We know many have been shocked and saddened by the recent sudden death of Kevin Cowley. Kevin was co-chair of EMCC UK’s special interest group on supervision, and a much liked and respected member of the profession. Kevin was a coach, a mentor and a supervisor – and was deeply passionate about all three areas.
To honour Kevin’s contribution to the profession over many years, some of those who knew him share their reflections on a colleague who will be dearly missed. Our thoughts are very much with Kevin’s family and friends.
I was privileged to know Kevin for 10 years and was always inspired by his passion for coaching, mentoring and supervision. And by Kevin’s kindness and generosity. He was always willing to share his experience and insight with others, and he loved being in the service of helping others grow. Kevin was himself always learning and developing, and was a great role model for the ‘self as instrument’ concept, which he was deeply inspired by.
When we were creating a new special interest group on supervision for EMCC UK last year, I knew Kevin would be an outstanding choice to bring this to life as one of its inaugural co-chairs. He brought energy, enthusiasm and an open, inclusive style of working. The EMCC UK podcast episode he recently recorded on internal supervision oozes with Kevin’s wisdom.
Kevin was in the prime of his professional life. His sudden death is a reminder that none of us know how much time we have. So perhaps Kevin’s parting gift is a reminder to take nothing for granted.
Kevin was for many years my supervisor and inspired my own journey as a supervisor. He often said that ‘the most important thing you can bring to supervision is yourself’. Well, I was comfortable to bring myself because Kevin brought himself, too. Each time we met I felt his excitement in not knowing what was going to happen. I relished his acute curiosity as we worked together on what then emerged. I valued the experience and feelings that he judiciously shared. Moreover, I appreciated the humility with which he shared, as Kevin prioritised a relationship of equals. Above all, I shall miss the thoughtful, generous friend that Kevin brought to supervision.
I have known Kevin for quite a long time. He was part of the cadre of civil service internal coaches and was a great contributor to that community. When I decided to leave the civil service, Kevin kindly offered to support me as I developed my leadership capability in a very new and different environment. Kevin was a kind and thoughtful man who went out of his way to help others. I was deeply saddened by this news and my condolences go out to his family. He will be very much missed.
Through various stages of various educational programmes, I worked with Kevin from 2019 until the present. After his long career in the civil service, he approached his new field with freshness and enthusiasm, criticality and compassion. He was someone who was as willing to explore the validity of his own ideas as he was of the coaching ‘canon’. He seemed to operate as very much a team player among his colleagues, and moving into the world of professional practice he carried those values through to his involvement in EMCC and his developing supervision practice. His kindness and spirit of enquiry are a loss to the discipline and I’m sure he will be missed by those who knew him.
We met Kevin only recently, first to invite him to be a guest on our internal coaching supervision podcast and then recording the podcast. What we discovered was an enormous bank of wisdom and experience about internal coaching and supervision, wrapped in a caring, thoughtful and tremendously intelligent human being, whose understanding, clarity and humour were a joy to share. It is such a tragedy that all this is lost to the world. We feel fortunate that we captured a little of it in the podcast and we were delighted to see his feedback on LinkedIn: ‘Really pleased to have been part of this podcast.’ We were pleased that you were part of it too. Thank you, Kevin.
Although I knew Kevin for only a year, he made a big impression through our work together as co-chairs of EMCC UK’s supervision special interest group. I immediately felt Kevin’s personal energy, sense of purpose and commitment to enhancing our collective impact as coaches, mentors and supervisors. Kevin wonderfully combined a direct and pragmatic approach to getting things done for today, with big ideas for improving the future and having fun while on the journey. He generously shared his time, knowledge, experience and network for the benefit of everyone in our community.
While writing this, I re-read Kevin’s own words in his introduction as special interest group co-chair and wanted to share some of them with you. I’m struck by his take on supervision as a restorative and reflective space reserved for coaches to look at anything that is important to them, a space to examine how they feel about coaching, clients, organisations, relationships and how they are linked, but most importantly, a space where the coach can just be.
We may all need to ‘just be’ with our feelings as we reflect on losing Kevin so suddenly and much too soon. I hope that we can each, in time, take a part in continuing his work and influence in our profession and beyond.
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