Kingstown College Coaching Magazine vol.6 2020/2021

COACHING 

MAGAZINE 

PRICE £5.95 / €7.20 

Accompanying CEOs 

through Change 

Inside Paypal’s Global 

Coaching Culture 

Coaching in the Retail 

Sector 

Diversity and 

Gender Balance 

at AIB 

Coaching and 

Mentoring at ESB 

New ICF Core Competencies 

Recruitment in Canada 

and North America 

Understanding 

Burnout 

Spot Coaching • Coaching is not Therapy • Artificial Intelligence • Emotional 

Wellbeing • Life Coaching for Senior Cycle • Design Thinking • Business Consulting 

through Coaching • Business School in South Africa

G O T T H E A P P Y E T ? 

www.kingstowncollege.ie 

3 

COPING 

WITH 

DROUGHT 

An educational forum on 

desertification and what 

we can do to stop it. 

FOR GRADUATES AND LEARNERS 

BY INVITATION ONLY 

Exclusive Content, Live Streams, Networking 

Coaching Models, On-Demand Webinars. 

Be Part of the Coaching Community! 

Request Invitation from leah@kingstowncollege.ie 

A message from the Directors 

Wow - what a time to be alive. And what a 

time to be a coach! As we both reflected 

on the journey since the last publication, 

we tried to identify the dominant 

emotion that we feel. It didn’t take us 

long to arrive at the answer. Pride. We are 

so proud of our graduates, our faculty 

and our team. In particular, we watched 

our graduates and associates join or 

start initiatives which help the most 

vulnerable in our society. Especially 

have been taking place every week 

since June 2020. That opportunity to 

re-energise as a community of coaches 

has triggered a positive ripple effect 

throughout the network of people we 

meet. That is what happens and what is 

possible when values are aligned. 

Our faculty and team are embracing 

the opportunities of home working and 

virtual lecturing as we simultaneously 

In this publication you will again read 

from graduates, faculty and industry 

about their experience of coaching, and 

coaching programmes. These insights 

will inspire you and massively increase 

your knowledge base as you move 

forward into the profession. 

We sincerely thank everyone who has 

trusted Kingstown College with their 

education as a coach and mentor. We wish 

those who became unexpectedly witness a massive growth in the demand you health and success on your coaching 

vulnerable to challenges around work 

patterns, solitude, employment and 

home life. 

for coach training, accredited Diplomas 

and short inspirational webinars. We 

also recognise that graduation events 

have been virtual and, like you, we crave 

journey and ask you to remember that we 

are here to support you. 

Take care of each other. 

No better evidence can be seen than the 

energy of the 200 graduates who join us 

for the Friday Morning Webinars which 

that opportunity to meet and celebrate 

together. That will happen, we assure 

you! 

Ed Boland & Paula King 

Directors, Kingstown College

4 Coaching Magazine Vol.6 

www.kingstowncollege.ie 5 

Some Highlights since the Last 

Edition 

TRAINING SITE COACHES AT PAYPAL 

We are delighted to be working with PayPal to train their site coaches from their 

global sites. Learners are joining us from United States, Philippines, Dublin and 

many other locations around the world. As part of ensuring a consistent approach to 

internal coaching and an alignment with ICF, Kingstown College was invited to lead 

the training initiative. We also have a full feature case study in this edition which takes 

us into the actual workings of the coaching programmes and the thinking behind it. 

COACHING DIPLOMA NOW OFFERED IN ITALIAN 

In 2021, Kingstown College offered the Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership 

and Executive Coaching in the Italian language. This is the first time the course 

has been translated and offered in a language other than English. It represents a 

milestone for the college, and could not have happened without the hard work 

and enthusiasm of Andrea Splendori and Fabio Garganego who have now joined 

the faculty. Interestingly, the new format of virtual learning has made the course 

accessible to Italians all over the world - including those right here in Dublin! For 

more about the course and the study options you can visit www.kingstowncollege.it 

AN EDUCATION BOOM 

COVID19 has forced government and industry to implement new ways of working 

and living. Our places of work have been closed, places to gather and socialise have 

been restricted. Our homes have become our castle once again! Because of that, 

many organisations and many individuals are seeking to use this newly available 

time to develop their skills and knowledge. This has resulted in a massive increase in 

the number of companies and learners who are contacting Kingstown College to join 

our courses. In a world where one size most definitely does not fit all, it is reassuring 

that the skillset of hosting a coaching dialogue is spreading to even more people. 

FRIDAY WEBINARS - SUPPORTING GREAT CAUSES 

Since June 2020 Kingstown College has been hosting the Friday Morning Webinars. 

Initially intended as a short burst of support for the community, the webinars 

became a bit of a phenomenon! They will be continuing throughout 2021 due to the 

support, and enthusiasm for the opportunity to connect as a coaching community. 

The webinars are free to access and we simply request attendees to make a 

donation during the year to the selected charity. In 2020 we supported See Change, 

and organisation working towards eliminating the stigma associated with mental 

health. For 2021 we have chosen Turas le Chele (Journey Together). This charity 

was established 21 years ago in response to tragic losses in communities, and will 

benefit hugely from your support - especially now. You can register to receive the 

link to the webinars at kingstowncollege.ie 

ICF HAS NEW LOGO AND BRANDING 

In case you missed it, ICF has rebranded in 2021. The new logo can now 

be seen on their primary website (coachfederation.org) and their national 

chapter websites. Don’t forget to update your website or marketing material 

with the new branding. ICF has also updated the core coaching competencies, 

which are published in this edition of Coaching Magazine. While the new 

competencies were announced in 2019, they come into affect for accredited 

training programmes from January 2021 and will impact new applications 

from late 2021. 

Join the Live 

Virtual Classroom 

Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching 

Advanced Diploma in Mental Health and Wellbeing Coaching 

Advanced Diploma in Corporate Wellbeing Coaching 

Certificate in Mentoring 

G E T S T A R T E D W I T H A F R E E I N T R O D U C T I O N T O C O A C H I N G W O R K S H O P 

L E A R N M O R E A T W W W . K I N G S T O W N C O L L E G E . I E



Kingstown College 

Harbour View 

7-9 Clarence Street 

Dun Laoghaire 

Co. Dublin 

Web: www.kingstowncollege.ie 

Tel: +353 1 284 5360 

Email: info@kingstowncollege.ie 

Editor: Alan Brereton 

Assistant Editor: Siobhán Cahalan 

Design and Layout: Anna Kozielska 

Additional Design: Jan Srankota 

Academic Supervision: Kingstown College 

Directors: Paula King, Edward Boland 

The content of this publication - design, text and images - 

are all subject to copyright and may only be reproduced 

with the permission of Kingstown College. Please contact 

info@kingstowncollege.ie with any reproduction requests. 

The views expressed by the authors may not be the views 

of Kingstown College or Executive Coaching Solutions Ltd. 

8 

Understanding Burnout from a Corporate 

Wellbeing Coaching Perspective 

Paula King 

16 

Coaching and Mentoring in ESB: How 

the Academy is Keeping Pace with 

Accelerated Internal Demand 

Tom McMahon and Maria Travers 

22 

Recruitment: Top talent is telling me they 

expect Coaching and Mentoring 

Paul Huffman 

26 

The Retail Coach: Coaching within the 

Retail Sector 

Kate Rooney 

30 

The Spot Coaching Method 

James McLeod 

Content 

34 

Footprints in the Sand: Accompanying 

CEOs in Uncertain Times 

Siobhán Cahalan 

38 

The 5Ps Model for Personal Development 

Gilles Varette 

42 

Coaching is not Therapy but can be 

Therapeutic 

Cathy Jones Moore 

46 

Benefits of a Coaching Style in Supporting 

Healthcare Workers During a Pandemic 

Rose Curtis 

50 

The Leadership Coaching Programme at Wits 

Business School in South Africa Goes Virtual 

Jessica Reekie 

54 

Quotes from the Webinar Series 

Mark Duffy 

56 

Coaching and Artificial Intelligence: Some 

Recent Trends 

Christa Ilieva 

60 

Time to Check-In: A Practical Worksheet 

to Reflect on the Positive Changes 

Brought to you by the Pandemic 

Mel Poussin and Bridget Barbato 

64 

The Benefits of Teaching Life Coaching at 

Senior Cycle Level in School 

Catherine Connolly 

68 

Not For Sale, or Am I? 

Marie Friel 

72 

Business Consulting with a Coaching Style 

Carey-Ann Lordan 

76 

Same Goal: Not the Same Approach. 

Adapting to Different Needs 

John Tracey 

78 

Case Study: Mentor Her – How AIB is 

driving Diversity and Gender Balance 

Anne McComish 

84 

The Importance of ‘Perspective‘ in 

Coaching 

Dermot Ferris 

88 

The Value in Becoming More Comfortable 

with the Uncomfortable 

Mark McDonnell 

91 

Using Design Thinking Approach in 

Coaching: A Review of Designing Your Life 

Program 

Sinem Bahadırlı 

96 

Living with Lockdown and Coping with 

Covid-19 

John O’Connell 

98 

Case Study: Implementing and Embracing 

a Global Coaching Programme in PayPal 

Dave Reedy 

104 

Increasing our Emotional Wellbeing in the 

Workplace 

Pablo Calal 

108 

UnCoached and UnCoachable: The Gap we 

Should be Concerned About 

Alan Brereton 

Also available to view online at www.kingstowncollege.ie



Understanding Burnout from a 

But there is an opportunity to enrich both 

stakeholders. By recognising that burnout 

considered a medical condition. The 

WHO then put out an urgent clarification 

Corporate Wellbeing Coaching 

Perspective 

Stress and burnout are two words that we hear frequently. Clients often present quoting 

those words as the driving force to booking a coaching session. But do we really 

know what they mean? Do we know how they show up in the life of a human being? 

Paula King, Master Coach and Director at Kingstown College helps us understand the 

symptoms, the causes and some real world approaches for the practicing coach. 

The fact that 

burnout is a 

gradual process 

and doesn’t 

happen overnight, 

means it can creep 

up on your client. 

happens and by helping individuals who 

have experienced burnout to reflect 

on it and gain greater self-knowledge, 

companies can produce “fire-tested” 

leaders, who’s future lives and work are 

more grounded. 

A Corporate Well-Being Coach who is 

trained to spot the signs of burnout 

can assist their clients to navigate the 

emotions they are experiencing. They can 

support their clients through the journey 

into and beyond burnout, helping them 

extract and apply the maximum learning 

stating, “Burn-out is included in the 11th 

Revision of the International Classification 

of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational 

phenomenon, not a medical condition… 

reasons for which people contact health 

services but that are not classed as 

illnesses or health conditions.” 

Job Burnout Symptoms 

Some questions you might ask your client 

are: 

• Have you become cynical or critical 

from the experience. This emphasis on 

at work? 

the developmental potential of burnout, 

Definition 

Context 

reality is that the most likely victims are in 

thrive in conditions that cause burnout in 

rather than upon the provision of remedial 

• Do you drag yourself to work and 

their mid-twenties rather than their mid- 

colleagues. It has been identified that the 

support positions coaching firmly at the 

have trouble getting started? 

Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized 

Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized 

forties. And while various sources lay the 

personal characteristics distinguishing 

centre of burnout management. 

as resulting from chronic workplace stress 

as resulting from chronic workplace stress 

blame either at the feet of the employee, 

these two groups are how they derive 

• Have you become irritable or 

that has not been successfully managed. It 

that has not been successfully managed. It 

assuming some personality or character 

their sense of identity (from work or 

Origins 

impatient with co-workers, 

is characterized by three dimensions: 

is characterized by three dimensions: 

flaw, or at the foot of the organisation, 

from a much wider perspective) and 

customers or clients? 

which creates the pressures that drive 

how reflexive they are (their capacity to 

The term “burnout” originated in the 

• feelings of energy depletion or 

Burnout, or a high potential for 

employees into burnout, the evidence 

step back from activity and look critically 

1970s, and for the past 50 years, the 

• Do you lack the energy to be 

exhaustion; 

experiencing burnout, is a situation most 

indicates that burnout typically occurs 

at themselves and how they interact 

medical community has argued about 

consistently productive? 

executive coaches will encounter in a 

when employees and employer collude 

with their environment.) Companies 

how to define it. As the debate grows 

• increased mental distance from 

client at some point in their practice. This 

in creating the conditions for this serious 

exacerbate the problem by encouraging 

increasingly contentious the most recent 

• Do you find it hard to concentrate? 

one’s job, or feelings of negativism 

is particularly true for a coach whose 

and career shattering phenomenon to 

employees to identify with their work and 

WHO announcement may have caused 

or cynicism related to one’s job; and 

‘brand’ is Corporate Well-Being Coaching 

occur. 

by creating unrealistic working demands. 

more confusion than clarity. 

• Do you lack satisfaction from your 

and who is recognised for this expertise. 

achievements? 

• reduced professional efficacy. 

Individuals and organisations will seek 

There can also be a misconception that 

Unfortunately, in most cases, neither the 

In May, the WHO included burnout in its 

out this expertise if there is a recognition 

‘highflyers’ are more prone to burnout 

individual nor the organisation learns from 

International Classification of Diseases 

• Do you feel disillusioned about your 

• Burnout is a special type of work- 

that the executive is stressed or struggling 

however research evidences that many 

burnout. The outcome for the individual is 

(ICD-11) and immediately the public 

job? 

related stress – a state of physical 

in some way (not necessarily identified 

high flyers are able to survive and even 

all too often permanent career derailment. 

assumed that burnout would now be 

or emotional exhaustion that 

as burnout). The effective and safe 

also involves a sense of reduced 

coach needs to be able to recognise the 

accomplishment and loss of personal 

symptoms of burnout, at both its incipient 

identity. 

and its active stages, and have a practical 

toolkit to help the client recognise and 

• “Burnout” isn’t a medical diagnosis. 

• Some experts think that other 

conditions, such as depression, are 

behind burnout. 

manage what is happening, within the 

ethical boundaries of a non-therapeutic 

intervention. 

It is important to dispel a number of 

the most likely 

victims are in their 

mid-twenties rather 

As coaches we need to understand that, 

myths, which may prevent coaches from 

understanding and recognising burnout. 

than their mid- 

whatever the cause, job burnout can affect 

your clients physical and mental health. 

For example, while it may be a common 

assumption that burnout affects mainly 

forties 

middle-aged senior executives, the stark



Stress, by and 

large, involves too 

much. Burnout, 

on the other 

hand, is about not 

enough. 

• Are you using food, drugs or alcohol 

to feel better or to simply not feel? 

• Have your sleep habits changed? 

• Are you troubled by unexplained 

headaches, stomach or bowel 

problems, or other physical 

complaints? 

If your client answered yes to any of these 

questions, they might be experiencing 

job burnout. You may need to refer them 

to a doctor or a mental health provider 

because these symptoms can also be 

related to health conditions, such as 

depression. 

Always be aware of your role in your 

client’s life, they may be able to continue 

working with you, as their coach, 

however, remember your mantra “If in 

doubt, refer out”. 

What are the possible causes that your 

client may be experiencing job burnout: 

Job burnout can result from various 

factors, including: 

• Lack of control 

An inability to influence decisions 

that affect the job – such as 

schedule, assignments or workload 

– could lead to job burnout. So 

could a lack of the resources 

needed to do the work. 

• Unclear job expectations 

If your client is unclear about the 

degree of authority they have 

or what their Manager or others 

expect from them they are not 

likely to feel comfortable at work. 

• Dysfunctional workplace 

dynamics 

Perhaps your client works with 

an office bully, or they feel 

undermined by colleagues or their 

boss micromanages their work. This 

can contribute to job stress. 

• Extremes of activity 

When a job is monotonous or 

chaotic, your client may need 

constant energy to remain focused 

– which can lead to fatigue and job 

burnout. 

• Lack of social support 

If your client feels isolated at work 

and in their personal life, they 

might feel more stressed. 

• Work-life imbalance 

If your client’s work takes up so 

much of their time and effort 

that they don’t have the energy 

to spend time with their family 

and friends, they might burn out 

quickly. 

Job burnout risk factors 

Your client might be more likely to 

experience job burnout if: 

• They identify so strongly with work 

that they lack balance between 

their work life and their personal 

life 

• They have a high workload, 

including overtime work 

• They try to be everything to 

everyone 

• They work in a helping profession, 

such as health care 

• They feel they have little or no 

control over their work 

• Their job is monotonous 

Consequences of job burnout 

Ignored or unaddressed job burnout can 

have significant consequences, including: 

• Excessive stress 

• Fatigue 

• Insomnia 

• Sadness, anger or irritability 

• Alcohol or substance misuse 

• Heart disease 

• High blood pressure 

• Type 2 diabetes 

• Vulnerability to illnesses 

Handling job burnout 

Encourage your client to take action: 

• Evaluate their options 

In the coaching dialogue an action 

might be to discuss specific concerns 

with their manager. Maybe they can 

work together to change expectations 

or reach compromises or solutions. 

Setting goals for what must get done 

and what can wait. 

• Seek support 

It is vital that your client has a support 

network. Remember the importance 

of designing supportive environments 

for your client. Whether they reach out 

to co-workers, friends or loved ones, 

support and collaboration might help 

them cope. If they have access to an 

employee assistance program, discuss 

the advantages of taking advantage of 

relevant services. 

• Try a relaxing activity 

Perhaps an action your client might 

take is to explore programs that 

can help with stress such as yoga, 

meditation or tai chi if, of course, this 

is something they see of value – do 

not be prescriptive. 

• Get some exercise 

Regular physical activity will help 

your client to better deal with stress. 

It can also take their mind off work. 

However, be sensitive to your client’s 

preference. 

• Get some sleep 

Sleep restores well-being and will 

help to protect your client’s health. 

Use your appreciative enquiry 

questions to ascertain what is 

working for your client and what 

strategies they might put in place. 

• Mindfulness 

Mindfulness is the act of focusing on 

your breath flow and being intensely 

aware of what you’re sensing and 

feeling at every moment, without 

interpretation or judgment. In a 

job setting, this practice involves 

facing situations with openness and 

patience, and without judgment. 

Again, introduce sensitively and work 

from your client’s perspective. 

Statistics: Gallup recently 

surveyed more than 7,500 

full-time employees about 

burnout. 23 percent of 

those workers said they 

felt burned out more often 

than not. An additional 44 

percent reported feeling 

burned out sometimes. 

To put that into context, 

nearly two-thirds of fulltime 

workers are dealing 

with burnout at some 

point while at work. 

Signs and symptoms of burnout. 

Your clients will have days when they 

may feel helpless, overloaded, or 

unappreciated. Be aware that this is not 

necessarily burnout but a key indicator 

for you, as a coach, is to recognise if this 

has become more the norm rather than 

an occasional experience for your client. 

The fact that burnout is a gradual 

process and doesn’t happen overnight, 

means it can creep up on your client. 

Signs and symptoms are subtle at first, 

but become worse as time goes on. 

These early symptoms are red flags 

that something is wrong that needs to 

be addressed. If you are working with 

your client at this stage encourage 

them to pay attention to the symptoms 

in order to actively reduce their stress 

as this will help to prevent a major 

breakdown. If they ignore the signs they 

will eventually burn out. 

The Difference Between Stress and 

Burnout 

Be aware of the difference between 

stress and burnout. 

Burnout may be the result of unrelenting 

stress, but it isn’t the same as too much 

stress. Stress, by and large, involves 

too much: too many pressures that 

demand too much of you physically 

and mentally. However, stressed people 

can still imagine that if they can just get 

everything under control, they’ll feel 

better. 

Burnout, on the other hand, is about 

not enough. Being burned out means 

feeling empty and mentally exhausted, 

devoid of motivation, and beyond 

caring. People experiencing burnout 

often don’t see any hope of positive 

change in their situations. If excessive 

stress feels like you’re drowning in 

responsibilities, burnout is a sense of 

being all dried up. And while you’re 

usually aware of being under a lot of 

stress, you don’t always notice burnout 

when it happens (Source: Stress and 

Burnout in Ministry).



Stress 

Characterized by over-engagement 

Emotions are overreactive 

Produces urgency and hyperactivity 

Loss of energy 

Leads to anxiety disorders 

Causes of burnout 

As we mentioned earlier, burnout is 

most often associated with your clients 

work however burnout is not caused 

solely by stressful work or too many 

responsibilities. Other factors contribute 

to burnout, including your client’s lifestyle 

and personality traits. In fact, what they 

do in their downtime and how they look 

at the world can play just as big of a role 

in causing overwhelming stress as work or 

home demands. This is an important space 

not to ignore and being aware of your 

client’s belief system and how they are 

‘looking at the world’ will form an important 

element of your coaching approach. 

The fact that 

burnout is 

a gradual 

process and 

doesn’t happen 

overnight, means 

it can creep up on 

your client. 

Burnout 

Characterized by disengagement 

Emotions are blunted 

Produces helplessness and hopelessness 

Loss of motivation, ideals, and hope 

Leads to detachment and depression 

What messages are your 

clients giving to themselves 

about their lives and 

situation – remember words 

create worlds. 

Work-related causes of burnout 

• Feeling like you have little or no 

control over your work 

• Lack of recognition or reward for 

good work 

• Unclear or overly demanding job 

expectations 

• Doing work that’s monotonous or 

unchallenging 

• Working in a chaotic or highpressure 

environment 

Lifestyle causes of burnout 

• Working too much, without 

enough time for socializing or 

relaxing 

• Lack of close, supportive 

relationships 

• Taking on too many 

responsibilities, without enough 

help from others 

• Not getting enough sleep 

Personality traits can contribute to 

burnout 

• Perfectionistic tendencies; nothing 

is ever good enough 

• Pessimistic view of yourself and 

the world 

• The need to be in control; 

reluctance to delegate to others 

• High-achieving, Type A personality 

When your client is burned out, problems 

seem insurmountable, everything looks 

bleak, and it’s difficult to muster up the 

energy to care, let alone take action to help 

themselves. Remind them that they have 

more control over stress than they may think. 

