; (2) I see how importantit is for the “business success” to keep the focus on the pleasure and freedom.
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