After my last post on Istishraf, a coach educator working in the UAE offered a question I keep returning to: “What does the word evoke in you, and how shall we adapt? What language do we use here?”

I now use it as the first step of contracting. Before roles, frequency or confidentiality, supervisor and coach explore the word “supervision” itself.

What comes up is rich:

• For some, it is school and inspection.
• For others, it is a manager’s approval.
• For a few, it is relief: “someone finally walks beside me.”

Each answer tells us what the coach expects of us, and what they fear.

Asking this question together models the relationship we want. Neither defines the space for the other; we look at it side by side. In Arabic we say the coach is «المستشرَف معه», the one we look out with, not over.

How do you open contracting with coaches from different cultures? Do you explore the language itself?

Explore Istishraf, our ICF-accredited coaching supervision program.

Dr. Ghadah Angawi, PhD, PCC, ACTC, CCS, EIA, ESIA