There are positive steps they can take to deal 

with overwhelming stress and get their life 

back into balance. 

• What can they control 

in this situation? 

• What can they 

influence? 

• What must they accept? 

Reminding them they 

always have control over 

themselves and their 

reaction to an event. 

Check with your client what resources they 

have knowing one of the most important 

resources your clients have are people who 

care for them. 

The first coaching question 

tor your client when 

they are experiencing or 

vulnerable to burnout is 

always” who can you turn 

to for support?” 

Also spending time with a coach who 

truly listens not becoming distracted or 

expressing judgement is key to calming 

the nervous system and relieving stress. 

Other actions your client might consider 

are: 

• Take time to understand the 

relationship your client has with 

their co-workers. 

• It is important that your client 

limits their contact with negative 

people. 

• Your client may have a cause 

or community group that is 

personally meaningful to them. It 

may be a positive action to spend 

time with like-minded people. 

• If your clients feel that they don’t 

have a network of friends remind 

them that it’s never too late to 

build new friendships and expand 

their social network. 

Other ideas include 

• Invite your client to reframe the 

way they look at work 

• Finding some value in their work. 

• Finding balance in their life 

• Creating friendship in the 

workplace 

• Take time off 

• Re-evaluate priorities 

• Setting boundaries 

• Taking a daily break from 

technology 

• Nourish their creative side 

• Setting aside relaxation time 

• Check on your clients sleep patterns 

We’re looking at this from the wrong 

angle 

According to the foremost expert on 

burnout, Christina Maslach social 

psychologist and professor emerita of 

psychology at the University of California, 

Berkeley, we are attacking the problem 

from the wrong angle. She is one of three 

people responsible for the gold standard 

of measuring burnout — the eponymous 

Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) — and 

the co-author of the Areas of Worklife 

Survey Maslach worries about the new 

WHO classification in the IDC11. 

“Categorizing burnout as 

a disease was an attempt 

by the WHO to provide 

definitions for what is 

wrong with people, instead 

of what is wrong with 

companies,” she explains. 

“When we just look at the 

person, what that means 

is, ‘Hey we’ve got to treat 

that person.’ ‘You can’t 

work here because you’re 

the problem.’ ‘We have 

to get rid of that person.’ 

Then, it becomes that 

person’s problem, not 

the responsibility of the 

organization that employs 

them.” 

To Maslach’s point, a survey of 7,500 

full-time employees by Gallup found 

the top five reasons for burnout are: 

1. Unfair treatment at work 

2. Unmanageable workload 

3. Lack of role clarity 

4. Lack of communication and 

support from their manager 

5. Unreasonable time pressure 

The list above clearly demonstrates 

that the root causes of anxiety/stress 

and burnout do not really lie with 

the individual and that they can be 

averted – if only leadership started 

their prevention strategies much further 

upstream. 

Maslach uses the story of a canary in 

a coal mine. They are healthy birds, 

singing away as they make their way 

into the cave. But, when they come 

out full of soot and disease, no longer 

singing, can you imagine us asking why 

the canaries made themselves sick? No, 

because the answer would be obvious: 

the coal mine is making the birds sick. 

It is an obvious question therefore, 

from a coaching well-being perspective, 

to invite leaders to explore what is 

in place to ensure that employees 

wellbeing is front and centre. If this is 

not the case you might invite them to 

question, as a leader, what is causing 

stress and burnout, what is the reason 

the team is not flourishing, How can we 

retain and nourish talent? What policies 

and procedures are needed to ensure 

everyone feels valued? What motivates 

our employees and what causes them 

to disengage? 

Motivation-Hygiene Theory 

Frederick Herzberg is known for his 

dual-factor, motivation- hygiene theory. 

Essentially, what motivates us versus 

what basic needs must be met in order 

to maintain job satisfaction. 

Herzberg found that satisfaction and 

dissatisfaction are not on a continuum 

with one increasing as the other 

diminishes but are instead independent 

of each other. This means that managers 

need to recognize and attend to both 

equally. 

Motivators are different than hygiene 

factors.



Motivation factors include: 

• challenging work; 

• recognition for one’s 

achievements; 

• responsibility; 

• the opportunity to do something 

meaningful; 

• involvement in decision making; 

• and a sense of importance to the 

organization. 

On the other hand, hygiene factors 

include: 

• salary; 

• work conditions; 

• company policy and 

administration; 

• supervision; 

• working relationships; 

• status and security. 

The paradox is that often, employees 

don’t recognize when an organization 

has good hygiene, but bad hygiene 

can cause a major distraction. The 

latter can come down to seemingly 

innocuous issues, like having free 

coffee/tea in the canteen available 

one day and none the next. People 

feel it. Burnout happens when these 

presupposed features in our day-today 

work lives are missing or taken 

away. 

Leaders could save themselves a 

huge amount of employee stress and 

subsequent burnout, if they were just 

better at asking people what they need 

prioritized and why and start working 

down the list. Employees may not have 

the perfect silver-bullet solution, but 

they can most certainly tell us what isn’t 

working – and that is often the most 

invaluable data. 

Some of the best data-gathering comes 

from the ‘Management By Walking 

Around’ (MBWA) approach. This 

basically refers to managers spending 

some part of their time listening to 

problems and ideas of their staff, while 

wandering around an office or plant. it 

is a term coined by management guru 

Tom Peters. 

Maslach says she’s witnessed hospital 

CEOs walking the floor only to realize 

why people keep asking for, say, a 

new printer. They see that because 

the existing one is always breaking 

down and never serviced, it rarely 

has paper. So, when someone wants 

to print out something for a patient, 

they are forced to run down the hall 

and get somebody to help or to find 

a printer that works. It’s hard for 

leadership to then ignore needs after 

witnessing them first-hand. 

The important message is that burnout 

is preventable. It does require good 

organizational hygiene, better data, 

asking more timely and relevant 

questions, smarter (more micro) 

budgeting, and ensuring that wellness 

offerings are included as part of an 

organisations well-being strategy. 

TACT Coaching Model 

The TACT Model (delivered as part of 

the Kingstown College Diplomas in 

Coaching) will assist them with this. 

It is a really helpful strategy if your 

client keeps a record of the situations 

and shares them with you in their 

coaching session. This will assist them 

to embed powerful coping techniques 

to deal with stress as it brings to their 

conscious awareness their reactions 

and how to work with them. 

Reflection: How would 

you coach a client who is 

experiencing one of the 

following? 

• Unfair treatment at 

work 

• Unmanageable 

workload 

• Lack of role clarity 

• Lack of communication 

and support from their 

manager 

• Unreasonable time 

pressure 

Maslach has affectionately named this 

feeling “pebbles.” She describes them 

as the tiny, incremental, irritating, and 

painful stuff at work that can wear 

you down. 

When your client is experiencing 

a stressful situation, it is useful to 

develop tools and techniques to deal 

with the situation in the moment.



Coaching and Mentoring in ESB: 

The ESB Environment 

under the Electricity (Supply) Act 1927. 

With a holding of 95%, ESB is majority 

The staff of 8,000 are spread in several 

locations across the country. Evolving 

How the Academy is Keeping Pace 

Since ESB was established in 1927, it 

has always endeavoured to bring light 

and energy to the people it serves, 

owned by the Irish Government with 

the remaining 5% held by the trustees 

of an Employee Share Ownership Plan. 

from a rich history of electricity 

generation using coal, peat, oil and gas 

to a strategy and new era of low carbon 

with Accelerated Internal Demand 

allowing individuals and communities 

to fulfil their potential in every walk of 

life. This is achieved not only through the 

ESB is a leading Irish utility focused on 

providing excellent customer service 

and maintaining their financial strength. 

and replacement of generation with 

wind and solar power. The landscape 

is changing having had a physical and 

Electricity Supply Board (ESB) has a 20-year coaching culture which has led to 

the creation of The Coaching and Mentoring Academy. Informal Mentoring has 

always been encouraged however in the past 12 months, the demand for formal 

mentoring in the Organisation has grown by an impressive 65%. Here Maria Travers 

and Tom McMahon from ESB discuss the importance of the ESB’s Coaching and 

Mentoring Programmes in a complex, people centric Organisation. 

provision of critical energy infrastructure, 

but also through ESB’s contribution to 

the economy in the form of investment, 

taxes, dividends and jobs. 

Electricity Supply Board (ESB) was 

established in 1927 as a statutory 

corporation in the Republic of Ireland 

The Company have a regulated asset 

base of approximately €9 billion with 

43% of electricity generation capacity 

in the all-island market. ESB currently 

supply electricity to approximately 1.4 

million customers throughout the island 

of Ireland. ESB Group employs a highly 

trained and committed workforce of 

approximately 8,000 people operating 

industrial presence across the country 

at stations including in Cork, Clare, the 

West and the Midlands and on the 18th 

of December 2020, after 55 years, ESB 

closed the last peat burning station. 

The networks business is national with 

depots in every village in Ireland with 

1400 network technicians and 130 

supervisors responsible for maintaining 

in the diverse and highly skilled business 

and upgrading the network. 

units and have an expanding business 

interest in the UK. 

Brighter Future Strategy 

As a strong, diversified, vertically 

ESB’s strategy for creating a brighter 

integrated utility, ESB operates right across 

future is anchored in their ambition 

the electricity market from generation, 

to lead the transition to a low-carbon 

through transmission and distribution to 

energy future based on clean, reliable, 

supply. In addition, ESB extracts further 

affordable electricity. It sets out a path to 

value at certain points along this chain: 

achieve this ambition in a way that will 

supplying gas, using our networks to carry 

also ensure that ESB continues to grow 

fibre for telecommunications, developing 

as a successful business and maintain 

electric vehicle public charging 

the financial strength to invest in a low- 

infrastructure and more. 

carbon future at the necessary pace 

ESB’s mission is to bring sustainable 

and competitive energy solutions to 

all customers and their vision is to be 

Ireland’s foremost energy company 

competing successfully in the all-island 


market. 

mentoring play 

ESB International, a leading Global 

a massive role in 

Engineering Consultancy, with 

headquarters in Dublin employs over 

smart working 

750 staff across operations in Europe, 

the Middle East, Africa and South 

East Asia, and has worked in over 120 

countries around the world. 

because it allows 

the individual 

and the team to 

Electric Ireland is the national retail 

division of ESB serving customers in a 

connect with the 

competitive market in Ireland as well as 

gaining a footprint in the UK. 

organization



and scale. The fundamental essence 

of the Brighter Future Strategy is 

about putting customers at the center, 

providing clean, secure and affordable 

energy to customers and developing 

and rethinking new innovative energy 

services. ESB’s strategy highlights 

the importance of being adaptable, 

responsible and opportunistic in an era 

of unprecedented uncertainty. 

The growth of ESB is a balance between, 

on the one hand, a deeply ingrained 

reputation and a rich service attitude, 

for example the responses to storms in 

Ireland by the ESB employees, and on 

the other hand, ensuring not to become 

complacent about their rich reputation 

with regards to the competitor and 

customer landscape. Competitors are 

not complacent, and customers will 

ensure getting value regardless of the 

length of service and rich history of the 

company. 

