McCarthy Mentoring
Newsletter: Autumn 2009
The global financial crisis has made many of us reflect on our priorities and take stock of what is important.
If nothing else, tougher times encourage us to slow down and appreciate what we have – a job, a relationship, children, grandparents, skills and experience to share, passion for travel, sculpture, mountain climbing …
A mentoring relationship can be key in helping people set priorities and develop strategies to achieve their goals. This can, at times, be confronting but it is ultimately a very positive experience for both mentees and mentors.
We were delighted when Wendy was named among the 10 finalists for the Premier’s 2009 NSW Woman of the Year Awards, chosen from more than a hundred nominations by parliamentarians and community organisations. Wendy was nominated by Ann Brassil, CEO of Family Planning New South Wales
The finalists were distinguished by their contributions to medicine, sport, filmmaking, teaching and advocacy, and the health and education of indigenous woman in rural NSW. The winner, Cheryl Koenig, was recognised for raising awareness of brain injury.
In this newsletter we celebrate leadership by highlighting leadership awards for which mentees can apply, and by revisiting magnificent speeches given by Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama during the US elections.
In approaches to mentoring we cover a new approach we have introduced in the past 12 months, with positive outcomes.
It was great to see many mentors at recent workshops in Sydney and Melbourne and we look forward to catching up with more of you in April and May.
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| What can coaches do for you? | Advice that gets women on board | The next 10 years in Coaching & Mentoring |
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| Skilling for Innovation | 2008 Australian Census of Women in Leadership | Centred leadership: How talented women thrive |
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Click on the title or the image to read the article. |
| Gender Equality: What matters to Australian women and men? | Why mentoring matters in a hypercompetitive world | Some sites require free or paid registration. |
The next McCarthy Mentoring workshops for mentors will be in Sydney: Monday 6 April, 3.30-5.00pm
For more information email us at enquiries@mccarthymentoring.com or phone 02 9386 3179.
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The CEO of Plan Australia, Ian Wishart, recently circulated an email with links to two powerful, moving (and conversation-provoking) short videos about the place of girls in the developing world, and how improving their lives can bring about significant change. Click on the images to see them. |
The clips are produced by the Nike Foundation and the NoVo Foundation, with the support of the UN Foundation, the International Center for Research on Women, the Population Council, the Center for Global Development, BRAC and Plan. Wendy was Chair of Plan Australia from 1998-2007 and is vice-chair of the Plan International board. |
Steven Spielberg
In January Steven Spielberg was honoured at the 66th Golden Globe Awards with the Cecil B DeMille Award “for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”. He used his acceptance speech to talk about the importance of mentoring in his success. Click on the image on the left to watch the speech. |
Over the past decade McCarthy Mentoring has developed mentoring programs with a range of companies and individuals. Mentoring has been offered as a strategy to assist and support:
- men and women moving into leadership roles,
- students moving into the workforce,
- people leaving the workforce or full-time work and developing portfolio careers
- arts professionals seeking philanthropic support
- senior executives in a range of industries.
In the past year we have developed some shorter six-month programs for individuals. We’ve also trialled what you might call “speed mentoring” with six-hour programs. The first six-hour program, held over three months, was designed in answer to a request to provide mentoring as the final stage of an internal leadership program.
The participants were 10 emerging leaders at a large global company, and the feedback from both mentors and mentees was extremely positive. As long as both parties are properly briefed and well-matched, and the mentees have taken time to consider their objectives and expectations, this can be a rewarding and valuable experience.
Like other new, lateral approaches such as e-mentoring, “speed mentoring” definitely has a future.
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“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer ... America, I have never been more hopeful” In January this year Barack Hussein Obama made history as the first African American elected President of the United States of America. Many of us are moved by what this historic first says about a nation’s capacity for change. This is, after all, a change that relatively recently seemed impossible to imagine. Volumes have been written about leadership, courses on it abound and it is something mentors and mentees discuss endlessly: How do you become a leader? Do I have what it takes? You need only look to Obama’s extraordinary achievement for inspiration! Obama and his many hundreds and thousands of supporters ran a campaign that engaged people. It got them excited, angry, but most importantly it motivated them (especially the so-called and much bemoaned Gen X-ers). It made them determined to participate again in the political process and play a part in their nation’s future. Click above to listen to his November victory speech and here to read his January inauguration address. |
Words we wish we’d written
“Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you’re knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on." Hillary Rodham Clinton also inspired when conceding victory in the Democratic candidacy to Obama. In talking about the questions she was often asked about what it meant to be a woman running for president she said in part, “I was proud to be running as a woman but I was running because I thought I’d be the best President ... I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter’s future and a mother who wants to lead all children to brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the twenty-first century.” Click above to listen to the speech. |
Up to fifteen Vincent Fairfax Fellowships are granted each year. Successful applicants can come from any background, any occupation, any level and are usually aged between their late twenties and late thirties.
