Heads up
Leadership mentoring not only transmits knowledge and experience, it generates a pervasive network to create learning in aspiring school heads, finds a paper by Lim Lee Hean, associate professor in policy and leadership studies at the Academic Group of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Other benefits include the development of creative ways to anticipate or create change. leehean.lim@nie.edu.sg
Turner prize
The British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology presented its first research award to Eve Turner at its conference in December. Turner’s research suggested that some coaches may need broader training in conscious and unconscious psychological processes. Coaches avoid the unconscious, seeing it as therapy. See “Hidden Depths”.
Avon calling
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust is using solution-focused coaching to boost managers’ confidence and performance. These areas suffered after a restructure so the trust teamed up with sfwork to offer workshops. Read the full story.
Mental health issues on the rise
Coaches, and managers using coaching skills, need to be on the look-out for mental health problems in clients during the economic downturn. Mental health conditions in the workplace affect three in 10 employees a year, and a further 26 per cent rise is forecast in the downturn.
That equates to more than 1.5 million people in the UK, according to a paper from the Great Place to Work Institute UK and the Employers’ Forum on Disability. The report, Beyond Stress: A Guide to Mental Health & Workplace Well-being, warns that although workplace well-being and mental health issues cost British business £26 billion a year, 45 per cent of employers choose to believe there are no mental health issues at work.
For a copy of the guide contact yosman@greatplacetowork.co.uk
Richard Clarke fills new AoEC role
The Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) has appointed Richard Clarke to the new post of managing director, corporate. Clarke will lead the expansion of a “more tailored and refined service to organisational clients”, including the academy’s new bespoke courses for managers-as-coaches and leaders-as-coaches, and an expanded “Find an Executive Coach” online service. Clarke said: “Our preferred approach is working with our clients in long-term partnership. When we find someone with whom we have a cultural resonance, we want to build on this.
Clarke has 20 years’ consultancy experience. He was a director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, an executive vice-president of Global CRM and Change Management Consultancy and, most recently, managing director in ActionCOACH’s UK business. He has a private leadership coaching practice which he delivers from his home in Italy.
PBCoaching launches two diplomas
PBCoaching is launching two new programmes. The 16-day postgraduate diploma in coach supervision is designed for experienced coaches, offering the theory, supervision practice and professional development for accreditation as a coach supervisor. It includes six workshops in Leeds and contributes to the MA in Business and Executive Coaching delivered by PBCoaching with Leeds Metropolitan University.
Meanwhile, the diploma in psychology of business coaching, in partnership with the Michael Smurfitt Graduate Business School at University College Dublin, focuses on the psychological aspects of coaching, with inputs on approaches to psychology and their application to business and executive coaching. There is also a strong personal/professional development aspect.
Volume 4, Issue 2