Financial strength and high performance 

is fundamental to entering this new, very 

different and exciting world of energy. 

Business coaching which includes oneto-one 

coaching and team coaching is a 

We’ve recently 

tried to step away 

from talking about 

‘culture’ and talk 

more about ‘this is 

the way we work, 

this is just the way 

we work. 

key enabler in delivering a performance 

culture which supports innovation 

and collaboration among individuals 

while also developing them personally. 

Promoting coaching and mentoring and 

training managers to have a coaching 

style of management engages the will 

to drive performance and capability. 

ESB are very committed to offering 

managers the support they need for 

personal growth and to be effective in 

their roles, where the purpose to deliver 

transformational change through the 

Brighter Future Strategy is driven by 

changes in behaviour and mindset. 

The Impact of Coaching 

ESB is known as a people-centric 

organisation and has a history of 

coaching and investing in people. It 

is not a new phenomenon that they 

are taking a close look at coaching 

and bringing it to another level in the 

organization. They are professionalizing 

it, putting a structure on it and really 

trying to embed it. 

Coaching is well-established in ESB 

and has been at the heart of ESB for 

over 20 years. With a dedicated team 

in place to manage coaching and 

mentoring, a foundation, structure and 

infrastructure has been put in place. Part 

of the foundation is having Coaching 

& Mentoring Programme Manager, 

responsible for the strategic direction of 

Coaching and Mentoring in the business 

supported by coaching champions and 

five Business Unit Coaching & Mentoring 

Coordinators. This has increased senior 

management buy-in as they know 

coaching and mentoring contributes to 

the fundamental success of the strategy 

and its drive to manage, mind, encourage 

and inspire performance. 

As part of the foundation, they have set 

up a dedicated monitoring database 

which tracks members of the internal 

and external Coaching and Mentoring 

Panels. This includes the assignment of 

Coachees both internally and externally 

and Mentees; availability of coaches and 

mentors; Coach bios; training including 

supervision; Continuous Professional 

Development through the Coaching & 

Mentoring Academy and the provision 

of data analytics for costing and budget 

purposes. 

Embedding coaching in the organisation 

is a constant challenge and requires 

a strong business case and the ability 

to evaluate impact. Performance is 

a key tenant of the company and 

people strategy and stands over the 

progression of coaching and mentoring 

in the organization. So, what exactly 

is the impact of coaching? How does 

coaching impact on people’s business 

performance? What kind of culture do 

they want in the organization? 

Tom mentions two elements in the 

evaluation of coaching. “How do I show 

up as a leader in the organization?” 

and; “what does it feel like to work 

here?” ESB encourages and promotes a 

coaching style of leadership as distinct 

from being an actual ‘Coach’. They aim 

to professionalize coaching, and have 

a sufficient number of internal and 

external coaches to support people 

who are promoted, are transitioning into 

management positions; in the case of 

mentoring, new recruits or graduates or 

those who are at a crossroads in their 

career. The biggest challenge in the 

embedding of coaching is seeing the 

real value, how it affects the bottom line, 

how it affects performance and aligning 

it to the way they work. They try to step 

away from talking about ‘culture’ and talk 

more about ‘this is the way we work; this 

is just the way we work”. 

ESB are currently working on measuring 

the impact of coaching. They are applying 

for accreditation for the International 

Standards for Mentoring and Coaching 

Programmes (ISMCP) Award in 2021, 

awarded to organisations designing, 

delivering and evaluating mentoring 

and/ or coaching programmes either 

‘in-house’ or externally. One of the 

key conditions of the award is being 

able to show that ESB has the ability to 

measure the return-on-investment, they 

are looking at various ways of doing 

this perhaps using the ‘Peakon’ platform 

in the organisation which supports 

analysing performance and generating 

metrics from the data. ESB is a complex 

organization comprising five different 

business areas which makes measuring 

difficult. To eliminate the silo effect as a 

result of the different business units, HR 

acts as one – a unified department serving 

the organisation as a whole. 

In relation to Team Performance they 

have found that where the focus is on 

improving team performance, the effect 

is more immediate and easier to see 

because when the team comes together, 

there is clarity about the actions and the 

actions they are going to take. 

ESB engages an external coaching panel 

as well as an internal coaching panel. The 

external panel consists of nine companies 

that provide coaching to their senior 

and executive leadership team. External 

panels bring additional distance and 

objectivity and observations from another 

perspective outside the company. 

Some examples of feedback received are: 

“the interaction between the coach and the 

client was excellent and I achieved what I 

needed” 

“great structure prioritization and focus 

on development needs, good feedback 

and suggestions from the coaching and 

excellent relationship” 

“my coach encouraged me to explore 

issues in a safe environment and determine 

actions that I should take” 

“the option to have both internal and 

external coaches is very important, as 

with external coaches it adds additional 

distance, objectivity to observations as well 

as increasing comfort around discussing 

sensitive topics” 

“my coach has shared with me their 

experience within ESB and gave me good 

advice on how to develop my career” 

The ESB Coaching and Mentoring 

Academy@ESB 

The Coaching & Mentoring Academy 

@ ESB is a new initiative designed, 

developed and aligned to support the 

delivery of ESB’s Brighter Future Strategy 

across ESB Group. The Academy was 

launched by Professor David Clutterbuck 

in September 2020, with the support 

and advice of Paula King, Kingstown 

college, who was instrumental in 

engaging David. The Academy is 

championed by Capability Development 

& Resourcing in People and Organisation 

Development in ESB and is managed 

by a Coaching & Mentoring Programme 

Manager partnering with five Business 

Unit Coaching & Mentoring Coordinators 

representing the various businesses 

The objective of the Coaching & 

Mentoring Academy @ ESB is to enable 

locally driven transformational change 

by supporting succession planning, 

capability and leadership development 

also empowering individuals and teams 

to broaden, develop and motivate each 

other to achieve improvement in their 

performance. 

The purpose of the Academy is to provides 

a safe and supportive environment, 

creating a sense of belonging, selfreflection 

and collaboration amongst 

all our coaching and mentoring panel 

members. The Academy supports this 

cohort, by providing personal and 

professional development (CPD) which 

will typically comprise formal training (e.g. 

Coach and Mentor Training, Supervision, 

Tools & Techniques for Line Managers); 

and informal training; (e.g. participation



in conferences, webinars, masterclasses, 

self-development, lunch & learns, 

reading). For members of the academy 

this means ongoing commitment to 

developing their knowledge base and 

technical expertise. It also means 

keeping up to date with evolving best 

practices. 

ESB is a complex organization and 

mentoring is utilized to set people up for 

success in the organization. Mentoring 

is one of a suite of development 

solutions ESB uses to support individual 

growth and development. Mentoring 

is important for people joining the 

organization, for those at particularly 

critical points of their career, for people 

joining new parts of the organization and 

for people taking up leadership roles of 

whatever kind. Mentors play a pivotal 

role in safeguarding retention and 

building organizational commitment. 

At ESB mentorships are life-altering 

relationships that inspire mutual learning 

and development. 

Determining whether Coaching or 

Mentoring is the correct development 

objective, or perhaps a combination 

of both are agreed through the 

individual’s ‘My Development’ process, 

with the support of the individual’s line 

manager and invariably a discussion 

with the Business Unit Coaching & 

Mentoring Coordinator to define the 

difference between both. So, having a 

clear definition of either process is so 

important. 

There is certainly a demand for coaching 

and mentoring and the crucial thing is to 

have the conversation with the individual 

to determine what it is they actually 

need. Conversations are fundamental. 

Otherwise it just becomes a conveyor 

belt which is the wrong approach to 

coaching and mentoring. In some cases, 

engaging in coaching and mentoring 

is not the answer at all, for example if 

the employee simply needs to step up! 

Mentoring is generally in demand by 

graduates, apprentices and new recruits. 

At senior levels, employees seek mentors 

when they transition from a midleadership 

level to a senior leadership 

level. Coaching is primarily reserved for 

leaders and senior management. 

In ESB there has been a 65% increase in 

mentoring in the last year! 

There is a relentless focus on coaching 

and mentoring in the organisation to set 

people up for success and to improve 

and sustain performance and attract and 

retain talent. All engineering graduates 

receive mentoring and there is a pull now 

from the business units to have mentors 

for everyone, to develop capabilities and 

enhance the sharing of skills and transfer 

of knowledge and this initiative is even 

extending to the UK branches. Another 

added benefit is the self-development 

and learning-in-reverse for the coach 

and the mentor as they are learning from 

the coachees and mentees and leverage 

inter-generational relationships. 

Implementing a Coaching and or 

Mentoring Programme 

For those considering either developing 

or implementing a Coaching and 

or Mentoring Programme in their 

Organisation, Maria recommends doing 

the Mentoring and Coaching Programme 

Manager Bespoke Practitioner Course. 

The purpose of the programme is to 

equip Mentoring/Coaching Programme 

Managers with the knowledge, skills 

and behaviours to design, implement 

and evaluate mentoring programmes in 

a variety of organisational settings and 

contexts. In addition, the programme 

addresses the ongoing training and 

development of Programme Managers. 

The programme is accredited by the 

European Mentoring and Coaching 

Council (EMCC) and holds the Programme 

Manager Quality Award (PMQA) Bespoke 

at Practitioner Level 5. On completion 

of the course and related registration 

requirements and assessment, 

participants will be awarded the 

EMCC Individual Programme Manager 

Accreditation (IPMA). 

“No one is going to say coaching or 

mentoring is a bad idea! Building a solid 

structure and foundation is fundamental 

before bringing it to next level. Paula 

King from Kingstown College has been 

absolutely instrumental in supporting 

and advising on various coaching 

and mentoring initiatives as well as 

being extremely service-minded and 

approachable.” 

When choosing a training partner Maria’s 

advice is ‘make sure the programmes are 

accredited’, which they are with their 

training partner Kingstown College. Over 

the last six months, ESB in collaboration 

with Kingstown College developed an 

inhouse ‘Internationally Accredited 

Certificate in Coaching Program me’, 

scheduled to be launched in March 

2021, QQI Level 6 Professional Coaching 

Practice and Ethics, EMCC Accreditation 

(Foundation Level). This internationally 

certified coach training fulfils the 

criteria to apply to be an internal coach 

with the ESB Coaching & Mentoring 

Academy. They have also redesigned, 

and remodeled their Mentoring Training 

Programme, based on feedback from 

the various training cohorts of mentors 

and mentees, and as a result introduced 

a Mentee Training Programme in 

November 2020. 

There is widespread agreement that 

successful coaching and mentoring 

training programmes within 

organisations need to be strongly linked 

to the organisation’s overall strategy, 

and business drivers. Coaching and 

Mentoring training @ ESB is aligned 

to the ESB’s Brighter Future Strategy, 

to specific Business requirements and 

also to the accreditation standards, as 

defined by EMCC Global (European 

Mentoring & Coaching Council). In ESB 

their coaches and mentors have been 

adapting to challenging times. The 

coaching and mentoring environment 

has changed drastically since the recent 

Coronavirus Pandemic, so they have 

introduced ‘Virtual Coaching Training’, to 

support the transition from face to face 

coaching and mentoring into a virtual 

coaching space or mentoring space for 

the foreseeable future, coupled with the 

requirement for their coaches to support 

their managers; and mentors to support 

new graduates, new recruits to make 

a connection with the organisation in 

these unprecedented and adverse times. 