They will demonstrate the potential to grow as mature leaders and will:
- possess and exhibit moral courage
- have a capacity for ethical reflection
- recognise the inherent dignity of every person
- see leadership as an opportunity to serve
- appreciate the richness and diversity of Australian society and the societies of our region
Selectors look for applicants who are “already well rounded individuals, with some feel for the balance of material and non-material dimensions of human life and whose growth in leadership would benefit significantly by taking part in the Fellowship program”.
Sophie writes, “I won a fellowship in 1998. It was a confronting and life changing experience. It involved three key modules of group activity ranging from 1-4 weeks, mentoring and community service. Highlights were team-building exercises in the Australian bush; camping solo; two weeks at the BHP mine in Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory, looking at ethical issues; and a week in Canberra meeting with journalists, High Court judges, diplomats and senior public servants to hear their experiences of managing ethical issues.
The following January we went to Asia to research an ethical issue of relevance to Australia and the Asian region. I looked at female infanticide and child trafficking in northern India and the role of aid agencies in prevention. The fellowship offered an extraordinary opportunity to assess life and the concept of leadership from many ethical and cultural perspectives, grapple with ethical dilemmas and bond with a group of strangers in unusual conditions. It was also liberating, fun and forged some life-long friendships. Apply if you dare!”
Applicants must first complete the prerequisite program – a Short Course for Good Leadership. Expressions of interest for the prerequisite program can be completed online from 7 May until 25 June 2008. Click here for more.
According to University of Melbourne modelling, by 2020 one in four Australian jobs will be Asia-related, which means that engaging with Asia is no longer an exotic option for anyone in this country.
Asialink is the University’s centre for the promotion of public understanding of the countries of Asia and of Australia’s role in the region. Asialink is a key provider of information, training and professional networks.
Asialink's Leaders Program provides a unique approach to developing Asia-related knowledge and skills. Operating for over twelve years, the Program has brought together emerging and established leaders from the corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors, advancing consideration of Asian-Australian issues among a growing regional network of leaders.
Applications for the 2010 program open in August 2009. The program's web page provides a facility to register your email address for news and updates, as well details of past programs. Click here for more.
Late last year I was invited to a preview of Bernard Salt’s latest demographic research entitled The Global Skills Convergence. It was a provocative evening.
To quote from the report, “KPMG has accessed unpublished data from the United Nations Population Division which shows the net flow of migrants between a range of countries this decade and again ten years earlier. The argument advanced in this study is that in the 21st century, labour and talent is increasingly able to flow seamlessly across the globe.”
I remained unconvinced that for struggling labourers from Africa and South Asia, going to work in Dubai is a seamless move, though it may be a financially beneficial one.
Salt asserts that there is a demographic fault line running through much of the developed world which will have a negative impact on the supply of labour and talent during the next decade. Baby boomers are leaving the job market and not being replaced at the same rate by Gen Y. Immigration is not presently filling the gap. He claims developed nations such as Australia are at a fork in the road, with a heavy price to pay if they don’t embrace migration and other policies that will broaden the labour base.
For employers there were many implications from the research: keep your valuable people at all costs, encourage diversity and an openness to other cultures, offer flexible work conditions such as remote access, staggered start and finish times, maternity leave, paternity leave, carer’s leave; and keep your business connected to the community, since employees value community engagement.
For more, go to http://www.kpmg.com/globalskillsconvergence.
We are about to reprint the One2One mentoring guides and cards, which have sold well across Australia. If you don’t have a copy yet, you can buy copies online by clicking here or directly from our office in Sydney.
We had many distinguished guests at launches in various cities, including then Governor of Queensland and now Governor-General Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, who launched the books in Brisbane.
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