Supervision of team coaches: In need of a new method

Team coaching is a relatively new and emerging field, with always evolving ideas around what it is and how it differs from team facilitation and development (Hackman & Wageman, 2005). Team-coaching programs are in many ways still in their infancy, with different curricula being developed across different institutions and training providers, however with an overall agreement that they need to differ from the training of individual coaches. After all, individual coaching is about individual learning and development and the psychology of the dyad, while team coaching is about team reflection, team development, and group dynamics, which can be very different from dynamics in a dyad. But what about the supervision of team coaches? What do current supervision models have to offer team coaches and their practice? Over the last 9 years, we have been experimenting, in the context of a team-coaching program, with a new group supervision method that specifically benefits team coaches and consultants who work regularly with intact teams. In this article, we want to initially share some thoughts on the role of the parallel process in supervision and how it has shaped our approach to team-coaching supervision.We will then describe our method, looking at the impact we have noticed and exploring the benefits and drawbacks of using it in an open or closed supervision group. Some reflections on the role of the supervisor will be offered, and we will conclude with some thoughts on the implications for supervision.What’s It Mean? Implications for Consulting Psychology It is important that coaching or consulting with an intact team is recognized as separate as compared with individual or group coaching with its own phenomena, methodology, and standards. This article shows that group supervision of team coaches needs to adapt to the specificities of team coaching, to create the right circumstances for learning and quality review. Thismeans allowing relevant (team) parallel processes to emerge during the supervision session.