A Mentor's Mentor: The Benefits of Mentor Supervision

Benefits of working with a mentoring supervisor.

Supervision is one method of how coaches and mentors can stay at the peak of their game. The ABM follows the framework of Proctor & Inskipp (1993) for the Supervision Programme, which breaks the functions of Supervision down into three key components: Formative, normative and restorative

Restorative function

The restorative function is concerned with supporting the mentor to recover after being absorbed within client emotional situations.

Formative Function

The formative function tackles the skills, knowledge and practise of mentoring with the objective to support the mentor to be more effective at their work.

Normative Function

This final function tackles the subject of professional standards in mentoring, including issues such as boundary settings and ethical questions.

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How has supervision impacted your mentoring journey?

Hilary Fern

ILM 7 Graduate

"As part of my ILM7, I receive a few hours of supervision with a more experienced mentor. I found that to be highly valuable, especially when confronted with ethical issues that come up in mentee conversations. For example, one of my clients was on the edge of burnout. What do I do? Should I be carrying on with them? Should I signpost them to somewhere else? It’s in situations like these that having a more experienced mentoring supervisor to talk to is really helpful. I've carried on with that since finishing the ILM course and am planning on continuing supervision for the foreseeable future."

Les Gill

ILM 7 Graduate

"The ILM7 really opened my eyes to the broad spectrum of activity that goes into a balanced mentoring practice. I've learned a lot about structuring my mentoring sessions in a more professional way. I was a little bit ad hoc before.One of my main takeaways was to take better records of the mentoring activity. Thanks to the ILM7 programme, I know have the skills, awareness and tools to structure the front- and back-end processes of my mentoring approach more effectively."

Brenda Etchells

ILM 7 Graduate

"I'm continuing with supervision through the ABM. I’ve always had my own mentor anyway, so I've now got them and a supervisor. It is a fantastic way for me to further develop my skills as a professional business mentor."

Always get value from attending the ABM education and networking sessions: session leaders framing the topics share pointers, and connecting with peers and hearing real world experiences generously shared is insightful.

Jarmila Yu

ABM Full Member

Membership of the ABM has brought huge value to my clients. The regular events and training opportunities, combined with the opportunity to discuss and reflect on mentoring topics and issues with fellow ABM members, has helped to develop my skills as a professional business mentor, ensuring that the support and guidance I provide my clients is the best it can possibly be.

Siobhan Lavelle

ABM Member since 2017 and Managing Director of Cornelle Communications

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Tim Anderson

Tim’s passion for coaching and mentoring has helped shape his service offerings supporting fellow practitioners to become the truly fabulous coaches and mentors they aspire to be. Tim offers his peer coaches and mentors a safe space where a triangulated process that is co-created with the supervisee, the supervisor and the agenda or curriculum that is emerging from the supervisee's work. We contract by asking: "What challenges are emerging in your work that we need to explore and work on together".