The Future of Work 

ESB has carried out a comprehensive 

capability review across the whole 

organization in 2020 which will be 

complete in Q1 of 2021. It looked at 

what are the future capabilities, what 

are the skills that may not be needed 

as much of in the future. Knowing what 

skills will be required less, is equally 

important as knowing the skills that will 

be required, in the context of redirecting 

talent and developing people in a 

particular direction. 

Introducing a 

Coaching & 

Mentoring Culture 

For example, a hundred years ago when 

ESB was founded, the world of an engineer 

may not have changed very much in sixty 

years and now that world is changing 

every five years. There are very real 

technological changes in the organisation 

- the whole concept of self-serve and data 

analytics and digital transformation. 

ESB looks at both the technical skills and 

the behavioural skills required for the 

future. Behavioural skills include strategic 

orientation, leadership and innovation 

and it is important that people have the 

discipline to avail of coaching as it is 

linked to developing behavioural skills 

and being customer centric as opposed 

to ‘managing’ customer relationships. 

ESB has a Smart Working Manager senior 

position in the organization, to lead out 

on smart working and the life and work 

benefits for employees in the company. 

There are 3,500 people working remotely 

today which is half the employee 

population. The other half work in the 

power stations, on the networks etc. 

Despite the awfulness of COVID-19, 

as a singular benefit, ESB has probably 

leapfrogged five years in terms of the 

culture of working smart and working 

remotely. It has matured in terms of 

understanding that productivity doesn’t 

relate to presenteeism, there is a value 

of trust and people respond positively 

to that. New recruits are appointed 

a mentor and the mentor acts like a 

buddy and helps to connect them 

with the organization, the network and 

the process of what to do what not to 

do. ESB were on that journey anyway 

and acquired more understanding 

that people work in different ways at 

different times. 

Coaching and mentoring play a massive 

role in smart working because it allows 

the individual and the team to connect 

with the organisation. If there is one 

person who is not present face-to-face 

that creates a virtual team where that 

person is included. And we ensure that 

inclusiveness is very much part of what 

we do. 

Talk to us about training your leaders, site coaches and coordinators to an 

international standard. 

Coaching Skills for Leaders | Programme Coordination | Executive Coaching 

I N F O @ K I N G S T O W N C O L L E G E . I E



Recruitment: Top talent 

tools around me to find people, build 

rapport and satisfy my client’s current 

The war for talent 

is fierce and if 

you want the 

is telling me they expect 

Coaching and Mentoring 

pain point. Then I moved on to then next 

client. Often times not connecting with 

client or candidate for years afterwards 

or ever at all. 

This lack of communication was 

welcomed by both myself (had to move 

best you must 

think beyond 

compensation. 

Paul Huffman has been recruiting in Canada and the 

United States for 8 years. In this article he weaves 

a story of personal reflection into what he sees as 

an emerging model for recruitment consultants and 

employers to work more closely to find and develop 

talent. 

on to the next client) and the client 

(moving on to the next fire to put out). 

Neither had time or will to develop a 

long term partnership. 

Simultaneously, there were certainly 

clients I have meaningful partnerships 

with, and this forced me to reflect on 

what was different about these two 

distinctly different types of clients. 

Like many professions and industries, 

Change is inevitable, and so is opportunity. 

assisting 1000s of people during their 

After much thought and reflection, it 

recruitment is going through a phase 

Good organisations will recognise the 

career journey. The financial rewards 

really came down to one thing: people. 

of self assessment. Not just in respect 

need to invest in leadership development 

earned have been fantastic and allowed 

of the roles that are emerging, but also 

to fit the future of work. 

myself and my family to enjoy a 

The Future: Coaching and Recruitment 

looking at how we operate as a service 

wonderful life and to also help out in our 

to organisations. 

Time for some Self Reflection 

community. Despite all these fantastic 

Reflecting on all of this I see that the 

perks and opportunities, I was still left 

future of the recruitment business and 

What’s happening now? 

The inevitable change and opportunity 

feeling a bit empty and unmotivated. 

my own aspirations were aligned. There 

presents itself to me also. It’s an 

is tremendous value for my clients 

I recruit primarily Mid Manager to VP 

opportunity to reflect and reset. 

My world had become transactional. 

when I operate within my values. 

Level roles in Sales, Marketing and 

Clients and competition demanded 

Operations in the consumer, home 

During my recruiting career I have had a 

speed, technology facilitated that speed 

I see coaching and recruitment working 

and construction product industries. 

wonderful time meeting, coaching and 

and I got really good at utilizing the 

in unison to catapult good organisations 

Recruiting was hit hard in North 

to great organisations. 

• retention - they all were able to 

A high percentage of millennials (and 

America in the first quarter of 2019 due 

retain candidates long term. 

high potential employees in particular) 

to COVID19. Slow improvement was 

These firms that I had formed partnership 

expect some form of coaching or 

evident from June and thankfully this 

with truly valued the people, coached 

Retention, I believe, is where coaching 

mentoring from their employers. It makes 

has continued. 

them for performance and often became 

and recruitment intersect and have an 

sense to deliver this as any organisation 

return clients when the placement was 

immense impact on the performance 

should be actively developing their high 

We have definitely seen a shift in 

promoted. Upon further reflection I 

and culture of an organisation. 

potential employees. While it is just 

type of roles being filled. Sales and 

determined what they did differently 

one aspect of what they are looking for, 

Marketing roles are slipping but we see 

during the recruitment process and 

Attracting Top Talent 

it is imperative that strong leadership 

big increases in Operations and Supply 

three key things came up: 

development and mentorship programs 

Chain, especially in Food and Home 

In order for organisation to attract and 

are part of your talent acquisition and 

Improvement industries. 

• feedback - provided to both 

retain the best possible talent they must 

retention strategy. 

successful and unsuccessful 

develop a comprehensive plan that includes 

Existing roles are also under the 

candidates, 

targeted headhunting, a seamless interview 

For this strategy to be effective it 

microscope as a result of the disruption. 

process with feedback, a fun and engaging 

must be included in, and promoted, 

Looking into the future many firms are 

• momentum - these client used 

on-boarding process, and training and 

during the talent recruitment phase 

predicting quite a bit of movement in the 

momentum to there advantage and 

development opportunities. This includes 

of the employee journey. Millennial 

Leadership and Executive ranks as good 

rarely left candidates feeling isolated 

a mentoring/mentorship program and 

and high potential employees expect 

and bad leaders become more obvious. 

or out of the circle during the process 

leadership development coaching. 

organisations to invest in their



development so to attract the best talent 

you must emphasise these program in 

your job descriptions or ads, along with 

compensation details. Other “why’s” are 

important too, like a culture focused on 

performance, built by developing people, 

earning profits while protecting the planet 

etc. 

If you miss any of these three aspects 

a high performer will leave and find a 

different organisation that will meet these 

needs. 

Millennials rarely aspire to a job for life. 

They’re looking for meaning, along with 

personal and professional development. 

If you’re lacking in any of these areas the 

best talent will be out the door before you 

know it. The war for talent is fierce and if 

you want the best you must think beyond 

compensation and offer a chance to make 

a difference, and a safe environment that 

fosters personal and professional growth. 

During this time of employee uncertainty, 

the client was transparent in its plan, 

offered support to existing employees and 

were more than generous with employees 

who choose not to participate in the 

journey. Importantly, no hard feelings 

were carried because employees clearly 

had a choice, and support was offered to 

everyone. 

To finish off this story, the journey so far 

has been exciting and rewarding. However, 

it is far from complete. I’ll be meeting 

with this client to discuss implementing 

a mentorship and leadership training 

program to support the ongoing changes 

and develop the best possible people. 

This organisation truly gets it. They 

understands the value of their people and 

the benefits from investing in them from 

beginning to end. I wouldn’t be surprised 

to see them steadily take market share 

with double-digit growth as they have 

only just begun their journey. 

committing to a coaching style of 

leadership is the future. Recruitment 

consultants will need to be aware of this 

and partner with client organisations 

to deliver it. Then shout it form the hill 

tops and watch the top talent flood your 

candidate pools. 

Shout it from 

the hill tops and 

watch the top 

talent flood your 

candidate pools 

To me, as a recruiter, this makes perfect sense. 

As a recruitment professional, I believe 

It’s where I believe I can make a difference in the 

adopting mentorship programs and 

recruiting business. Of course, some recruiting 

firms already offer leadership and coaching 

service - and on the other hand coaching and 

leadership organisations have dipped their toes 

certainly an admirable quality it wasn’t 

helping them to grow market share and 

members with training and mentorship 

opportunities, anything was possible. 

Paul Huffman 

into recruitment - but as often is the case, these 

organisations rarely provide a holistic solution 

that intertwines talent acquisition, retention 

and development solutions. They tend to work 

in silos. 

often lead to assortment and pricing 

nightmares that would confuse consumers 

and ultimately create more internal “fire 

fighting”. This meant less time for strategy 

and development. 

I was fortunate to work with my client on 

finding the “right” people who would be a 

cultural fit. They wanted people who were 

smart, driven and ultimately cared about 

Talent Hunt Inc., under the leadership of Paul Huffman is redefining talent recruitment and retention in North America. Through innovative 

campaign strategies he is attracting best-fit talent, and by adding coaching, mentoring and other support services, he is also ensuring that 

top companies are ready for the expectations of top talent. The supportive structure for both candidate and company creates a real sense of 

partnership. Beyond work, Paul loves spending time with his family - except of course on Sunday afternoons when he is cheering for the Buffalo 

Bills as a proud member of the Bills Mafia! 

their neighbour! This is the exact message 

Organisations that are actively encouraging and 

rolling out career development and mentorship 

programs into daily recruitment practice will 

win. Mostly because they will start with the best 

This client needed to take on 

transformative change, and once again, it 

started with people. 

I brought into the market, supported 

by examples and a context for the 

transformation journey the organisation 

was on. 

Train your workforcE at their desk 

possible pool of candidates. 

Client Culture Change Story 

At this point the executive decided to put 

together a comprehensive plan that would 

allow them to transition form the “nice” 

The response was terrific! This was 

because high quality candidates are 

We can help you to create bespoke training content, provide e-learning delivery 

platforms for organization wide education and training, and any necessary 

This brings me back to one of my original clients 

retailer to a truly integrated national 

retailer with a performance culture. They 

looking for many of the same things. They 

want a chance to grow, develop and build 

assessments or knowledge reviews. 

that does put people first. 

This client is 5 billion-dollar hardware retailer 

wanted to do this while still maintaining 

the “nice neighbour feel”. Not an easy 

feet. But, if they found the right people, 

something special. Not just professionally, 

but personally. And in the community too! 

