Creating a culture of learning in a workplace is key to the success of a business. Learning and development programmes must be engaging, focused on results, be practical, cost effective and have low time demands.

Being entrepreneurial at heart, I have followed my passion and established my own business again. I am thrilled to be delivering the Breakthrough co programmes as they are perfectly positioned to meet the management and leadership development needs of businesses going through the current challenging times. Now permanently in New Zealand I frequently miss the days of swimming in the warm turquoise lagoon of my favourite Matareva beach. However, the beauty of Northland more than compensates!

I am committed to doing all I can to assist Northland people and their businesses to thrive.

“I have known Karen Te’o for some 25 years. I have worked with her closely and have always been impressed with her professionalism, ability to think strategically and to tailor appropriate solutions to meet client needs.
She is a highly skilled facilitator who has the ability to work effectively with a wide range of people. She is comfortable leading groups of differing culture, age and background. I would have no hesitation in recommending Karen wholeheartedly – her fresh, energetic and positive approach coupled with her high standards and personal integrity ensure that no matter what she takes on she will make a great success of.”

Jennifer Ross
Careers New Zealand

“I felt that Karen’s approach has finally made us more forward as a group and that we can now achieve and move beyond a major obstacle ie. Our mission/vision etc. that has been holding the Trust back. The workshop allowed all those attending to participate in a non-threatening and positive manner – which would not have been possible in an ordinary board meeting. Karen has given us some very simple and yet very valuable ideas/processes to work with as a board/trust/organisation. I now look forward to the next workshop and am more inspired with my role in the trust as treasurer.”

“Karen this was an extremely informative and knowledgeable day – it reinforced things I know need to happen to make an outcome successful. It also highlighted areas of improvement individually and collectively as a group.  You are a very easy facilitator to listen to, who listens to what is said and is able to ‘parcel’ up thoughts/ideas of the group in to something tangible.“

Pacific Islands Trust

“I have known Karen Te’o for 20 years, having joined her New Zealand-based business ‘MultiSkill Ltd’ as a training consultant early in 2001. I have since run my own consultancy business as a community facilitator and small business coach, and count Karen among my treasured friends. I had the privilege of working with her, learning from her then, and joined the many others who inevitably stay in contact with her and benefit from her enduring wisdom, service and friendship.

Karen has excellent interpersonal skills, building strong and enduring relationships. Karen is non-judgmental, careful and kind. With intuitive respectful listening skills, she carefully ascertains a client’s needs and works through tailor- made solutions to help them reach their success. Resourceful, effective and lots of fun, she is a joy to work alongside.

I was honoured by Karen’s choice to take me on into her small business as a keen and eager learner. I could not have chosen a better mentor, having learnt and grown a great deal under her tutelage. She is astute, practical, embracing the bigger picture while understanding the value in the detail, with liberal lashings of laughter balancing the highly practical.

A great strength is her ability to see service and process for what it should be – sensible, practical, flexible and with room for people to show their customer service and heart while being supported by management knowledge and expectations.

Karen has extensive business experience, across several sectors and throughout the Pacific. Her effectiveness and professionalism are unerring. Karen is a wonderful woman. She takes joy wherever she goes. She is highly productive, utterly reliable, with a seemingly never-ending supply of ‘extra miles’.

I commend her to any organisation or individual looking to engage with a genuine person, rich in integrity, highly skilled in training and leadership, and innovative with regards to product and service development and delivery.

You are most welcome to contact me for further verbal reference.”

Carol Maxwell

I have known and worked together with Karen for many years. I first worked with her professionally when she was Owner and Principal Consultant in MultiSkill a training, consultancy, recruiting and HR business that ran throughout Northland and into Auckland and beyond. We worked on a number of projects with private individuals, Local Government and Government Departments as clients. We also served together for some years in a governance capacity on a Not For Profit Board. 

Karen has a broad range of skills and extensive knowledge and experience. She is highly customer focused and has a good research mind and networking skills which gives her the capacity to search out resources and information that lead to viable practical and successful solutions. She works tirelessly for outcomes and has an attention to detail that make the completion of a project or activity that little bit special. She gets things done. 

She has a good understanding of how organisations work and a solid knowledge of the figures of an enterprise and sound commercial sense in making effective decisions. Her people skills are huge, and she has been a coach, mentor and adviser to many successful clients and people in all sorts of businesses and professions. All of this made Karen currency in a range of situations. She was recognised for these abilities and became a key member in a number of (particularly Women’s) business organisations with regional and national profile.  

