This is a place for coaches like you who want to have more transformational conversations by doing less.

What does the community look like?

• A thriving community of coaches who get to know each other through our online community café, content on Patreon, and other events

• Access to recording reviews and other bespoke opportunities to get technical support with your coaching and business

• Exclusive content, including video insights from me, Q&A sessions and a monthly article where I’ll be sharing my new thinking

• Monthly live supervision, rightsized for schedule, budget, and the amount of coaching hours you deliver

• Plus, first access to events such as podcast roundtable recordings, discounts on products, and more

Take a look now

It is wonderful to work with people like you who aspire to be really brilliant in their craft. And I wonder how often that aspiration makes us work much harder than is useful, and therefore too fast for the people we coach or lead.

How often do you hope to make your questions great? I imagine that the answer may well be a lot! I love that. And, if we ask lots of great questions in a conversation, that may well simply be too many.

Because, if one thing changes for the person we are coaching in this conversation, we have done a really good job. Stacking great questions on top of each other can be the equivalent of going to the finest restaurant for a special meal every day for a week. Too much.

For me, there is usually just one moment in a coaching conversation where something shifts significantly. And if we have done that, we have done enough. For now.

This is part of coaching presence. Join me for a Masterclass online on Jan 20th 2026 | 16:00-19:00 (UK) | 11:00-14:00 (EST) to explore more deeply.

Or in person for a more experiential exploration - Manchester (UK) Friday 13th March 2026 | 9:30-16:00 (UK)

Thank you for coming along to The Coaching Inn podcast, wherever you listen…

Have a listen, and let me know what you think? Feedback appreciated - I’m looking for a fireside pub vibe!

The opening episode of Season 6 is a corker with coach Tony Latimer joining me from Singapore sharing his learning about Simplifying Coaching and how he is using Newtonian Physics to help him!

Thank you for listening this year - we appreciate your company and look forward to spending time with you in 2026!

📘 COACH SUPERVISION USER INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Model: Professional Coach v3.0 (Ethical & Effective Edition)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Thank you for choosing to operate as a Professional Coach with Active Supervision Mode. This manual outlines why supervision is an essential component for maintaining high-quality performance, ethical practice, and ongoing professional development.

2.0 SYSTEM PURPOSE

Supervision functions as an external support and quality-assurance interface designed to:

• Enhance coaching capability

• Strengthen reflective practice

• Maintain ethical alignment

• Provide structured space for problem-solving

Supervision is not optional; it is a recommended core feature for all high-performing coaches.

3.0 KEY BENEFITS OF SUPERVISION

3.1 Practice Quality Assurance Unit

Supervision ensures your coaching processes remain sharp, intentional, and effective. Regular review helps identify gaps and optimise outcomes.

3.2 Ethical Safeguard Circuit

A supervisor acts as a safety mechanism, ensuring the coach stays within ethical and professional boundaries. This reduces risk of over-identification, blurred roles, or misplaced responsibility.

3.3 Reflective Processing Module

Supervision provides a dedicated space to review cases, emotions, and decisions. This module enhances self-awareness, supports emotional regulation, and prevents burnout.

3.4 Skill Expansion Engine

Through feedback, challenge, and new perspectives, supervision introduces, expanded thinking, and refines your art. Continuous improvement becomes automatic.

3.5 Professional Resilience Booster

Discussing challenging situations, dilemmas, or personal triggers in supervision builds durability. This reduces system strain and prevents overload.

4.0 OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

To activate Supervision Mode effectively:

1. Schedule regular supervision sessions (recommended: monthly or bi-monthly). Join Claire’s community!

2. Bring themes, ethical questions, and your emotional responses for review.

3. Engage with openness and curiosity.

4. Integrate insights into your ongoing coaching practice.

5. Perform routine self-checks to ensure sustained alignment and learning.
   

5.0 SAFETY INFORMATION

• Failure to use supervision may result in decreased effectiveness, ethical drift, or emotional fatigue.
  

• Supervision may lead to unexpected insights, improved confidence, and renewed enthusiasm.
  

• Handle supervision updates with care; they may require mindset adjustments.
  
