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As part of fulfilling our responsibilities as global citizens, every year NZCMC likes to do a piece of work in a developing country.

Last year, we were invited to deliver our Professional Mentoring & Workplace Coaching Skills course to a group of 12 managers and leaders of conservation NGOs (non governmental organisations) in Pohnpei.

Pohnpei is a small island in the tropical North Pacific and one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia, along with Chuuk, Kosrae and Yap. It took 5 flights and 2 days to get there.

CCS Disability Action are launching a mentoring programme for their members in the disability community.

This programme will be a first in Aotearoa / New Zealand - where disabled people have training in mentoring to support and mentor other disabled people.

The mentoring programme has been sponsored by CCS Disability Action and championed by an enthusiastic Ruth Jones with assistance and co-facilitation from the NZ Coaching & Mentoring Centre who are delighted to be part of this ‘leading the way' initiative.

New Zealand Coaching & Mentoring Centre is supporting Casting for Recovery, a retreat for survivors of breast cancer, by providing ukuleles and a learn to play session by director Aly McNicoll.

Casting for Recovery provides fly fishing retreats to women whose lives have been profoundly affected by breast cancer so they can gather in a beautiful, natural setting and learn to fly fish.

The retreat also incorporates a range of other services to promote well-being for participants and the last retreat included something completely different - the opportunity to learn the ukulele.

We would like to introduce Jan Robertson who has recently joined NZCMC as Senior Associate. Jan is well known internationally for her expertise in developing leadership and coaching models. Jan has previously focused her attention on educational leadership and is now engaged in leadership development and coaching culture change interventions across all sectors.

The New Zealand Computer Society have launched a year long mentoring programme for their members in the ICT community.

The programme was launched in Wellington on 29 July with a training day for mentors in the region.

Wendy Baker, NZCMC director, trained 25 Mentors for the programme and focused on ways they could support their Mentee in finding their own way to achieve their career goals. Following the training, Mentees were invited to join the session and meet their Mentor for the first time, over a glass of wine.

The programme will be rolled out to Auckland and Christchurch later this year.

Keep an eye on team spirit

A survey done recently by Robert Half found that chief financial officers thought the greatest lesson they learned during the recession was the importance of office morale. But what is morale, and how is it built?

Patti Gwynne, director and principal coach of NZ Coaching and Mentoring Centre, says low morale means feeling not engaged.

New Zealand Herald - 4 August 2010

Continue reading on the NZ Herald site.

NZCMC have been selected for the 3rd year running to present a workshop at the 2010 American Society for Training & Development International Conference in Chicago in May which is the Trainer's equivalent of the Rugby World Cup.

This year's workshop, Group Coaching: Tools for Leveraging Learning in Groups and Teams, will provide participants with a taster of this powerful coaching mode. Group coaching combines the benefits of one-to-one coaching with the power of peer-to-peer learning. It provides a recession-proof method for coaching in times when coaching is most needed and makes the most of what is probably the best learning resource an organization has--its own people.

The NZ Coaching & Mentoring Centre are excited to be key sponsors of the Aotearoa New Zealand Supervision Conference 2010 - "Common Threads, Different Patterns".

This is an inter-professional conference that will attract a wide range of health and social service professionals including Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Counsellors, Physiotherapists, Career Practitioners, Managers, Allied Health Professionals, Coaches and Mentors.

Key note speakers include Meg Bond from the UK, author of Skills for Clinical Supervision for Nurses.

NZCMC director & principal coach, Patti Gwynne, will moderate a roundtable discussion at the 2010 New Zealand CFO Summit.

The CFO Summit will provide attendees with the opportunity to interact and reflect over the key issues challenging them and their organisation. With 8 roundtables to choose from, topics will be led by industry experts and participants will be encouraged to add their own ideas, ask questions and share challenges.

NZCMC director Wendy Baker travelled to Singapore in August to deliver a 2 day mentoring and coaching programme specifically designed for senior managers.

The participating managers from 6 Asian countries were interested in developing coaching skills for their day to day management roles and in ways to develop a coaching and mentoring culture in their own organizations.

The training promoted a coaching approach to performance management and provided the managers with practice in the 7 key skills for effective coaching conversations with others at work and strategies to develop a coaching and mentoring culture to achieve business excellence in their own organizations.