In the end we secured a number of senior 

Let’s talk about how we can combine your expertise with ours! 

with an iconic brand that was known as 

treated their current employees right, 

positions and began working on the next 

the “nice” retailer. While being “nice” was 

and supported the new and existing team 

level of the change.



mentoring to employees, but with the 

vast majority of the retail sector being 

made up of independents this is not 

reflective of what is happening in the 

sector as a whole. 

I established The OnLegs Agency to 

address the void that I see within the 

Retail Sector; to offer support and 

guidance to an industry that is now 

facing a challenging Journey as a result 

they are used to working SMART so 

the effectiveness of the coaching taking 

of the impending Brexit changes, the 

introducing Coaching to the sector 

place. Prior to taking on a new coaching 

migration to online sales ad of course a 

seems like the perfect approach. 

client we do a combined analysis and 

global pandemic. 

chemistry session to determine where 

Introducing Coaching to Retail Clients 

the business is currently, and agree 

Having worked within the retail sector 

upon KPIs that we aim to reach as a 

for the last 20+ years at a senior level, 

I have been introducing coaching 

result of the introduction of coaching to 

and being an advocate for Coaching and 

to clients I work with as part of my 

the business. 

Mentoring, I believe the next stage in 

consultancy work. It became clear to 

the development of the retail model is 

me that there are areas that consulting 

The retail sector is hugely KPI driven 

to introduce and embed Coaching and 

and mentoring simply don’t reach. I 

and the introduction of anything new 

Mentoring within the industry. 

am confident that coaching delivers 

such as coaching must provide an ROI. 

results and I am now looking at how a 

That makes for an interesting journey 

I see an industry that needs to empower 

retail coaching program with a blend 

and challenge! 

their workforce from their HQ to sales 

of individual and group coaching can 

floors, I see an industry that needs to 

see performance improvements in 

The Retail Coaching Model 

I see an industry 

that needs to look 

The Retail Coach: 

Coaching within the 

Retail Sector 

look at goals that will help deliver the 

weekly targets and KPIs as opposed 

to having the weekly sales target as 

the goal. It’s all about perspective and 

Retail is at a stage in it’s evolution 

where looking at various perspectives 

is vitally important to its progression. I 

believe coaching and mentoring has a 

huge part to play in ensuring the future 

areas such as customer experience, KPI 

improvements and general efficiencies 

within the sector. 

In building a framework to coach within 

the retail sector it is important to be clear 

on the objectives with the client. It is 

necessary to set out KPIs to bench mark 

In the initial consultation with a business 

we discuss at length the differences 

between consulting, coaching and 

mentoring, I find this helps manage 

expectations and deliverables from 

the outset. Once we are clear on the 

objectives it is usually easy to decide 

at goals that will 

help deliver the 

weekly targets and 

KPIs as opposed to 

having the weekly 

sales target as the 

From the doughnut effect on high streets, to the 

COVID19 accelerated shift to online selling, the Retail 

Sector is experiencing its share of challenges. But could 

some of the solutions exist in how owners, managers 

and staff interact with each other? Kate Rooney is a 

retail expert and a coach, and she has seen evidence to 

suggest it’s a great place to start. 

growth of the industry and the retention 

of talented people within it. 

When I ask retailers if they coach their 

teams the answer is usually a hesitant 

yes? When we look at what they 

mean by coaching we understand the 

hesitation. In almost all cases training 

is taking place and being labelled as 

coaching. As a result, many are not 

Goal. 

The retail sector is a highly results and goal 

Employment in the Retail sector is estimated 

seeing the true benefits and increased 

performance that a coaching culture 

driven environment and yet early estimates 

at 15% of the population. 

and coaching program can deliver. 

from research that I have carried out indicate 

that only 2% of Retail employees in Ireland 

There are of course larger retail multiples 

The retail Industry is very adept in 

have been to or are working with a coach. 

that have introduced coaching and 

working with goals and objectives,



what areas, or people, within the 

feel empowered they can do great 

business would benefit from coaching, 

things”. One of the main objectives is to 

consulting or mentoring. 

show this in action and this can be done 

through the effective use of some of the 

Coaching in the retail sector is without 

key Coaching tools. 

doubt a very focused model, the clients 

are usually clear on what they would 

like to achieve on a business level, 

I have been testing various tools in Retail 

Coaching, below are the 3 that are seeing 


what goals they want to work towards, 

timelines etc. and have the analytics to 

measure effectiveness. 

the best outcomes so far. I am also working 

on a few new tools specific to the sector 

which I will share in the future. 

Mentoring has a 

huge part to play 

In order to measure effectiveness, we 

1. Appreciative Enquiry is nearly always 

in ensuring the 

look at areas such as individual and 

team behaviours including confidence 

and conflict management. Depending on 

the client, we aim to show a correlation 

between these behaviour changes and 

present. This may be because it’s one 

of my most favoured tools! It may 

also be because the industry in which 

I am coaching has a culture of looking 

to the past for mistakes, a culture of 

future growth of 

the industry and 

the retention of 

the sales figures, so we decide on two 

KPIs to concentrate on and measure 

training to fix problems rather than 

developing. A lot of the vocabulary is 

talented people 

them throughout the process. 

quite negative and focuses on what 

went wrong instead of what worked. 

within it. 

One of the main areas we work on is 

I have found introducing AI within 

introducing a coaching culture. This is an 

coaching sessions is a wonderful 

area I feel the retail sector is struggling 

way to showcase strength and 

with. In my experience the current 

build confidence. It’s a new way of 

culture focuses on past mistakes and 

speaking and I have found that it is 

usual review format within retail 

the GROWTH Model and are seeing 

them and how best to utilise them. I 

15% of the population. The opportunity 

still views performance management 

very well received. The by-product 

is based on questions about the 

much better results. 

have found this particular version of 

to introduce coaching to the Retail sector 

as a means to fix a problem once it has 

of AI within the coaching sessions is 

individual’s performance answered 

the wheel to be very powerful. I was 

has the potential to positively affect many 

already surfaced. 

the positive ripple effect after the 

by the superior and the subordinate 

3. Whilst working with business owners 

introduced to it by a wonderful coach 

people both directly and indirectly. And 

session with other members of the 

and scored as poor, fair, good, very 

and managers one of the recurring 

whom I have done sessions with 

that excites me greatly. 

A lot of my focus is looking at 

team - and customers. 

good. This type of review format 

themes that come up is that they 

and as a client I also found it very 

empowering the work force, shining a 

is led by the superior and usually 

believe they need to do everything 

productive so it is great to be able to 

Who knows this may be the start of 

light on what is working and how this 

2. We have introduced The GROWTH 

focuses on why the score is poor. 

themselves and have difficulty 

share it with others. 

a new Coaching Model and perhaps 

can be multiplied and taken into other 

Model to certain clients as an 

delegating. 

I find that using the 

the introduction of a module on Retail 

areas of the business. “When people 

alternative to Annual Reviews. The 

I work with companies to open 

Coaching Wheel as an Enabling 

Coaching within the Retail sector has 

Coaching in the future. 

communication lines with staff 

wheel in this situation can be very 

certainly thrown up challenges, especially 

and to introduce the GROWTH 

effective as it enables the client to 

having the added dynamic of KPIs and 

Always Dream BIG… 

model as a means to having more 

identify people who can help. I It 

ROI. But, the reward far out ways any 

regular conversations with a clear 

also helps build an action plan on 

challenges there may be. I am excited 

focus that will in turn see the staff 

the resources that are available to 

about coaching in an industry that employs 

member talk more, encourage 

managers to listen and result in 

goals being achieved. This of course 

Kate Rooney 

results in a motivated culture. 

To date this has been one of the 

biggest successes in coaching 

within the sector, I have clients 

Kate is the Founder of “The OnLegs Agency” a Panel of Coaches, Consultants and Mentors working with SMEs across Ireland and the UK. Kate’s 

Coaching and Retail experience give her a unique set of skills Coaching and Consulting within the Retail sector. She is passionate about 

delivering Coaching to the retail sector to help improve individual and business performance and believes that Coaching is part of the future 

progression of the industry. Kate is an accredited Coach and an advocate for regulation within the Coaching profession. She is also an avid hiker, 

living in the middle of the beautiful Mourne Mountains with too many cats to mention! (We can confirm this to be true - The Editor) 

who have now abolished their 

regular review format in favour of 

www.theonlegsagency.co.uk



The Spot Coaching 

• How will you know when you are 

moving in the right direction? 

Effective questions to ask at this stage are: 

plan is always in perpetual motion. I like 

to explain mini action steps repeated 

a regular challenge 

Method 

• What will be the first sign? 

• What is your motivation for 

• What are your core building blocks? 

• What critical support do you need? 

often with the metaphor of the bathtub. 

When you fill up the bath with a dripping 

tap, not much happens at first but over 

time the bath will fill up. The critical part 

is finding time 

to coach and be 

coached when 

circumstances are 

James McLeod explains how, as a coach, you can 

help to accelerate learning for your coachees 

through the speed coaching process. 

wanting to do this? 

• What has stopped you from 

pursuing this so far? 

The idea behind all of these questions is 

to allow your client to rapidly clarify their 

• What does the first step look like? 

• Take me through your sequencing 

ladder,1-5. 1 is where you are now 

and 5 is where you want to be: 

The idea behind the sequencing ladder 

of this step is to ensure that your client 

has a plan to keep moving forward and 

maintain a direction of travel with room 

for course adjustments where necessary 

and appropriate. 

3. Clarify Options 

changing so fast 

and goals need to 

be recalibrated 

rapidly 

The SPOT method focuses on five core 

pillars: 

• Rapid Goal setting 

• Building short-term plans 

• Clarifying and working through 

It is my belief that there are many 

employees in corporate settings who 

are high in motivation and competence 

who would be delighted to be given the 

opportunity to participate in this type of 

coaching intervention. 

The Acronym SPOT stands for: 

thinking and for you as the coach to assess 

how best you can help the client with the 

quality, depth and breadth of their own 

thinking. 

2. Work on a Short Plan 

The second part of the model looks at 

helping your client to work on a plan. 

is to break the plan down into byte sized 

chunks so small actions are constantly 

been taken towards the goal and the 

1 (Where you are now?) 

2 

The next stage of the plan is to help your 

client clarify their options. Catalytic 

What is happening here? (Be as specific as 

possible in your real case illustration) 



We live in interesting times. Abnormal is 

options 

• S set goal 

The idea is to try and get your client to 

imagine a tight deadline by which time a 

3 



the new normal. As we think through how 

best to use the coaching approach to help 

others, the SPOT coaching framework is 

• Solution-Focused Action Planning 

• Tracking impacts and measuring 

• P work on a short plan 

plan must be made. A metaphor for this is 

If the tide is coming in and the car is stuck 

in the sand on the beach, there is not too 

4 



something to put in your toolkit. 

outcomes 

• O clarify options 

much time for reflection and a plan must 

be made and acted upon rapidly. 

5 (Where will you be when you 

reach your objective?) 



