ABSTRACT
Open and reflective supervision is essential for understanding and working with the way that diversity and culture enter into the work of the coach as well as into the work of the supervision itself. Basic to working effectively in a diverse world is the understanding that we, as supervisors, are participants in the three-cornered meeting that is supervision. We bring our own culture and its assumptions with us as do the other two participants, the coach and the coachee. To fully understand this, we need to discover and acknowledge the particular norms, prejudices and assumptions that we can fall into. We cannot exclude ourselves from the field of inquiry and neither can our supervisee. This exploration includes the power dynamics between us, and between our supervisee and their coachee, both those given to us by our role and by our culture. So, understanding ourselves, our supervisees and their coachees within a diverse world is truly at the heart of all supervision, not on the margins as it sometimes seems to be but ever-present, whether or not it is acknowledged.
