League legends visit Lihir

FOUR Australian rugby league legends took part in conducting a leadership series at Newcrest’s Lihir Gold Mine Limited, in New Ireland from July 16- 19.
This was the second of a three part series for 2012.
Mingling among employees, business partners and local communities, Queensland’s coach Mal Men¬inga, Adrian Lam, (Kumuls coach), Allan Langer (Broncos assistant coach) and Trevor Gillmeister (Gold Coast Titans assistant coach); were able to drive the message of treasuring ‘value systems’ into everyone’s minds.
The Newcrest gold mine has close to 2,300 perma¬nent workers on Lihir Island. Ninety per cent of those workers are Papua New Guinea citizens, with 35 per cent of them being Lihirians.
The leadership coaching sessions were organised for four of the biggest departments on site – mining, processing, fleet maintenance and asset management.
"Putting on your uniform and working here at Newcrest’s Lihir gold mine is a fantastic opportunity for you," Mal said.
"Values are to be proud of and are the foundation of everything we do", he said.
"Value is what the Maroons live and play by. And whether it is the Kumuls, the Titans or the Broncos, we all have values and we hold them dear to us. This is what makes us successful," Mal said.
"We have value systems in sports, when conduct¬ing business activities, etc.
"We have to reinforce these value systems in our communities," he said.
After each session, Big Mal and team would then go out and take part in coaching clinics for children and young adults aged from 5 to 25.
The reaction was overwhelming in the sense that everyone has enjoyed this great opportunity; to get up close to these rugby greats.
Meninga described the trip as ‘worthwhile’.
Using a team of sporting icons to reinforce the con¬cept of value systems into local communities work, he said.
The third session will be held in November and will again spend time in the community and back on the mine sites.
This time it will be for departments such as human resources, safety, power and utilities.
General manager Karl Spalek said Newcrest had five key principles and one of those was to recognise and respect the culture, values and traditions of those communities.
He says the company believes in having good rela¬tionships with employees, business partners and the surrounding community.
In 2011, the Newcrest Lihir gold mine was consid¬ering the best approach for building awareness on the company’s values throughout the community.
To the company’s delight, its values were shared by rugby league greats and Newcrest approached Big Mal.
"The company’s values are based on working togeth¬er, high performance, innovation and problem solving, integrity and honesty, and caring about people," he said.
He said the energy level across the mine site was el¬evated during the visits.
Spalek said having this sort of partnership with Mal enables Newcrest to promote its values to all our inter¬nal and external stakeholders by building understand¬ing that values are common and enable team and indi¬vidual success.
The team was also special guests to the General Manager’s Living our Values (LOV) dinner and met with many of the Lihir Gold employees nominated for a Newcrest LOV award.