  

6.0 MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS

Maintaining optimal coaching performance requires:

• Consistent supervision attendance
  

• Willingness to be challenged
  

• Reflective practice between sessions
  

• Updating coaching strategies based on new learning
  

7.0 WARRANTY & LONG-TERM VALUE

Activating Supervision Mode provides long-term stability and growth benefits:

• Higher-quality coaching
  

• Stronger professional identity
  

• Greater ethical integrity
  

• Reduced burnout risk
  

• Enhanced client trust and outcomes
  

This warranty remains valid indefinitely with continued supervision engagement.

END OF MANUAL

To maintain your status as an effective, ethical, and evolving coach, keep Supervision Mode activated at all times. Your clients—and your future self—will thank you.

It’s quite the goal to commit to travel to all 193 countries in the world. And pay for it. And manage for much of the time to hold down a full time job in the USA which is not known for long holidays!

When I was walking The Camino in 2022, a pilgrim trail in Spain (peregrino in Spanish), I met April Peregrino who was having a break (!) from her travel goal. This year, she made it to Bratislava - her 193rd country! Sadly I wasn’t there to witness it because I couldn’t make the dates work… so instead (and as well) she joined me at The Coaching Inn podcast.

I’m working with some people who are getting me to be even clearer about what I do. It’s so useful! Yesterday we were talking about the difference between:

1. Tell me about your team? and

2. If you look around at your team, what do you notice?

The first question invites the other person to supply me with information. Once you have the information they will probably expect you to think about it and then to do something with it! And the question is about me.

The second question invites them to see - to observe in their mind’s eye what is going on. They will notice lots of things they don’t tell you. And we we can both notice what they are saying. Two pairs of eyes are better than one.

Saying what we see is a core skill of coaching. And it’s a long journey of learning as we move from I think what I see is (or even I think…) … to… I see… (I observe)

© 3D Coaching Ltd All Rights Reserved

Quick Tip videos

Lots of the books are about privilege and bias and it’s had me picking up Blindspot by Mahzarin R. R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald.

I’m noticing that privilege comes up a lot in coaching supervision - so it’s time for me to pay attention, I think.

What books do you recommend? (and let me know if you and a friend would like to come to The Coaching Inn to talk about them?)

If you want to know what we have spoken of before, check out:

• Series 5 Episode 6 with Laura Wong and Amy Cooper

• Series 4 Episode 48 with Julie Luscombe and Clare Humbleby

Firstly, I hate the word contracting in coaching. It smacks of binding legal stuff when it’s an agreement on

• terms and conditions and how we will work together over time

• and what we are doing in this conversation today

A coach in one of my supervision groups described being coached by someone who had a 12 page contract… which of course, he hadn’t read in detail. With 40 lines a page, that’s a lot of things that have gone wrong in coaching engagements.

The thing is that agreements do matter. And how ever much we nail them down, they will never be clear enough. And something will slip out and surprise us.

Maybe, what’s useful is to name things without nailing absolutely everything down? I often say: We probably need to pay attention to whether coaching is the right thing here. And if it isn’t, we can work out together what to do.

What do you think?

It’s great to see you here on Substack. I’ve been writing over the last few weeks - a book - and a chapter of another book… which is why I have been quiet on here. Simplifying ideas takes some processing!

Also been doing a load of reading. After about 5 years of struggling - especially with non-fiction, I seem to be back in flow. Would love to hear what you are reading at the moment.

On holiday in June I read Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering that has made me think a lot about how hosting and welcome is part of our role as coaches. It’s so good that I bought one for all our team.

Welcome came up in Saturday’s Open Table at The Coaching Inn, too. How do you see the connection between coaching and welcome?

In conversation at a recent training day, I invited the group to get into coaching pairs and go for a walk… and see what happened. One person was fascinated about how it worked and asked for book recommendations. There are a number of books about walking coaching.

But actually there is wisdom in all of us. I asked: ‘Do you know how to coach? Do you know how to walk?’. Of course the answer was yes. He can do it! And it’s also useful to agree in advance who is leading the way!

That behaviour is what makes working relationships fun and useful. And that’s always what we aspire to be.

