Great Workteams need Great Leadership…
- When your back is turned, are your staff building your business or undermining it?
- Is your organization a place where people compete for resources rather than collaborating toward outcomes?
- …where self-protective behaviour prevents innovation and synergy?
- Do you wonder why people seem disconnected from each other?
- While your staff can quote the mission statement, are their daily activities working for or against it?
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.
Coaching Packages for Management
One-on-one coaching not only helps you build knowlege; more importantly, it turns knowlege into skill.
Please contact Pete Aldin to find out more about the following programs.
Influential Behavior Coaching:
- Presentation-craft that speaks to everyone in the room,
- Rapport-building skills and strategies that reach a broad diversity of clients and staff,
- Listening skills
- Creating and maintaining integrity at a systems level
“Tweaking Your Performance”:
- coaching package for managers and management teams
- Free up time
- Free up energy
- Translate your core talents and strengths into personal and professional success with Gallup’s Strengthsfinder framework

Coaching Services
Great Circle Coaching and Development offers:
Click on the services above for more information.
If you would like to book your 45-minute initial consultation with a personal life coach, please use our contact form or phone Pete Aldin on + 61 3
8743 3950 (Australia).
Pete is a member of the International Coach Federation and abides by the Federation’s ethical guidelines. He is also ICF-accredited.
Private Coaching
Have a tough decision to make? Need a breakthrough? Want more balance in your life?
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are finding that short-term life-coaching has moved them out of a “stuck” place and into a life of greater freedom and satisfaction.
- Standard Package A - 2 X 45-minutes per month, via telephone or skype [AUD$150 per month]
- Standard Package B - 3 X 45 minutes per month, via telephone or skype [AUD$200 per month]

Your initial consultation costs $55; but your second session is free when you take it within a month of the first!
Thereafter, standard fees will apply.
Business Training
Please contact Pete Aldin to find out more about the following programs.
Building a Culture of Value for a Successful Business
- Do you need to turn more browsers into buyers?
- Do you struggle to secure repeat customers?
- Are you sick of a constant turnover of staff?
- Do your employees fail to cooperate fully with each other?
- Could they be giving a lot more to the business?
Learn why people are the most important part of any business and how culture and relationships can dictate business performance. This workshop will help you to learn why people trust and co-operate with others. You will develop ways to build stronger customer relationships with strategies that will not blow your marketing budget.
Raising the emotional intelligence of your business and its management will build a successful and sustainable business, and often without significant cost. Building a Culture of Value runs as either a 2.5 hour workshop or a 3 week teleclass.
Fee: $75 per person

The Mentor’s Scaffolding
Basics for New Mentors
People who take this seminar typically want:
- practical guidance to commence or improve a mentoring arrangement/relationship
- increased confidence in what they are doing as a mentor
- a straightforward, flexible and transferable process that brings structure and shape to their mentoring
This one-hour tele-seminar:
- allows you to be involved from the convenience of your home or office
- unpacks a simple framework which you can use immediately to commence mentoring relationships or to reshape exiting ones
- kick-starts a new level of confidence in your ability to make a worthwhile contribution into the lives of others
Fee: Special low price of $20 per person

Pete Aldin is also available to speak on a number of professional development, parenting and leadership topics.
Peace for Parents Program

- “My influence in my kids’ lives seems to be fading fast. How do I get it back?”
- “Can I be friends with my kids if I’m also the one who disciplines them?”
- “Why do my kids try so hard to annoy me?”
- “How can I get my son to stop acting like the world revolves around him?”
- “How can I get my daughter to actually care for other people?”
- “Quality Time seems to always turn into Poor-Quality Time! What gives?!”
For 14 years, I’ve worked with teenagers and families in pastoral care, coaching and mentoring roles, while raising two sons of my own. I’ve heard questions like these from frustrated parents over and over again.
More positively, I’ve observed several strategies that many parents employed successfully from early childhood. These achieved open communication, healthy boundaries, real rapport and effective behavior management with their kids. And they made life a lot happier for everyone!
The Peace for Parents Program is built on the premise that parenting runs most smoothly when it’s set upon 4 Wheels (representing skills or habits). Whereas in many seminars, you are expected to “download” some information into your skull and be magically transformed by it, I believe that it’s better to take a small bit of information, apply it, use it, tweak it, then review it before adding the next bit.
For that reason, the Peace for Parents Program runs across five consecutive weeks, each session building on one before. Each session runs for 75 minutes. Sessions are conducted via “teleclass” (or conference call) and registrants will be given an international number and PIN code to attend each class. (If all participants are Skype-users, of course this is a welcome option!)
In exploring these timeless concepts with other parents, you will develop deeper relationships with your children while making supportive friendships with other adults growing through the same things as you.
Full Program Fee: $125 Australian (includes a 1:1 free coaching call upon completion of program)
For more information, contact me, or…

