Bursting the Bubble: Breaking Free from Coaching in Isolation

Coaching is typically viewed as an intimate, one-to-one conversation between coach and client. 

This setting allows for deep exploration, personal insight, and individual growth. 

However, this close focus can sometimes create an unintended consequence: the coach and client become locked in a bubble, paying insufficient attention to the wider context and the needs of key stakeholders. In essence, the coaching begins to operate in isolation, disconnected from the broader system in which the client functions.

Coaching in isolation can lead to blind spots where important influences, expectations, and relationships are overlooked. 

The client may be encouraged to pursue goals that, while meaningful to them personally, may not align with the needs or dynamics of their team, organisation, or other key players. 

This isolation risks diminishing the impact of the coaching, as the client’s actions and decisions may clash with the realities of their environment.

Supervision plays a vital role in addressing this issue, helping coaches to see beyond the immediate coaching conversation. 

By metaphorically bringing the stakeholders into the room, supervision encourages coaches to consider the whole system, ensuring that the coaching remains relevant, balanced, and impactful.

The Risks of Coaching in Isolation

When coaching occurs in isolation, the focus is often narrowed to just the coach and client, excluding the broader context that shapes the client’s world. This can lead to several potential pitfalls:

• Neglecting key stakeholders: Important voices such as managers, team members, or organisational leaders may be ignored, leading to decisions that lack alignment with broader goals or expectations. The client may feel empowered by the coaching session, but their actions could create friction if key stakeholders are not considered.
• Missing systemic influences: The client’s challenges often do not exist in a vacuum. Organisational culture, team dynamics, and external pressures play significant roles in shaping behaviour and outcomes. Coaching that fails to address these systemic influences may struggle to create sustainable change.
• Reinforcing biases and blind spots: Without input from the wider system, the coach and client may inadvertently reinforce each other’s biases or assumptions. The coaching conversation can become an echo chamber, where limited perspectives are validated without challenge.
• Undermining stakeholder buy-in: If stakeholders feel excluded from the coaching process, they may be less likely to support the client’s actions or changes. The client’s progress may then be hindered by a lack of support or understanding from those around them.

Supervision helps coaches break out of this isolated mindset, prompting them to broaden their view and consider the wider context in which their client operates.

Eye 5: Parallel Processes of Isolation in Supervision

The tendency to coach in isolation can also manifest within the supervision relationship itself—this is where Eye 5 of the 7-Eyed Model becomes relevant. 

Parallel processes can occur, where the same patterns of isolation in the coaching dynamic show up between the coach and supervisor. 

For example, the supervisor might only explore the dynamic of the client and coach, neglecting the wider organisational context, just as the coach might do in their coaching sessions.

Supervisors can help coaches notice this parallel process by asking reflective questions, such as:

• Are we missing other voices or perspectives that are crucial to understanding the whole picture?
• How might the dynamics in the coaching session be reflecting what’s happening in the client’s broader environment?
• Is there an invisible stakeholder influencing the client’s decisions that we haven’t considered?

By exploring these questions, the supervisor can guide the coach to expand their awareness and integrate the system’s influence into their work, breaking the cycle of isolation.

Eye 7: Bringing the Whole System into View

Under Eye 7, supervision explores the broader systemic influences at play. 

This is crucial when addressing coaching in isolation, as it helps the coach and client consider the full range of stakeholders, cultural norms, and organisational dynamics that impact the coaching process.

Supervision encourages the coach to metaphorically introduce these stakeholders into the room. This might involve:

• Mapping the system: Identifying key stakeholders and exploring their needs, expectations, and influence on the client’s goals.
• Exploring unspoken dynamics: Recognising hidden power structures, cultural values, or organisational pressures that may be influencing the client’s behaviour.
• Bringing in stakeholder perspectives: Considering how the client’s actions might be viewed or affected by others within the system, such as team members, managers, or external partners.

By engaging with the whole system, the coach can help the client develop strategies that are not only aligned with their personal goals but also responsive to the needs and expectations of the wider environment.

Eye 1: The Client’s Experience of Isolation

Eye 1 focuses on the client’s direct experience, and in the context of coaching in isolation, it’s essential to explore how the client perceives their role within the broader system. 

Clients may feel disconnected, misunderstood, or unsupported by their stakeholders, and this sense of isolation can shape their approach to the coaching process.

In supervision, the coach might reflect on questions such as:

• Does the client feel isolated from their team, manager, or other key stakeholders?
• Is the client’s perspective overly focused on their own needs, without consideration of how their actions impact others?
• How can the coach help the client reconnect with the wider system and bring other voices into the conversation?

By addressing these questions, coaches can better understand the client’s experience of isolation and work towards integrating the broader system into the coaching process.

Eye 3: The Coach-Client Relationship and Systemic Awareness

Under Eye 3, supervision examines the coach-client relationship and how it might be contributing to the isolation. 

A close, supportive relationship between coach and client is essential, but it can also create a dynamic where both parties become so absorbed in the one-to-one interaction that they lose sight of the wider context.

Supervision helps coaches reflect on the relational dynamics that might be keeping them focused inward rather than outward:

• Are we, as coach and client, too absorbed in our own dialogue?
• Is our relationship inadvertently creating a bubble that excludes other important perspectives?
• How can we open up our conversation to include the system’s influence and stakeholders’ needs?

By exploring these dynamics, the coach can find ways to maintain a strong relational connection with the client while still keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

Conclusion: Breaking Out of Isolation in Coaching

Coaching in isolation is a common but often unnoticed trap that can limit the impact of the coaching process. 

By focusing too narrowly on the one-to-one relationship, both coach and client risk losing sight of the broader system and key stakeholders who play a crucial role in the client’s success.

Supervision provides a valuable space to break free from this isolation. 

By bringing attention to the wider context, supervision helps coaches introduce metaphorical stakeholders into the room, ensuring that the coaching remains connected to the realities and needs of the client’s environment. 

This holistic approach not only enriches the coaching conversation but also enhances the effectiveness and relevance of the work.

Ultimately, coaching is most powerful when it is fully integrated into the client’s broader world. 

By maintaining a systemic perspective and engaging with the full range of influences, coaches can support their clients in achieving meaningful and sustainable change.