Professionalism of Coaching & Mentoring: COMENSAnews May 2011

June 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Parting ...
By Belinda Davies, President of COMENSA

Would you believe this is the last newsletter article I will write as President of COMENSA? I have been in office since September 2008 and this month I step down with some very mixed feelings. I am immensely proud of what COMENSA has achieved in the past two and a half years. We have grown from having 525 in September 2008 members to over 1100. This has been a function of the professionalization of our entire marketing portfolio under Megan Hudson, and the very good work of the Chapter committees in creating vibrant Chapters.


Sunny shines a light: Gender issues in business coaching
By Dr Sunny Stout-Rostron and Nick Wilkins

Business organisations operate in increasingly diverse and inter-related environments around the globe. While gender diversity already encompasses a wide range of theory and research, as an issue in business coaching it is relatively new.

Monthly Morsel: Participating in Portfolio Committees & Special Interest Groups
By Megan Hudson, COMENSA National Marketing & PR Consultant and owner of MH Consulting

I bet you think this'll be another diatribe about raising your hand and getting involved, yada-yada-yada...Well, it's not. I'm going to tell you what I get out of my "unofficial" activities , in my personal capacity as an Affiliate member of COMENSA. I assist with the co-ordination and setting up of the Gauteng events, both for Johannesburg and for Pretoria and make sure that I get stuck in wherever possible. So what's in it for me? Plenty!

Cracking the Code: MCSC for Members Part 7: Continuing Professional Developmen
By Megan Hudson, Editor-at-large and Code-breaker

If you're just joining us now, take some time to visit the previous articles in this series. The first article in the series appeared in COMENSAnews September 2010, and gives you the broad brush strokes of the Member Criteria & Standards of Competence Framework.

'Power' dynamics and coaching in the public sector
By Jochan Lohmeier

Context: This article reflects on our work in the field of leadership and organisational culture development in the public sector throughout Africa for almost a decade, using coaching as a decisive instrument to support individuals and teams to change. We operate in a complex field: usually we are contracted by a supervisory agency (like the National Treasury in South Africa that supervises sector departments), or donor agencies that supervise national counterparts in countries where they contribute to governments' budgets.

Reflections on Race, Gender and Age: Blackness is not a Colour - It's a way of Being
By Mongezi Makhalima

As a black man born in South Africa, I am pre-occupied with issues of race and other matters of difference. I was born in the 70's, in the height of Apartheid and even as I didn't have a name for it, I have a very vivid memory of being a toddler in Alexander township in June, standing between my grandfather's legs as the revolution went on 11th Avenue. Black smoke and shouts of "Power!" filled the air.

What does DNA stand for?
By Marti Janse van Rensburg

I started the chapter I wrote on diversity for Sunny's book (Stout-Rostron, S (2009): Business Coaching: Wisdom and Practice) with the following quote: "Leading in a multicultural and diverse environment is like playing several instruments. It partly calls for different attitudes and skills: restraint in passing judgement and the ability to recognise that familiar tunes might have to be played differently.

Testosterone around the Boardroom Table
By Jill Hamlyn, MD of The People Business

Have you ever been in a meeting in which the majority of people around the boardroom table were men?

During this meeting, did you get the feeling that few of the participants were actually listening to the content, but rather waiting for the pauses so that their opinion could be interjected?

Coaching For Diversity
By Veronica Stephens
Let us take a journey through the history of 'diversity' to open our mindset to the elements of "Coaching For Diversity"