More recently Karen’s activities have been in the Pacific where she has run a number of successful enterprises and been involved in a number of projects. Her knowledge of the Pacific and her love of its people and familiarity with its cultures are also great strengths in making headway in this environment and she brings to the table a depth of understanding that is highly useful in charting a process through complex situations. This has been recognised by New Zealand business, philanthropic and government organisations who have utilised her many talents and skills to implement effective solutions in nations beyond Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Alan Wilcox

“I’ve known Karen and Peni for nearly 20 years now, and I consider it more than good fortune that I had the opportunity to work alongside Karen for 6 years at MultiSkill. Perhaps serendipitous is a better word. As Business and Administration Co-ordinator for MultiSkill I felt privileged to be working (and learning the business of being a small privately owned business), alongside Karen where we were firmly focused on working together to make her business plan a reality. It was an exciting time for both of us, and we achieved many outstanding milestones. This included growing the business through securing training contracts, collaborating with diverse organisations both locally and nationally, delivering staff and HR services as well as facilitating a local Businesswomen’s Network and then taking on its National Office. As a self-employed Coach, Trainer and HR Consultant, I still count Karen as one of my valued sages with whom I keep in contact.

Karen is astute when it comes to business and chose to expand MultiSkill and her business presence both locally and further afield. She was always considered in her efforts and diligently developed and grew the business to where she was able to sell it as a going concern and move into her next adventure. Karen provided supervision, coaching and facilitation services to the business community and produced customised training solutions to cater to her clients’ specific requirements. And she regularly delivered these in a timely, professional and enjoyable way. The feedback she received from her individual clients and client companies, without exception, endorsed the high quality of the delivery and content as well as the fun-factor that Karen naturally infuses into the learning environment. She was always at the forefront of new developments, generating new ideas and initiatives and she’s still that same innovative and determined businesswoman for whom I have immense respect and admiration.

One thing I have always, and still do admire about Karen, is her unshakeable self-belief. Her values and ethics are robust and provide her with a solid foundation upon which she operates in the business world. She always works hard to ensure that she’s extremely well-resourced and well-connected so that her personal and professional outcomes are achieved to high-quality standards, on time. And this is exactly how she manages to deliver such great service to her clients. Karen is a brilliant exemplar; her energy, confidence, entrepreneurial creativity and her ability to see the big picture whilst ensuring that the details are attended to were an inspiration to me. Her compassionate manner as an employer and businesswoman, and her ability to understand, empathise and connect with individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences allow her to create an instant rapport with the majority. Karen has such a gentle and generous yet tenacious manner about her that you can’t help being inspired to contribute, or in the case of her course attendees and clients, participate. I learned so much from working alongside Karen in the MultiSkill journey and I regularly refer back to my time with her, such was the value of those learnings and experiences.

Whether it’s training, facilitation or staff management and engagement, you and your team members are certain to be inspired and motivated to attain the results you’re seeking when you engage with Karen.”

Barbara Jaques
Mind Moves

“Rest assured– in working with Karen Te’o you have a highly competent, well informed asset focused on your project.

Karen impresses with her highly effective programmes –all up to date in theory and practice, and customized for her customers. She brings a wealth of experience working effectively across diverse industries and with diverse people whether at the Board level or frontline.

While outcome focused and process driven, Karen threads humor and authenticity in her every act, interacting with ease and respect.

Energy – ethics – vision. Trust in Karen, I have for nearly 20 years as a business owner and colleague in an international business network and training context.”

You are most welcome to contact me for further verbal reference.”

Katherine Kozel
Electro Sound International Ltd

“Simply put, Karen Te’o is the best facilitator around. Her friendly, gentle and intelligent persona puts people at ease immediately. Karen has the ability to identify the best way to communicate with individuals so that they feel an immediate trust and connection with her.

Problem solving and resourcefulness

Karen will find a solution to any challenge presented to her, often bringing in her team, or gathering a panel of experts, to help solve difficult problems. I have absolute faith that nothing could ‘faze’ Karen and that she would professionally manage any and every problem presented to her.

Mentoring style

As mentioned above, Karen has an extremely friendly, gentle and intelligent manner. She has enormous empathy with people and gains trust quickly. She shows positive support and, when needed, constructive feedback on ways to improve.

Relevant personal qualities

Karen has a wonderful sense of humour, which makes her fun to be around. She is extremely family and community oriented and is very proud of her wonderful husband and sons. It has been my great honour and pleasure to have worked for Karen Te’o and to be her friend.”

Sue Walters