Keyword: Peer Mentoring

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.

In June New Zealand Mentoring Centre directors Aly McNicoll and Wendy Baker travelled the USA to present a workshop at the  ASTD 2008 International Conference in San Diego on 'The Power of Peer Mentoring Groups - tools for learning in the connected organisation'.

This conference attracted 12,000 delegates, and as workshop leaders they are standing alongside Ken Blanchard, Marshall Goldsmith and a host of other leadership legends.

Val Leveson from the NZ Herald talks to NZMC director Aly McNicoll about peer mentoring groups.

When working for a company, people often have colleagues to turn to when they need advice on how best to complete a task or to make a good career move. Sometimes another person, even on the same level as oneself, may have a different perspective and an idea on how to make something that seems impossible work.

However, when you're self-employed things can be quite different. You can feel isolated and stuck with no one to turn to for good, impartial advice and help.

Peer groups are often a help, but what do you do when you work alone and don't have a peer group around you?

Aly McNicoll, training director of the New Zealand Mentoring Centre, discovered her solution ten years ago.