Whether we are coaching, leading or supervising, we ourselves are the instrument. Our intentional presence—how we enter, listen and make meaning—is as essential as any model or technique.
Supervision develops the capacity to see through our own ways of seeing, to notice habitual patterns and open to what lies beneath them. It moves us beyond technical proficiency toward the artistry of being present in complexity.
At its most powerful, supervision becomes a spiritual and systemic practice: a space where we metabolize what we carry, reconnect to ourselves and one another, and rehearse who we are becoming both individually and collectively.
Developing awareness
Before stepping into your next coaching session, what do you notice in the space between you and those you will meet?
At the heart of the Systems Inspired™ Supervision model lies a developmental movement through three interrelated capacities.
Self-awareness
The willingness to meet oneself with honesty and compassion; to work at one’s learning edge; to use “self as instrument.” It invites us to ask:
- Who am I when I coach this particular client?
How do I show up? - Which voices in me become dominant?
From there, who do I need to be? - How else can I show up in service of my client?
- Which of my inner voices are heard less often and might be useful?
Relationship awareness
Every group has an unseen landscape, a web of emotion, intention and possibility that connects its members. When one person shifts, the whole system moves. That’s what Systems Inspired means: learning to read that living landscape and to work with its currents, rather than against them.
Relational awareness cultivates the supervision relationship as a caring, courageous, and collaborative learning space. We learn to stay attuned while managing power and boundaries with care.
In this space, we might ask:
- What is unfolding in the here and now that communicates something important about my client or their system?
- What can happen in this relational moment that might unlock something new for my client?
Systemic awareness
Finally, we develop the capacity to recognize and work with the wider patterns, dynamics and interdependencies that hold influence across the system.
Here we wonder:
- Where else do I see this pattern?
- What influences me as a coach that I need to bring awareness to?
- What influences my client?
An evolutionary practice
Supervision invites not only an inward pause, but also an attunement outward—to the reflective field that connects self, other, and system.
At its essence, Systems Inspired Supervision invites us to rehearse not just who we are, but who we are together.
Reflection in this context is not solitary introspection, but a shared act of becoming. It is an exploration of the living, breathing intelligence that exists in every relational field.
This approach invites us to see supervision not as a place for fixing or evaluating, but as a space for collective inquiry.
Rather than viewing the supervisee or their client as isolated individuals, we regard the entire system as the client: an interdependent web of relationships, stories and resonances.
The supervisor, supervisee and the wider client system are all part of this dynamic field, each contributing to what emerges.
Our task as supervisors is not to control the wave but to listen to the tide, tuning into what is trying to happen between and beyond us.
When we pause together, we connect with supervision’s restorative nature. In reflection, we return to the self behind the doing, to the system beneath the words and to the whisper of what is becoming.
An invitation to Systems Inspired Coaching Supervision Training
Interested in becoming a coaching supervisor? CRR Global’s Systems Inspired Coaching Supervision Training Program was co-created by Marita Fridjhon and Sunčica Getter in collaboration with the coaching supervisor team. It builds on concepts introduced in Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC™) work.
Rooted in systemic awareness and working with the Third Entity™, the program offers a uniquely relational approach to supervision: one that honors the complexity of coaching and leadership work today.
No prior supervision experience is needed to enrol in the program. All you need to bring is curiosity around how people grow together and the ways that awareness flows and ripples through a team.
Written by Sunčica (Nuna) Getter and Marita Fridjhon, co-creators of the Systems Inspired Coaching Supervision program in collaboration with Carissa Bub, a member of CRR Global’s coaching supervision team.
Author
Sunčica (Nuna) Getter ORSCC, ESIA, ICF-MCC
Sunčica (Nuna) Getter is a systemic coach, consultant and educator dedicated to transformational personal, leadership and community development, as well as culture change. She partners with individuals and organizations to expand capacity, navigate complexity and create sustainable evolution.
Marita Fridjhon ORSCC, ESIA, ICF-PCC
Marita Fridjhon is co-founder of CRR Global, co-creator of the world-recognized Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC™) program and mentor to an ever-growing community of relationship systems practitioners. Her deeply integrative approach is drawn from her foundations in clinical social work, family systems therapy and organizational consulting. Marita is co-author of “Systems Inspired Leadership” and “Creating Intelligent Teams.“
Carissa Bub ORSCC, CPCC, CTPC, ESIA, NLP
As a systems-inspired coach, facilitator, and coaching supervisor, Carissa Bub serves as a catalyst for cultivating leadership that heals, evolves, and inspires collective aliveness. Her work bridges individual development and systemic transformation, helping leaders, teams, and coaching professionals access the deeper intelligence within their relationships and organizational systems.
