Unleashing People Power

When Refining NZ launched the idea of building a ‘values based’ organisation almost two years ago, it was considered a bit of a hot potato, because no-one really knew where to begin.

After plenty of research and reading, project sponsors Peter Gubb and Anna Meyer were able to define a starting point and with the help of values expert Rachel Percy, they have since shaped up a values framework unique to Refining NZ.

Rachel says looking back, it was the beginning of an exciting journey.

“Defining and understanding your own personal values can be much harder than you’d think."

Employment today DECEMBER 2003

As more and more managers turn to coaches to help them in their work, Iain McCormick and Rachel Percy discuss executive coaching, asking what is it and does it work?

Executive coaching has received huge attention in the media over the past few years with a wealth of new articles, books and web sites on the topic. A recent web-search using Google revealed 688,000 relevant web pages worldwide. Even narrowing the search to “executive coaching New Zealand” revealed 16,300 pages. The exact history of executive coaching is difficult to trace because it has only recently been written about. However, it is likely that the term executive coaching was first used in business in the late 1980s, primarily by psychologists— often clinically trained—who felt it sounded less threatening than counseling, psychotherapy or behavior change.