Supervision vs. Mentoring

Q: "What is the difference between a mentor coach and a coaching supervisor?"

My original mentor coach for my PCC became a trained Coaching Supervisor. She explains the distinctions very clearly.

Mentor coaching is only specific to honing, developing and identifying your coaching specific skills. Mentoring supports our "in-session" skills.

Coaching supervision is everything else, beyond a session, that goes into supporting our success as a coach. This may include issues around where our ethical boundaries are drawn, our coaching presence in general, our overall coaching style or philosophy, our coaching approach and our overall coaching success formula. 

In Supervision I can run scenarios, stuck points and struggles by my Supervisor for coaching. In mentor coaching I will submit a recording of a session, the mentor would review my competency level and give me developmental feedback on my coaching skills. 

In our certification program, we provide both to each student both. ​

Coaching Resource of the Week:
New Community of Practice:
Coaching Supervision

From the ICF:
​"Coaching Supervision is a collaborative learning practice to continually build the capacity of the coach through reflective dialogue for the benefit of both coaches and clients. We recognize Coaching Supervision as an important element of a coach’s professional development, and we are proud to announce the launch of the Coaching Supervision Community of Practice. This community will explore the importance of reflective practice through interactive webinars, subject matter expert presentations and community discussions. To receive emails about upcoming webinars, please join the contact list."