talentedge

July continues to see training initiatives on the Agenda of large organisations, particularly building or refreshing content for existing programs. These cross a range of capabilities including management training, interviewing skills, diversity, coaching and leadership development. 

Interestingly we are also seeing organisations turn the spotlight back on coaching as a targeted way of developing skills and competencies across all levels of management and executive. While coaching is by no means new, organisations are beginning to understand the need to implement a supporting architecture to enable the delivery, management and measurement of an effective, consistent and accessible-to-all Coaching Framework. 

Based on our experience and discussions with numerous organisations here are a few key pointers for implementing and managing an effective Coaching Program particularly when using a network of external Coaches:

• Provide clear guidelines on when Coaching is an appropriate Development alternative (ie leverage existing policies or define new policy)
• Provide a suite of Coaching Guidelines to support Coachees and Coaches, including tips on how to select a suitable coach
• Implement a central online Coaches database of all pre-selected and proven Coaches (rated if possible) with contact details (ie don't let contact details of good Coaches walk out the door when an HR manager leaves)
• Ensure an even geographical spread of pre-selected Coaches that matches your workforce demographics
• Implement a mechanism for regular feedback from Coachees to monitor the performance and effectiveness of coaches
• Provide a simple, clear & concise process for coachees and coaches to understand the objective of coaching sessions (and let the relationship evolve from there)
• Ensure the Coaches Database is regularly maintained, managed & reviewed to ensure Database currency and quality.

If you are interested in learning about aCE talentNET's online Coaching Portal Services please contact us at consult@acetalentnet.com.au.

Warm Regards, Deirdre
Corporate Talent Agent

Deirdre Gruiters is the Executive Director - Consulting for aCE talentNET, or in other words, aCE talentNET's Corporate Talent Agent. So if looking for Organisational Development resources is what you're needing to do, then Deirdre and the team of aCE talentNET know how to find them. Ask anyone of our continually satisfied clients.

develop youredge The following 3 articles are our favourites for this month; and a snapshot of the fabulous content on the aCE talentNET blog  ... feel free to visit and make comments Integrity Impugned Because of prior poor experiences - or the generally bad caricatures that exist about many professions - clients are often suspicious (at least initially) of the motives of their service providers. Whatever your profession, you need to be prepared for the fact that, at the beginning of every new relationship, you must avoid confirming other peoples' (inevitable) starting suspicions about your motives, and must actively work to demonstrate that you are, in fact, unlike the providers that the client may have experienced before. This is not easy. It turns out that it is not enough just to be trustworthy. You must also know how to give the client the experience that you are visibly, obviously, trustworthy. David Maister's latest article "Integrity Impugned", explores these issues. This can also be said of the internal machinations of organisations. How reluctant are we sometimes to approach a department which we have preconceived ideas about. We at aCE talentNET can only assume we come up against the same prejudices when we are approached about finding talent. One thing that works in our favour is that when we are approached, some thought has gone into that initial contact before it has been made. Word of mouth referrals always assist. Six Sigma: So Yesterday? So has the Six Sigma moment passed? The discipline was developed as a systematic way to improve quality, but the reason it caught fire was its effectiveness in cutting costs and improving profitability. That makes it a powerful tool — if those are a company's goals. But as innovation becomes the cause du jour, companies are increasingly confronting the side effects of a Six Sigma culture.   Six Sigma clearly had a profound impact on the corporate world. According to the American Society for Quality, 82 of the 100 largest companies in the U.S. have embraced it. And that's quickly trickling down: Six Sigma consultants are as busy as ever as the quality-improvement system migrates from its traditional focus on U.S. manufacturing companies to the financial-services industry and abroad. But as its popularity endures, the notion of Six Sigma as a corporate cure-all is subsiding. Once a company has done the requisite belt-tightening. Tell The Story of Learning: Build a Business Case One of the primary job tasks for the CLO is to leverage learning for business advantage. At least, it should be. Of course, that's often much easier said than done, but clever CLOs are always on the look out for ways to press the importance of the learning function upon other senior-level executives in their organizations. It's necessary: If no one knows what learning does or sees its value, no one will want to finance development activities. That means no support, no resources, no funds and — eek! — no job. One way to relay the value of learning is to build a business case.

Consultants - to be eligible for up-coming opportunities, please use this time to complete your online Consultant profile on the website. 

• We are delighted to welcome a number of new Consultants to aCE talentNET.
  
• If you do wish to see what your details are on file, now would be a great time to visit and update as required. However, don't despair if you have lost your password, simply request a new one be sent to you!  We look forward to seeing many of you update your details soon!!!
  
• And don't forget to add your CV directly into the database for ease of updating and information data access.