Private: mentoring
Have you become a mentor but feel like you’re ill-equipped for the task?
Finding your mentoring is unfocussed, stuck in a rut, tiring?
Help is at hand with this 1-hour seminar delivered by phone!
The Mentor’s Scaffolding
Basics for New Mentors
People who take this seminar typically want:
- practical guidance to commence or improve a mentoring arrangement/relationship
- increased confidence in what they are doing as a mentor
- a straightforward, flexible and transferable process that brings structure and shape to their mentoring
This one-hour tele-seminar:
- allows you to be involved from the convenience of your home or office
- unpacks a simple framework which you can use immediately to commence mentoring relationships or to reshape exiting ones
- kick-starts a new level of confidence in your ability to make a worthwhile contribution into the lives of others
Fee: Special low price of $15 per person
Day/Date: Thursday February 7th
Time: 8.30-9.30 am Australian (Melbourne) time - Time Zone Converter
or
Day/Date: Wednesday February 12th
Time: 11am - 12 noon Australian (Melbourne) time - Time Zone Converter

Private: Many Thanks
Well done; that’s step 1 of 2.
You will soon receive an email asking you to click a link and confirm your subscription for The Whetstone. Please follow that through.
Then you’ll be ready to automatically receive next month’s edition.
Thanks again!
“MY KID CAN’T GET A JOB!”
A sad reality in the Western World is that smarts and a good attitude won’t guarantee you a fulltime job. At the beginning of the 21st Century, thousands of young adults and older teenagers - who are talented, sharp and who work hard at getting employed - just can’t get a break.
Is your son or daughter one of them?

Soon I’ll be hosting a 60-minute conference call, a forum where you - the parent - can
- air your frustration and concerns,
- meet other parents struggling with the same challenges and
- hear some of the ideas that have made a difference in my professional work with jobseekers and young people.
I’ve had many conversations with parents lately whose daughter/son has been busting their gut to get work and can’t. They’re worried, frustrated. Recently(at the time of writing), I even coached one young man as one of my private clients (unemployed for 5 years) on this very topic. (By the way, he was working fulltime by the end of our first month of coaching).
Since February 2005, one of my contracted roles has been to train and coach longterm unemployed in gaining work. While the answer’s not found in simplistic formulas and pop psychology, I can offer information and principles which can reduce both your stress and your child’s, as well as refreshing the way you both approach the subject of jobseeking.
It may look impossible … it’s not.
To register your interest via the our contact form
Places are limited.

Build Me a Son

How Good Fathers Create Great Men of Their Sons
More than ever, boys need men who will enter into their world and guide them toward manhood. That guide is YOU.
Build Me a Son is a 4-part series of teleclass workshops. You meet with several other men and your facilitator via phone to build on what you already know and to work together through the challenge of raising boys to men.
Build Me a Son is NOT about downloading more information that eventually gets pushed out of your head by other information. It’s NOT about telling you that you’ve been doing it all wrong. It’s develops your innate strengths as a man toward a more intentional parenting style.
You will
- Learn and practise some simple concepts and tweak them to work for you NOW
- Develop your skill-set as a father so you can lead your boys along the path to manhood
- Learn to balance the roles that boys need their fathers to play (such as Umpire and Coach)
Build Me a Son will build your capacity to nurture greatness in your sons and maintain a positive relationship with them whether you live with them or are “parenting at a distance.”
The father who would taste the essence of his fatherhood must turn back from the plane of his experience, take with him the fruits of his journey and begin again beside his child, marching step by step over the same old road. ~ Angelo Patri
Leading from the Trenches is commencing soon. To register your interest, or to request further information, please register via our contact form
Course fee: $75 (Australian)
***
Leading from the Trenches was also a short article published in Kindred magazine March 2007, and featured some of the content of this teleclass. You can download a copy of the article here!