When I was a teenager, (now disgraced) pop icon Gary Glitter used to sing

‘I love you, love
You love me too, love
I love you, love me, love
I love you, love
My only true love
I love you, love me, love’

Those words have come to me a few times when I have been doing recording reviews with coaches, and I have observed

I trust, you trust

We trust each other more

I trust you, trust me

How much trust we have for ourselves and for them will influence how much they trust us and how much they trust themselves. It grows.

And it goes both ways. When we have little trust in ourselves, their trust may also decrease - in us, in themselves and in the process.

Honesty, candour and integrity matter here. Just because I love working with someone and they say they love working with me doesn't mean that they are still getting value from the work; that there is still an edge; that we are not colluding with each other or indeed that we are doing work at all! (and thank you B: Long term coaching relationships do not involve long term frequent (the word “frequent” is open to interpretation) coaching sessions. That the Thinker might have regular coaching for a period and then move to occasional coaching or, another block of regular coaching if a new subject arises, and the Thinker wants to explore this. Then back to occasional. I know this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but this feels like it would be less likely to run the risk of losing its value.

Long term relationships work when

• the work is not about a thing, but about having an external thinking partner

• an observer would say that this is more than two friends/acquaintances catching up

• we review together at least once a year - is coaching still a useful thing for you? and am I still the right person for you?

• we are willing to end them

One of the most challenging pieces of work I have ever done was being someone's coach for over 20 years. Every time we met, he asked me to listen for 55 minutes and then say what I noticed. When the same metaphor popped up every few years, it was useful to be able to say 'do you remember we have been here before? This time, it's interesting to notice that...'

Here are some options from 3D which you can use (as long as you haven’t used them before!)

• Coaching Inn Podcast - Ethics Special 2021 (Free)

• 1 hour Ethics Masterclass - new one coming soon for 2025 Ethics Update

• Deeper Masterclass - next one on Ethics January 2027

And ICF have a free 3 hour ethics course

​NB From ICF (May 2025)

You do not have to use ICF accredited CCEs as long as the core competencies are covered in the training. Any education that is not accredited by ICF is subject to review with the application.

You may submit non-accredited training for your credential renewal. If the training does not revolve around coaching or the core competencies but would contribute to your professional development as a coach, then you can simply count the hours as Resource Development CCE's. You would receive 1 Resource Development CCE for each hour of education.

If you believe that the training did encompass the core competencies, then you can submit robust documentation to our Training Program Department to review through the following form - https://form.jotform.com/91194945843165

Please provide the following documentation within the form:

• Proof of completion

• Submission of a detailed curriculum that outlines the course as a whole. Note: the materials must be detailed enough to demonstrate a strong connection between the class material presented and the ICF Core Competencies

• Submission of any supplementary information or classroom materials (PowerPoints, PDFs, etc.).

In addition to completing the form above, you will need to add the training to your renewal application and fully submit it before the review of non-accredited training will begin. This process can add an additional 2 to 4 weeks onto your application review time and credentials are not extended while awaiting the review process of non-accredited training.

Every time Stuart and I host a Coaching with Presence workshop, we repeat the same mistake. We take a game that worked last time and we do it again. Last time we used it, the group were blown away and talked about seeing something in a new and different way. This time, it’s a bit lacklustre and someone asks why we are doing it!

Which, of course, is true in conversations where co-creating the work is almost always better than rehashing something.

Broadcast 14th December 2024

Guests: Jamie Fiore Higgins, Andrew Richards, Shankar Venkatraman

1. Leverage LinkedIn Strategically: Andrew talks about the power of LinkedIn for initially gaining clients by posting content. He suggests developing a targeted writing style aimed at a single, imagined person, incorporating storytelling, humour, in a conversational tone.

2. Be Patient with Building Momentum: Andrew says that it took three to four months of consistent posting on LinkedIn before receiving his first enquiry. Jamie echoes the importance of being patient and realistic.

3. Understand Your Minimum Financial Requirements: A valuable early step, is to work out your absolute minimum monthly costs to cover essential living expenses. This provides a realistic initial income target.

4. Start with Low Financial Expectations: Andrew remembers that in the early days, having low expectations regarding income and focusing on the bare minimum needed to stay afloat was crucial.

5. Actively Engage with the Coaching Community: Jamie wishes she had connected with other solo practitioners more during her early journey. Andrew suggests making an effort to meet local coaches to combat the isolation of working alone.

6. Don't Exclusively Chase High Ticket or Corporate work initially: Andrew started looking for high-paying or corporate work but found more enjoyment and fulfilment in coaching individuals who are personally invested

7. Learn from Experienced Coaches Early On: Shankar regrets not engaging with experienced coaches earlier in his journey, recognising the wealth of expertise they are willing to share

8. Focus on Building Relationships and Having Conversations: Claire talks about the importance of engaging in conversations with people who may know potential people, and conversations you have now might lead to work in the future .

9. Recognise the Vastness of the Potential Client Base: Andrew says that despite the perception of many coaches on LinkedIn, the actual number of clients needed for a successful practice is relatively small compared to the global population needing support

10. Nurture Relationships with Advocates: Andrew suggests actively engaging with past clients who had a great experience (advocates) and potentially offering them a complimentary session as a way to foster further referrals. Claire talks about the importance of being clear who are fans and hubs, and who are angels.

(How) can a thinker take part in coaching and therapy at the same time? Firstly whether you think it's a good idea (the can), and if possible, how do you make it as successful as possible (the how).

Let’s start by naming some things

1. In a similar situation, someone might decide to take a thing to coaching and someone else might take it to therapy (in this article I am talking about psychotherapy rather than counselling)

2. It’s hard for a coach to explore more deeply than we have explored ourselves.

3. Meaning and purpose are great topics for coaching - in the right partnership!

4. What’s coaching for? what’s therapy for? And what’s the difference? We might talk about

   1. direction: coaching has a future focus… and we might look back a little. And therapy has a focus on the past… and we might look forwards!

   2. skills: while listening, questions etc are common to both, the therapist will (probably) have a deeper understanding of human behaviours, mental health conditions and therapeutic interventions

   3. who is coming? when someone comes to coaching, we have an assumption that they are robust/resourceful enough to deal with their own stuff, unless they’re not. When they come to therapy if may be because they need some support, or that they are bringing something that feels damaged or raw or where they feel unable to move forward.

   4. how active is their pain? Nadia Bolz Webber speaks about speaking from our scars not our wounds. If someone is coming with the emotional equivalent of open wounds, it may be that a different intervention is more useful than coaching.

   5. the boundary between coaching and therapy is unclear when you’re working with a coach like therapist or a therapeutic coach. The coach needs to be competent to get that close to the boundary.

Basically, it’s confusing. Perhaps a useful question for coaches is how far/ deep/ wide it is safe to explore in spaces where the thinker may be vulnerable and is still robust enough to hold that. An experienced therapist will know how to navigate the work when we get to more vulnerable and less robust places, and will be trained to spot and hold mental unwellness.

Have an exit strategy (thanks for the reminder Mayuri). There are lots of times in coaching where we accidentally make the thinker feel they have done something wrong. It’s not a great look, and can be particularly damaging when we are treading on sensitive ground and may get into tricky stuff (by following them, or by poking) without knowing how to get out. An exit strategy might sound like: ‘Coaching may be the right way to explore this, and it may be that it would be better explored through another medium. Let’s see how we get on and if it’s not coaching, we can work out together where it might be.’

There’s an ethical thing here, too - lots of coaches are using tools from therapeutic work. But what will happen if we uncover a deeper something that we are not equipped to deal with? When I asked my psychotherapist about parts work, which is popular in coaching, we talked about how it can be safe until a part of a person is uncovered that is damaged or traumatised. That’s not for coaching, and we might not spot that coming. This is an example of getting into territory that may be unsafe for the thinker and for the coach. Boundaries matter. It’s ironic, I think, that psychotherapy requires more skill, and is less expensive than coaching. What’s safe for the person we are working with and what’s ethical?

Back to Jenny’s question:

(How) can a thinker take part in coaching and therapy at the same time? Firstly whether you think it's a good idea (the can), and if possible, how do you make it as successful as possible (the how).

Coaching someone who is also having therapy is great. We can agree together what comes to coaching and what goes to therapy, knowing that if something emerges that is better managed in the therapeutic space, this person has a safe place to take the thing now.

We can ask them how to make it as successful as possible. Sometimes that’s you and the thinker. Sometimes it’s the thinker and their therapist who may have a useful insight.