In essence the SPOT coaching method 

It is primarily a corporate coaching 

• T take action 

will give you: 

tool best focused on clients who are 

willing, able and ready for a coaching 

1. Setting Goals 

• A method for helping your clients 

conversation. It is also focused on the 

find quick resolution around 

premise that the client has a clear and 

The first part of the model looks at 

barriers and blocks 

present goal rather than on someone 

helping our client set a goal. The idea 

who is stuck or ‘blocked’ and is in a 

is to get your client rapidly to a place 

• A way of leveraging opportunities 

complete re-set mode. 

where they can clearly visualize what is 

and increasing momentum around 

going on for them. This requires asking 

initiatives that are going well 

In that spirit, I have defined SPOT 

powerful coaching questions such as: 

coaching as a: 

A regular challenge is finding time to coach 

and be coached when circumstances are 

changing so fast and goals need to be 

recalibrated rapidly. In pandemic times, 

there is a kind of paradox at play. More 

people have seen the need to reach out 

and adjust their bearings, but organizations 

have not, on the whole, created 

frameworks which allow employees at all 

levels to benefit from the coaching ethos 

of learning and self-discovery. 

‘A timely, informal 

coaching intervention 

(usually with a maximum 

of 20 minutes duration) 

to help a coachee move 

forward on an issue on 

which they are seeking 

clarity, validation, a new 

way forward or a sounding 

board’ 

• What is the specific issue you want 

to address with me? 

• Where are you now with this? 

• Where do you want to be with 

this? 

• What is my role in helping you to 

get to this objective?



questions to ask at this stage of the 

Once ‘the ball starts rolling down the 

• Getting the motivation and a method to 

process are: 

hill’, it is remarkable what can happen 

stop avoiding the difficult conversations 

over time. The client needed your 

• Take me through your palette of 

support to give them the time and 

• Prepping for Performance 

options…. What is popping up into 

space in a neutral setting to verbalize 

Management Reviews 

your head? 

and challenge their thinking and to 

bounce ideas off a supportive and non- 

• Interview preparation 

• What have you tried before that 

judgmental person. This space is what 

worked in similar situations? 

unleashed their thinking potential and 

• Patterns of missing targets and 

took the conversation down productive 

missing deadlines 

• What have you seen others do that 

paths towards growth. 

has been effective? 

• Persuading and influencing 

The SPOT sessions should not have 

skills without formal authority or 

• What will be the likely 

to take more than 20 minutes. As the 

mandate 

consequences and impacts of each 

coach, it will be up to you to instill time 

option? 

discipline into the process. The idea is 

• Managing ‘upwards’ 

not for SPOT coaching engagements to 

• What can you try first? 

be one-offs. They can be held regularly. 

VUCA times call for creative solutions and 

The difference is the actual length of 

innovative ways to help our clients fulfill their 

• What would you do if your 

the duration of each session, hence the 

full potential and find their ‘flow’. I believe 

initiative could not fail? 

term, SPOT coaching. 

the SPOT coaching method is a firm enabler 

for growth and results and I encourage you 

Try and ensure that your client has at 

Other terms that are used for this type of 

to practice this method with your client base. 

least two options to consider before 

coaching intervention are flash coaching 

moving into the last stage of the model 

or laser coaching. The expectation to 

which is the action stage. 

set here with your client is that you will 

meet again for another spot session but 

4. Take Action 

only when they have completed agreed 

upon actions and follow-ups and are 

• The action questions to ask are: 

ready to work through fresh steps to 

attitude and networks to succeed with 

• Time Management issues & 

to respond well to constructive 

further growth. 

whatever immediate challenge I am 

Prioritization challenges 

feedback 

• What will you do? 

facing?’ 

In my experience, SPOT coaching 

• Work overload 

• Finding ways of giving others 

• What is your first step? 

will not work in all coaching 

The principle is the same, however. 

constructive feedback 

scenarios as mentioned earlier in 

‘I need to think for myself and back 

• Assertiveness and finding effective 

• How will you measure success? 

the article. Transformational, holistic, 

myself to find the answers inside 

ways of ‘speaking truth to power’ 

• General discipline issues particularly 

compassionate coaching where an 

myself…but to do this, I want a coach 

where you are responsible for a 

• Who will be your accountability 

individual is going through quantum 

as a thinking partner to illuminate my 

• Thinking traps 

High Performer with a low ability to 

partner? 

shifts in how they think, feel and act in 

path’. 

communicate well with others 

the world require longer engagements 

• Repeating mistakes and failing 

• How are you tracking the impacts 

and periods of reflection. In these 

Typical SPOT coaching scenarios are: 

and consequences of taking this 

scenarios, we give our clients the 

action? 

time and the space to reflect on their 

• Project deadlines 

James Mcleod 

• When shall we check in again? 

What do you expect to have 

happened by then? 

The idea is to make sure that your client 

walks away with a tangible action, 

however small, to start working on. 

thoughts, beliefs, feelings, sense of 

identity and how they interact with 

both themselves and the outside 

world. 

SPOT coaching falls more into the 

domain of: ‘I have a challenge - How 

will I leverage my knowledge, skills, 

• Team conflicts 

• Other Conflict management issues 

• General People challenges 

• Flagging intrinsic motivation 

After a long career in international media sales, James moved into training and coaching in Shanghai, China in 2009. He worked exclusively with 

multinational corporations based in Greater China including Ericsson, Siemens, Novartis, Carrefour and Rio Tinto. He moved to Ireland in 2014. As 

a Senior Faculty Member of Kingstown College, James has been running modules for their Advanced Diploma in Personal & Executive Coaching, 

the Advanced diploma in Mental Health and Well-Being and for their Train the Trainer (6N3325/6N3326) accreditation programmes. He is a regular 

speaker and facilitator at events focussing on Coaching and Leadership Development. Outside of the training arena, he is an avid long-distance 

runner and has completed his 100th Marathon in 2018! He is a passionate believer in running as a philosophy on life and advocates that the 

principles of distance running can be applied successfully to strengthen self-awareness, improve self-management, grow and retain self-esteem, 

heighten performance and increase happiness, meaning, focus and purpose.



Footprints in the Sand: 

Accompanying CEOs in Uncertain 

Times 

The role of the CEO is challenging with wide-ranging and significant 

responsibilities. Siobhán Cahalan outlines the elements which contribute to an 

effective corporate governance system and how executive coaches can support 

organisations in the current uncertain environment. 

CEOs play a 

primary role 

in ensuring 

organisations 

operate within 

effective 

governance 

According to the PWC 23rd Annual Global 

corporate accountability, meaningful 

consists of the Chairman, Executive 

practices 

CEO Survey, “no matter where CEOs look 

purpose, risk management, emphasis 

Directors and Non-Executive Directors. The 

or from where they are looking, the path 

on innovation, gender equality, talent 

Corporate Officers are the Chief Executive 

forward is fraught with uncertainty. “ 

development and integration of compliance 

Officer (CEO), the Chief Operating Officer 

culture, it is clear that the role of the CEO is 

(COO) and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

The report cites the top concerns fuelling 

not an easy one. 

The shareholders are those who own the 

this uncertainty as over-regulation, trade 

company, through holding shares. 

financial reporting, fair remuneration of 

How can Executive Coaches Support CEOs 

of the organisation and the values 

conflicts, uncertain economic growth, cyber 

The Role of the CEO 

senior executives, stakeholder relations 

to Navigate and Conquer the Myriad 

exhibited by the employees support 

threats, policy uncertainty, availability of key 

Having a structure in place is needed in 

and communication, risk management and 

Responsibilities and Tasks Before and 

an environment of good corporate 

skills and geopolitical uncertainty. 

The senior executives known as the C-Suite 

order for the company to meet its objectives 

ethical behaviour. 

Around them? 

governance. Where appropriate values 

are responsible for leading the business and 

through dividing functions and assigning 

are recognised, how is each individual 

Couple with this the factors impacting 

its respective departments. Of the C-Suite 

responsibilities. 

What is the Role of the CEO with regards to 

In supporting a CEO, Executive Coaches can 

held accountable to uphold those 

corporate governance such as social and 

executives, the CEO is the most senior and 

Corporate Governance? 

bear in mind five elements which contribute 

values as exhibited in their behaviour? 

political volatility, board composition, 

is responsible for managing the organisation 

The responsibility of the Board of Directors 

to an effective corporate governance system. 

And are individuals genuinely 

as a whole. 

is to make decisions with regards to strategic 

CEOs play a primary role in ensuring 

The five elements are: 

performing with integrity, independent 

policy, dividends and group budgets, as well 

organisations operate within effective 

thinking and transparency? 

What is intriguing about the role of the 

as the approving the risk appetite of the 

governance practices. The CEO is often 

1. Values 

CEO is that they are the centre point of the 

organization. 

best placed to oversee the running of the 

2. CEOs have a myriad of responsibilities 

organisation and act as a communication 

organisation due to the widespread nature 

2. Management 

which require a sturdy ability to 

bridge between the Board and the rest 

What is Corporate Governance? 

and holistic overview of the CEO function. 

manage effectively. Maintaining 

of the organisation. Their role is wide- 

3. Leadership 

a resilient organisation calls for 

Corporate 

ranging and significant with responsibilities 

including implementing strategy, leading 

Corporate Governance is the overarching 

structure in place to direct and manage 

In keeping with good governance practices in 

the long-term best interests of the company 

4. Processes and systems 

management skills such as the ability 

to set a clear vision and strategy, as 

Governance is 

the overarching 

structure in 

the management team, managing the overall 

operations and ensuring that effective 

corporate governance is in place at all levels 

in the organisation. 

a company. According to Best Practice 

Governance, “the meaning of effective 

governance for an organisation is to manage 

the day-to-day operations, in line with the 

vision, strategy and planning, with integrity 

and of the stakeholders, the success of a CEO 

will be underpinned by his/her characteristics 

and experience. The former is reflected in 

his/her values and behaviours and the latter 

in knowledge of the business environment. 

5. Documentation. 

1. Values typically associated with good 

governance are outlined above - 

well as planning and coordinating 

ensuring the goals and milestones 

progress the organisation in the 

direction of the vision. 

place to direct 

Structure of an Organisation 

and in the best interests of all stakeholders.” 

Exhibiting good leadership traits is key such 

as the ability to make timely decisions, being 

integrity, independent thinking and 

transparency. These values form the 

3. Much of the role of the CEO is about 

leadership. Communication has a large 

and manage a 

company 

Typically in a large organisation, there 

are three parts to its structure: The Board 

of Directors, the Corporate Officers and 

A well-governed organisation operates in 

the best long-term interests of the company. 

Factors which support this are appropriate 

innovative and reliable as well as setting the 

vision and following through. Examples of 

values that underpin such traits are integrity, 

foundation for ethical behaviour 

and building a culture of trust and 

reliability. It is worth spending time 

role to play in engaging the dedication 

and loyalty of employees as well as 

preserving a trustworthy relationship 

the Shareholders. The Board of Directors 

board composition, transparent and honest 

independent thinking and transparency. 

with the CEO evaluating if the values 

with external stakeholders. Once



the vision is defined, the ability to 

Value. What additional value will this bring 

Next steps. What are the next steps? 

clearly articulate and communicate 

to the organisation? 

this to stakeholders is key. Coaching 

e.g. milestones, deadlines, actions. 

conversations with CEOs often 

e.g. a better defined strategy, a more robust 

revolve around their role between 

operational environment, an alignment 

The pursuit in coaching is always to add value 

stakeholders – the Board, the executive 

and non-executive directors, and 

the other officers – the COO and the 

CFO, as well as being concerned with 

the pursuit 

in coaching is 

of the vision with the operational reality, 

an alignment of values with behaviour, an 

elimination of overlapping tasks freeing up 

resources. 

for our clients. How can we support them and 

help them to move positively forward? It is a 

dark time for many now. We simply have no 

idea what is around the corner, if we ever did. 

the performance of everyone in the 

organisation. 

