Aly McNicoll
NZCMC Director
B Ed (Adult Ed. & Training), Cert. Training and Development, MNZATD
Aly McNicoll has been involved with coaching and mentoring in NZ and Australia for the last 12 years with a particular interest in training. She has refined techniques for both introducing coaching as a skill set and promoting learning as a way of being in teams and organisations.
Aly is a regular presenter at international conferences (American Society for Training & Development Conference, European Mentoring & Coaching Council Conference) where her specialist skills in peer learning techniques have led to her spending increasing proportions of her time working with clients in Australia, the UK and the USA.
Aly is a member of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council and an international associate of Clutterbuck Associates (UK).
Prior to her corporate training role, Aly has led leadership and management programmes at Unitec Institute of Technology where she also spent 4 years training tutors in the staff development unit. She is also a qualified counsellor.
Contact
021 304 761
aly@coachingmentoring.co.nz
In the journey to building a coaching culture, leaders must be able to hold effective coaching conversations with staff. But do they have the time? Aly McNicoll outlines 5 key ways to get managers to coach in a busy work environment.
One-on-one coaching is effective, but to truly leverage learning in the workplace, peer group coaching is the way of the future, says Aly McNicoll. It’s a cost-effective way to cascade coaching throughout an entire organisation.
Originally published in Employment Today 224, December 2018
Many organisations invest in coaching training for managers then feel disappointed when enthusiasm peters out and busyness gets in the way of managers investing time in developing others.
A one-off training provides a ‘sheep dip’ approach to changing leadership behaviours so what can you do as a manager to support your people to coach others? Here are 4 keys to ensure your training investment pays off and that coaching becomes part of the ‘way we do things around here’.
Peer group coaching addresses some of the challenges organisations face in providing coaching to all those need it including the availability of skilled and qualified coaches who know the business plus the resources it takes - both time and money - to ensure coaching is available to all.
A recent article in ‘Psychology Today' magazine stated that 82% of new leaders derail because they fail to build sufficient connections with subordinates or peers. This can mean they feel like they have to go it alone with challenges, when in fact help could be close at hand.
New Zealand Coaching & Mentoring Centre have developed a unique addition to leadership development tools to ensure leaders build the skills and habits of learning with and from their peers. Peer Coaching Groups can be used to reduce the isolation that many leaders feel plus ensure they realise the benefits of investing the time to build these vital learning connections with others.
There are core differences between managing conversations and coaching conversations, and it is often hard for a manager to switch roles and truly function as a coach with their own staff.
The 3 most common pitfalls that managers tell us they fall in to when coaching are advising,reassuring and losing objectivity and/or neutrality. Have a look at these and see if you recognise them.
According to a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel Development survey in the UK, most coaching is delivered by managers, but NZ organisations we talk to are struggling to get managers to play this vital role. This article identifies common barriers to managers coaching and suggests common-sense solutions to overcome them.
Peer supervision differs from more traditional forms of supervision in that it doesn't require the presence of a more qualified, identified expert in the process - a supervisor. Peer supervision usually refers to reciprocal arrangements in which peers work together for mutual benefit where developmental feedback is emphasised and self directed learning and evaluation is encouraged (Benshoff, J.M. 1992). There are a number of things that can and do go wrong if individuals are left to lead their own supervision processes and maintaining the quality and effectiveness over time is a challenge.
This article discusses peer group supervision and the factors that impact on its effectiveness, identifies common pitfalls for peer supervision groups and discusses how to maintain the quality and effectiveness over time so that the process does fulfil the purpose and functions of supervision for supervisees, their clients and organisations.