Big Bad Wolf
What dangers to your child’s wellbeing worry you most?
Big Bad Wolf is a one-off free discussion forum where you can air your concerns, share your strategies for protecting your kids and hear the strategies which other parents employ.
To register your interest, or to find out more you can use our contact form
Places are limited.

Upcoming Events
Peter’s experience - along with his expertise in adult learning - combine to create an engaging learning environment that promises to make your journey fun as well as fruitful.
Live Events
Building a Culture of Value for a Successful Business
(Melbourne, Australia)
Are you sick of a constant turnover of staff? Do you need to turn more browsers into buyers? Do you struggle to secure repeat customers? Do your employees fail to cooperate fully with each other? Could they give more to the business?
Learn why people are the most important part of any business and how culture and relationships can dictate business performance. This session will help you to learn why people trust and co-operate with others. You will develop ways to build stronger customer relationships with strategies that will not blow your marketing budget.
When: Thursday, 17 July 2008
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: Civic Centre - Acacia Room, corner Young and Davey Streets, Frankston (enter via Young Street) (Melway Ref: 100A C9)
Cost: $30 (inc. GST)
Bookings: Contact the Economic Development team on 9784 1889 or e-mail business@frankston.vic.gov.au
Free Discussion Forums
There are times when you want to talk to real people in real time about the issues that concern you. This is why I’ve decided to host regular discussions via conference calls. You don’t have to travel, or even find a babysitter for the kids, all you need is a telephone because these forums are conducted via a conference call.
The current Forums include :
Forum # 1:
“My Kid Can’t Get a Job”
For: parents who are concerned about a child that can’t find work and want some practical ideas on what can be done to help.
Next scheduled call : TBA

Forum # 2:
Big Bad Wolf
For: parents who want to discuss some of your concerns, share your strategies for protecting your kids and hear the strategies which other parents employ.
Next scheduled call : February 2008

Teleclasses
Short courses and workshops via conference call from the convenience of your own home or office.
Mentoring Seminars
One-off sessions for new and experienced mentors.
Next scheduled class : The Mentor’s Scaffolding -Basics for New Mentors (April 2008)
Have you become a mentor but feel like you’re ill-equipped for the task?
Finding your mentoring is unfocussed, stuck in a rut, tiring?
Help is at hand with this 1-hour seminar delivered by phone!
People who take this seminar typically want:
- practical guidance to commence or improve a mentoring arrangement/relationship
- increased confidence in what they are doing as a mentor
- a straightforward, flexible and transferable process that brings structure and shape to their mentoring
This one-hour tele-seminar:
- allows you to be involved from the convenience of your home or office
- unpacks a simple framework which you can use immediately to commence mentoring relationships or to reshape exiting ones
- kick-starts a new level of confidence in your ability to make a worthwhile contribution into the lives of others
Fee: Special low price of $15 per person
Training Solutions for School Communities and Staff

For Staff:
- Mentoring Skills for Teachers
- Coaching for School Coordinators & Lead Teachers
- Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages
- Towards A Strengths-based School
For Senior Secondary/High School Students:
- Survival Training for the World of Work
For Parents of Primary School Students:
Contact Us
I’d love to hear from you to answer any questions you might have, register you in an upcoming program or to offer a complimentary consultation to assess whether coaching is right for you.
The easiest way is to complete the form below.
Alternatively, if you are more the “pick up the phone” type then you can call on
+61 3 8743 3950
Thanks for subscribing to The Whetstone! You will shortly receive an email asking you to confirm your subsrciption. Please make sure you click on the link in the email so that you receive the next edition.
Click here to return to the Main Page.
Happier Home-life?