4. Appropriate values, effective 

management ability and leadership 

skills are key to good corporate 

always to add 

value for our 

clients 

Execution. What action will the individual 

take? 

e.g. setting up an advisory board, managing 

succession planning, developing delegation 

Engaging with an Executive Coach provides 

a safe space to express fears and concerns, 

as well as an opportunity to air innovative 

ideas and possibilities, to evaluate them and 

of course, to make them happen. 

governance. So too are having suitable 

skills, disbanding futile committees, 

processes and systems in place. It 

setting up constructive committees, clearly 

is important to critically evaluate 

outlining the allocation of roles and 

those currently in place as well as the 

responsibilities. 

gaps which may exist. An intelligent 

Opportunities. What are the opportunities 

oversight will ensure optimal 

available? 

Return-on-investment (ROI). How will ROI be 

processes and systems are in place 

measured? 

where duplication is eradicated and 

e.g. resources, support groups, committees. 

where the organisation manages the 

What is already in place? What can be 

e.g. greater stakeholder satisfaction, leaner 

technology instead of the technology 

strengthened? How can the skill set 

processes, benefits of automation, less 

managing the organisation. 

composition on the board be utilised for 

stress as roles are more clearly defined and 

best effect? 

healthy borders are put in place. 

5. Documentation can be seen as 

burdensome with the rise in 

regulations fuelling the surge. 

Having the ability to step back and 


reflect upon what is the ask and 

why that ask is there encourages 

an attitude of doing it for the right 

reasons as opposed to seeing it as an 

external obligation being imposed. 

Understanding the reason for the 

developing leadership traits which support 

building cultures of effective governance. 

GOVERNModel 

The GOVERN model may be used to 

Siobhán supports CEOs who strive to develop effective Corporate Governance practices in their organisation. She is a European 

Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) Accredited Coach, educated through the Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership 

and Executive Coaching and holds qualifications in Corporate Governance, Third Party Risk and Global Financial Compliance. 

Her global management and leadership expertise spans from working with The Wall Street Journal to working on Wall 

Street. Her coaching practice follows the EMCC Global Code of Ethics which supports best practice of coaching professionals 

internationally. www.bestpracticegovernance.com 

regulations, for example, to protect 

This support continues through examining 

support building awareness of the current 

the public interest supports intrinsic 

the values, vision and purpose of the 

governance culture and what is needed to 

motivation. 

organisation in the life cycle of the 

close the gaps to establish a best practice 

business with the CEO, asking questions 

governance environment. Understanding 

It’s a real juggling act to keep interests 

such as “How do my values/the values of 

the value of these enhanced practices, along 

of all stakeholders in view, as well as 

the organisation contribute to sustained 

with the return on investment will refine the 

continuing to innovate, attract new clients, 

appropriate actions and behaviour?” 

articulation and execution of the vision to 

ensure adherence to regulations and make 

and “How do I/the organisation keep 

the diverse stakeholders. 

a profit/attract funding. 

consistent focus on the long-term strategy 

while operating day-to-day?” and through 

Goal. What is the goal? 

The value of supporting a CEO can 

using the GOVERN model 

range from building awareness of the 

e.g. to implement a culture of effective 

organisation’s current governance practices, 

. 

governance in the organisation. 

to recognising and closing gaps, and



Perspective: 

Practise: 

as we learned at Kingstown College, 

“do more than believe, practice” 

research indicates one will get 

(William Arthur Ward), this is when 

further ahead faster by learning how 

our clients must walk the walk. This is 

allowing our 

clients to tell their 

own stories can be 

to maximize strengths rather than 

simply trying to shore up weakness. 

The VIA Character Strengths Survey 

developed by Martin Seligman is a 

great support for giving our clients a 

probably the most stressful part of the 

Journey for our clients, so support and 

encouragement are essential. I would 

not hesitate to have regular check-ins 

outside of the scheduled sessions, 

one of the most 

powerful tools at 

our disposal 

different perspective on their perceived 

strengths. This iteration of the model is 

also an excellent opportunity to touch 

base with emotions, and how they can 

influence our actions and any biases 

especially in the early days of the 

journey. While Emotional Intelligence 

played a role in the previous steps, 

now is the perfect opportunity to 

introduce the concept of Emotional 

we may have, or others may have about 

Agility developed by Susan David 

us. Susan David (2016) reminds us that 

(2016), reminding our clients that 

our emotions contain important but raw 

“discomfort is the price of admission to 

data that can help us make value-based 

a meaningful life”. Irrespective of the 

The 5Ps Model for Personal 

Projection: 

decisions, we have emotions: anger, 

disappointment, concern, sadness. And 

we have stories such as “I would do this 

goals, journaling and mindfulness are 

two habits I would “strongly” encourage 

my clients to practise. Journaling helps 

Development 

this first step is about setting the tone, 

whether or not our clients have a clear 

goal. There are several useful tools 

if only the circumstances were right.” 

When those emotions and stories own 

us, they call the shots, rather than what 

to keep thoughts organized and makes 

them apprehensible and de facto will 

facilitate the next step. Mindfulness 

“The future, you don’t have to foresee it, but to allow it” 

Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

at our disposal, for example in “The 

Inner Game of Tennis” (Gallwey, 1974) 

we learn about the effectiveness of 

visualization in sport which is applicable 

is truly of value to us. 

Plan: 

practice helps relax the body and mind 

along with reducing stress levels. This 

as we know in many other situations. 

planning does not need to be a complex 

Given the right conditions, anything can happen, even a plant growing in 

the middle of a desert, the same applies to personal development. Gilles 

Varette introduces us to The 5P’S Personal Development Model which he 

created to provide the right model for the right situation in each step of the 

journey. 

Where no clear goal is apparent, 

mindfulness can contribute by bringing 

our clients to a place of success in 

their past and can help them to recall 

the feelings, emotions and strengths 

they experienced at that time. This may 

overlap into Perspective whereby our 

long term exercise, but at a minimum it 

is important for our clients to be clear 

about Who the Stakeholders are, among 

their families, friends, work colleagues 

and maybe more. What it is the client 

wants to achieve and What role the 

stakeholders will have in their journey, 

clients visualise themselves at a time 

and most importantly How our clients 

With a background in project 

many wonderful and powerful models, I 

of success and recognise strengths 

are going to achieve their plan: the small 

development support and risk 

wanted to encompass my learnings into 

they may have forgotten. While 

steps they need to take along the way, 

management I have always favoured 

a simple framework: with just the need 

models are important tools for any 

small or micro habits they will create. 

working with clear frameworks and 

to include the right model for the right 

coach, allowing our clients to tell 

Knowing the How will evolve in time: it 

models, therefore I have a natural 

situation in each step of the journey. Of 

their own stories can be one of the 

is important to apply an agile strategy. 

inclination towards structured 

course, my ego also played a part, who 

most powerful tools at our disposal. 

Like any plan, risk management plays 

discomfort is the 

price of admission 

to a meaningful life 

approaches. However, when my instinct 

tells me to go “off script” I trust it. As an 

enthusiastic believer in Carol Dweck’s 

concept of Growth Mindset, coming 

up with the 5P model was a natural 

does not want to create a model that 

could be a reference in our industry? But 

the essential point was to support fellow 

coaches in accompanying their client’s 

journey in the most comfortable way 

Exploring the story behind the story 

through active listening, we can learn 

so much more from our clients: in 

particular by paying attention at how 

our clients are expressing themselves 

an essential role: I find the CIA model 

(Control-Influence-Accept but manage) 

a perfect traveling tool to integrate 

into that part of the journey. One could 

arguably incorporate the CIA model at any 

first step in my burgeoning career as 

possible for both, a bit like choosing the 

through their body language, tone 

of the steps, but I feel it is an essential, a 

a coach. While there are already so 

best vessel for a journey. 

and expressions. 

“must have” in the planning phase.



achievement is not talent, but a 

passionate persistence, and I do agree 

as I witnessed the same phenomenon 

in my days serving as a paratrooper. 

Developing our clients’ resilience is 

essential for personal development. 

Resilience is one, if not the essential 

element of the formula for growth. 

The 5Ps model invites our clients to 

question, challenge and hopefully 

step is the ideal place to introduce Kelly Thoughts, Moods, Behaviours and 

develop their Physical, Social, Emotional 

and Cerebral facets, laying their own 

path to the top of Maslow’s pyramid: 

its peak, the self-actualisation calls 

for exploring the paradigm of Spiritual 

Intelligence, defined as the ability to 

Mac Gonigal’s concept that stress is 

helpful and should be accepted, utilised 

and embraced. I read “The Upside of 

Stress” (2015) at a darker time in my life, 

this book combined with the CIA model 

Physical reactions. This is a fantastic 

opportunity to introduce the ACE first 

model to help our clients evaluate 

their journey and progress, leading to 

potentially new perspectives and more 

access higher meanings, values, abiding 

purposes, and unconscious aspects of 

the self and to embed them in living 

richer and more creative lives (Danah 

Zohar, 2018). 

contributed greatly to my fight against discoveries, how exciting…At this stage 

burnout and potential depression, it is also key for our clients to start 

introducing me to new habits that 

contributed to my well-being, freeing 

me from unconscious bias that had 

been holding me back for so long. 

labelling their emotions while not letting 

them take over, “I felt disappointed” 

is a much better narrative that “I was 

disappointed”: emotions are raw data to 

process, not directives to follow. 

Progress: 

I feel strongly about this quote from 

the last step in the model, yet the Epictetus “It is not what happens to you, 

journey is only just beginning. but how you react to it that matters.” 

Measuring progress allows our clients In her book “Grit: The Power of Passion 

to take a step back and potentially and Perseverance” (2016) Angela 

develop new perspectives, adjust the Duckworth, having studied Westpoint 

plan, practise the current or new small academy cadets, explains and 

habits, in what I would call an agile 

way, small iterations at a time. By this 

stage our clients will have encountered 

five factors determining how we react 

to situations or events: Environments, 

demonstrates why naturally talented 

people frequently fail to reach their 

potential while other far less gifted 

individuals go on to achieve amazing 

things. For her the secret to outstanding 

Gilles Varette 

Gilles was first introduced to coaching while completing a Master’s in Business Practice with the IMI. He has since completed both PLE and 

MHWB coaching diplomas with Kingstown College. Gilles’ varied career path has taken him from university drop-out, to serving as an NCO in a 

paratrooper regiment in his native France, to his current role managing a global virtual team for a Nasdaq listed company. He is also chairperson 

of the board of the charity Helplink Mental Health. