Coaching Toolkit for Child Welfare

Chapter 9: The Coach 231

Organizations may wish to use supervisors, particularly child
welfare supervisors, as
coaches for social workers.
This section will describe
how to integrate a
coaching-based
supervision or
management style. Many
of the skills described in
this toolkit can be
integrated easily into
supervisors' skills and
repertoire to enhance the quality of supervision provided to staff; in
fact, used together, coaching and supervision can create a coaching-
based supervision or management style. Supervisors often employ
coaching strategies and techniques as part of their normal tasks and
this may result in the supervisor entering into more formalized

coaching. We refer to this as the “Dance of Coaching” (see Figure 9.1).

Supervisors can effectively integrate coaching strategies (such as
reflective questioning) or feedback into their daily routine. For
example, a supervisor may ask a social worker reflective questions
in order to discuss a case involving a biological mother who is
struggling with alcohol issues and has recently relapsed after three
months of sobriety. Instead of providing recommendations or feedback,
the supervisor works with the social worker to reflect on the case.

Figure 9.1. Supervisor’s Dance of coaching