So you hate feeling so stressed in your own home and you’ve realised that micro-managing your family’s lives isn’t actually improving anything. Truth be told, you
-
nag your kids, your partner, yourself
-
suspect that your behaviour alienates your kids and loses their respect
-
sometimes find yourself working yourself into a lather, lying awake for hours at night fretting, having little meltdowns
-
suspect you waste valuable time worrying about what others think
-
find yourself caught in nasty daydreams about how badly things are going to turn out for your family…
… but what else can you do?? Family life is just so stressful!! Right?
It doesn’t have to be like that. What if you had some options? What if the stress could start to dissipate? What if you could break out of these patterns and begin to enjoy your home life again?
I’d like to give you THREE alternatives to all the behaviors described above, alternatives which diminish parental stress. For a few minutes a day over 5 days, you can interact with these short modules and regain your composure, your power of choice and your rapport with your family.
And if you listen carefully, you might even hear your heart and your adrenal glands sighing with relief!
If your reality is not so great, why not explore the kind of “alternate realities” parents like Theresa (below) are discovering?
“I found this course great. It really didn’t take much of my time yet it gave me a fresh approach to my parenting concerns.” (Theresa, mother of 3 Teenagers)
The Stressed-out Parent’s Guide to a Happier Home-life at only $8.50 costs less than the price of a cup of coffee per day! (And it’s better for you…)
Testimonials
“When I was first thrust into a team leading position, I sought out Peter Aldin’s assistance as I worked through the sudden changes and challenges. With Peter, I learnt about problem-solving, setting up boundaries and listening skills … Peter’s coaching skills showed me how to deal with and handle people, gave me confidence, self-esteem and insight into understanding human behaviour.”
- Chris A. (team leader)
“I have spent what seems like a life time of searching to find the “right” combination for success. In my experience of therapy, I spent a lot of time venting, going round and around in circles, and never really achieving my goals. Coaching has changed all of that for me. It has helped me to name what I want, recognise what I yet don’t have, and help me to create the steps/strategies that move me toward my goals. Since working with my coach Peter Aldin I’ve torn down the barriers that have controlled my life in the past, replacing them with new habits that will lead me to my goals and living the life I choose to live. Coaching holds my focus - while I move through my fears”
- Theresa (Pioneer of a new business concept and mother of 3)
“Life is a balancing act, and a difficult one at that! Pete has helped me immensely to maintain ‘big-picture’ perspective and be a more effective manager of my resources. He has shown me what the hindrances are to achieving my goals and what I might do about them. He is a perceptive and non-judgmental listener who has been instrumental in developing my self-awareness.”
- Mark G. (Student teacher)
“Peter believes in ‘process’ which is liberating, especially when the pressure to ‘have arrived’ is very much still a mentality in leadership circles. He asks questions which both encourage self-understanding and empower the individual so that they leave each session convinced that the change they want is actually possible.” - S Goode (Youth Worker & Team Leader)
“Interactive life-coaching sessions have helped me to clearly think through personal and work-related needs, issues and problems from an entirely different perspective. Having someone whom you can interact with for decision-making, personal development, and life-related issues, has been invaluable. I highly recommend Great Circle to anyone who wants to excel in life.”
- Damien Kucan (Senior Minister, New Life Church Springvale)
Want more information? Click here to find out about our coaching plans for Individuals or here to find out more about our coaching services for Workplace Teams
Meeting Your Children’s Needs
The Four Habits of Highly Successful Parents
- Do you want your children to treat you like a real person (rather than an ATM or sparring partner)?
- Do you want your children to learn restraint and make healthy life-choices?
- Do you want your children to open up to you?
- Do you want your children to become great citizens?
- Do you want to remain close to your children as they grow through different stages?
- Do you want to maintain a strong influence in their lives?
If the answer is YES to any of these, then Meeting Your Children’s Needs - the Four Habits of Highly Successful Parents is an essential purchase.
As a parent, sometimes it feels like you need the patience of a saint, the energy of a superhero and the wisdom of Yoda. For 12 years, I’ve worked with teenagers and families in pastoral, coaching and mentoring roles, while raising two sons of my own. Over that time, I’ve observed (and used!) four strategies that successful parents all employ - usually from early childhood. These achieved
- open communication,
- healthy boundaries,
- real rapport
- and effective behavior management.
The principles behind them work equally with younger children, with older children and even with teenagers. They have proved immensely effective with my own boys.
Meeting Your Children’s Needs is an e-book for parents. It examines the 3 Essential Needs of Children and develops four actions or habits which parents can utilize to meet those needs and maintain cooperation, communication and affection with their children.
Here’s a sample of the book:
This book is designed to help you raise great kids and enjoy it – by
- showing you how to get the most from your daily interactions with your kids
- helping you build your child’s emotional intelligence
- picking up on timeless ways of bonding with your children
