Mid-August, it was my pleasure (along with the two managers of Eastwork Employment and Training pictured here with me) to accept an award for outstanding program design and delivery from the Victorian Minister for Education, Jacinta Allan.

The Succeeding at Work pre-accredited program was one I designed for Eastwork Employment a year ago to support jobseekers with disabilities. I’ve run it several times now and currently a good friend of mine John Wall has taken it over while I move on to other projects. Quite a number of former students have both gone on to further education and secured suitable employment.

From the ACFE site:

The ten day Succeeding at Work program was developed in line with the ACFE Board’s A-Frame quality framework. The delivery of the program has also been supported by the survey of 500 people with disabilities. This has allowed Eastwork staff to identify their client’s skill and include them in the design of the program. These skills include communication, team work, problem solving, planning and self management and technology familiarity.

A key feature of the program is its multiple teaching delivery methods, a deliberate strategy to ensure all learning styles are catered for. Art activities, games, video, interactive discussion, simulations and self-directed learning are all included as part of the program. Eastwork’s teachers are also mindful to adapt their program to cater for specific needs and interests of their CALD clients.

There’s more about it at the official Adult, Community and Further Education website.

Great Workteams need Great Leaders, Shared Vision and a Great Fit for their members. Speak to Great Circle today and let us help you build a dynamic and collaborative workteam that presents an attractive face to the marketplace.

Whether we’re talking about

• the staff in your small business
• the department you lead,
• or even a network of collaborators you need to build in order to get that project up and running,

we can find a way for you to bring the best out of your team, while we bring out the best in you as their leader.

I occasionally get asked, “What is a life coach?”. The question is usually followed up with another one that goes something like: “Isn’t that ringing people at 6 am to get them out of bed and stuff like that?” or “Is that like helping people with their problems?”

My response? “Er, not really…”

Basically a coach of any description is someone who helps someone else do something better.

The most common reason for a sports team to hire a new head coach, a business to hire a new business coach, or an an individual to hire a “life” coach is to achieve a breakthrough of some sort. Things haven’t been going as well as they could be, progress is thwarted, and they just need a new approach to tackling their goals and barriers.

So enter Pete Aldin, life coach.

The people I enjoy serving most, always fit one of the following descriptions.

People who are in Overwhelm, who feel besieged, unprepared for a new role, or just plain exhausted…

I love to help these people to BREATHE, BREAK THEIR OVERWHELM INTO SMALL PIECES, SIMPLIFY THEIR LIFE.

People with inspiring ideas – writers, pioneers, entrpreneurs - whose ideas seem to float in orbit, never actually landing to take root on Planet Earth…

I love to see these people break through their invisible barriers and actually CREATE SOMETHING THEY LOVE!!

Gen Ys and Gen Xers who feel stuck: they have that Big Decision to make but can’t seem to make it; they have so many choices that choosing one feels nigh on impossible; or they’ve been doing their best to succeed but success seems to elude them…

I love helping them RELAX, UNLEASH THEIR TRUE VALUES AND SENSE OF PURPOSE, ACTUALLY MAKE PROGRESS THEY’RE PROUD OF!

One of my dear friends and coaching colleagues, once wrote a simple piece to help people assess coaching as an option for them.  If you have been thinking about life coaching, but (like me) you like to browse as much as possible before even speaking to someone, I encourage you to check out Is coaching for me? today.

Think about the sheer volume of information contained in the internet. Think about the shelves of your local library. In many ways, we have all the information we will ever need to live lives that are satisfying, cohesive, productive, adventurous, collaborative, inspiring and inspired. And yet, despite the books, the videos, the seminars, the blogs(!), most of us wouldn’t use all of those words to describe Life for us.

We are a highly educated society. Yet we still struggle to reach our goals, manage our relationships well and feel satisfied with life.

Before a major life-change in 2004, by profession/education I was a minister of religion (a preacher and counsellor) & a workplace trainer (delivering tertiary education in the workplace).

As a workplace trainer, I watched over and over again as people would pass assessments because they knew the information and could follow the processes, yet I also discovered that most went back to their old (sometimes dangerous) ways of behaviour once the assessment was over.

As a minister, I would (for example) ask people to read books on Boundaries and Love Languages when I knew that was at the root of their difficulties. And they did. And nothing changed. They needed more.

Information is not enough.

That’s why I coach. That’s why I am coached by others.

(Life) coaching does two things:

1. it massages the knowledge you already have into your “soul” in a way that develops real life-change
2. it engages the parts of your life which are not intellectual and are just as powerful (e.g. emotions, hopes for the future, talents), enabling you to make improvements “right across the board”.

I invite you to consider life coaching. The first consultation will cost you a mere $55 Australian,and the second session is free! Please leave me a message via my CONTACT page to explore this further…

I wish you a success that’s more than wealth, more than just accomplishment and certainly more than the mere acquiring of knowledge.

P.S. You can hear me chatting about Life Coaching (and sundry other things) at the latest BadDadRadio podcast at BD-028 – What is a Life Coach?

“You are no bigger than the things that annoy you!”

- Jerry Bundsen

An older post from Seth Godin reads like this:

Where are the tweakers?

If I want my car to go a bit faster, there’s a garage in town that will tweak it for me.

If I want my stereo to sound a little better, there’s a guy who will install cables and such and upgrade it.

There are more than a billion websites. Where are the tweakers? Where are the talented individuals and small firms that want … not to completely redesign a site that’s working, not to do any coding, but just to mess with (it) a bit.

To take their learning from many clients and figure out that this works better than that. To change the look and the feel but not the bones… plastic surgery for websites. Not a lot of meetings, not a lot of belief required. Instead, take the new one, take the old one, do a split test and see which one converts better.

I’m really taken with this concept of Tweakers. But my weird brain takes it in a number of different directions, such as:

• Want to start a new church? You’ve heard of Quakers; how about the Church of the Tweakers?

But the idea that has seriously embedded itself in my head is that – although Seth meant tweaking in a technological context – perhaps tweaking is also a great metaphor for personal and workplace coaching.

Essentially what a lifecoach does is to “have a look under the hood” of someone’s life, someone’s self, then tweak – finetune what’s already there…

… well, maybe not to this degree, but you get the point …

“So what do I do for a living, mate?”

His reply?

“You help people have a better life.”

Gotta put that on a business card!