Keyword: Training

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.

The NZ Coaching & Mentoring Centre welcomes International Associate, Professor David Lane to New Zealand for his 3rd visiting expert series in March. David is both an academic, an author and a senior practitioner of executive coaching in the UK.

On his last visit in 2007 he was the keynote speaker for the inaugural Mentoring & Coaching Forum (Building Momentum) held in Auckland where he presented the results of his case study research on the realities of coaching in UK organizations.

Forum attendee, executive coach Una Ryan said: "David’s wealth of knowledge and passion for coaching contributed to an in depth learning experience that was both conceptual and practical. The day delivered more than I expected."

For the 3rd year running, the New Zealand Mentoring Centre in association with Unitec Institute of Technology have certificated graduates of its 5 day 'Professional Mentoring & Workplace Coaching Skills' training course and released them in to the wild.

The 2008 graduates are a mix of managers, workplace coaches and independent practitioners from all over New Zealand and all are committed to developing their skills and becoming part of the ever expanding coaching community in New Zealand.

The New Zealand Mentoring Centre took to the skies in September and ran a 'pilot' training for The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia in Queensland. The training, entitled Supervision Skills for Health Professionals, was trialled with a group of 16 staff from a range of disciplines including indigenous mental health workers, psychologists, nurses, social workers and of course, doctors.

Australian health-care provider Queensland Health is rolling out the New Zealand Mentoring Centre training course The Power of Peer Supervision to 2000 employees in 2 districts over 5 years.

After running peer supervision training for the last four years for Queensland Health, the NZ Mentoring Centre has just completed its first train the trainer course. This will enable QH trainers to roll out the peer supervision model throughout the state for allied health staff including occupational therapists, mental health nurses, psychologists, indigenous workers, speech pathologists and physiotherapists - all professions that need the chance to review their practice in order to develop their professional competence.

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.