- highlighting the forces at work in your own home that are set for and against your parenting success, so that you make more informed decisions and take more effective actions
- giving you information in small chunks and the opportunity to apply it in the real world before adding more
Ready to take the ride?
Buy now, and the Four Habits e-book will be delivered to your email inbox today for a simple, one-off payment of only $22.
I’ll also send you a free copy of my article Becoming the Parent You Want to Be, published in Natural Parenting magazine September 2006.
Resources
Leading in Organisations
Upgrading Our People Skills (for managers): Published in CEO Online Sept 2006. Download here
Six Factors that Fragment Your Team Members - and what to do about them: Also published in CEO Online Sept 2006. Download here
Leading Self
ACES: A simple wellrounded strategy framework for setting goals you are likely to actually achieve. Download here
Sample Whetstone newsletter: Want to find out what our newsletter is like before you hit that SUBSCRIBE button? You’ll find a previous edition here
About Peter Aldin
My name is Peter Aldin, married man and father of two boys. Apart from my contribution to populating the planet, I’m also founder of Great Circle Life Coaching. I am an Australian life coach specialising in communication and breakthrough coaching for clients from around the world.
My greatest success in life has come from empowering others to succeed. The last 12 years have found me…
- Life-coaching and counselling - since 2001 - in areas of
- business communication,
- family communication,
- time-management,
- vocational guidance,
- instructional design
- personal boundary-setting,
- leadership,
- motivation,
- and (of course) goal-setting
- Consulting and delivering/designing courses and workshops for a variety of participants
- Developing a youth mentoring network (Nexus Youth Keysborough) - which still operates in my absence
- and more!
I’m a Graduate of CoachU’s Core Essentials Program. I am a member of the International Coach Federation. I hold an ACC credential with ICF.
However the best credential for any coach must be the success of their clients. Consider these comments from a few of my past and present coaching clients:
“Life is a balancing act, and a difficult one at that! Pete has helped me immensely to maintain ‘big-picture’ perspective and be a more effective manager of my resources. He has shown me what the hindrances are to achieving my goals and what I might do about them. He is a perceptive and non-judgmental listener who has been instrumental in developing my self-awareness.”
- Mark G. (Student teacher)
“When I was first thrust into a team leading position, I sought out Peter Aldin’s assistance as I worked through the sudden changes and challenges. With Peter, I learnt about problem-solving, setting up boundaries and listening skills … Peter’s coaching skills showed me how to deal with and handle people, gave me confidence, self-esteem and insight into understanding human behaviour.”
- Chris A. (team leader)
“I have spent what seems like a life time of searching to find the “right” combination for success. In my experience of therapy, I spent a lot of time venting, going round and around in circles, and never really achieving my goals. Coaching has changed all of that for me. It has helped me to name what I want, recognise what I yet don’t have, and help me to create the steps/strategies that move me toward my goals. Since working with my coach Peter Aldin I’ve torn down the barriers that have controlled my life in the past, replacing them with new habits that will lead me to my goals and living the life I choose to live. Coaching holds my focus - while I move through my fears”
- Theresa (Pioneer of a new business concept and mother of 3)
“Peter believes in ‘process’ which is liberating, especially when the pressure to ‘have arrived’ is very much still a mentality in leadership circles. He asks questions which both encourage self-understanding and empower the individual so that they leave each session convinced that the change they want is actually possible.” - S Goode (Youth Worker & Team Leader)
- Damien Kucan (Senior Minister, New Life Church Springvale)
***
Want more information? Click here to find out about our coaching plans for Individuals.
Why “Great Circle”?
Great Circle refers to the method sailors and pilots use to navigate their way around a sphere ( the Earth!). Great circle navigation requires both factual knowlege of earth geography and a willingness to think “counter-intuitively”.In a complex world, instinct and habit often drive us off course rather than steering us toward success and satisfaction. Our instinct is to plot our course in straight lines, but the world simply doesn’t operate that way. Reality often demands that we find ways which run contrary to our instincts when trying to reach our goals and aspirations. This is why some of our best ideas and best intentions are often frustratingly slow to achieve or even - sadly - unrealised.Great Circle is about re-learning and re-thinking our approach to family and business dynamics and relationships. In this way, we actually get to where we want to go and we often do so faster…
We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Further Skills for Mentors
Finding your mentoring is unfocussed, stuck in a rut, tiring?
Why not think about…
Stretching the Friendship
Further Skills for Effective Mentoring
People who take this seminar are wanting to
- develop their own expertise at managing and training others
- accelerate the growth of their mentoree
- break out of a “going nowhere” cycle with a mentoree
- see better results from their mentoring
In this tele-seminar, you will
- explore some ways to move a mentoring situation of out a rut
- extend what you already do well as you pursue excellence
- learn to uncover and utilise deeply motivating forces within the mentoree’s own heart and mind.


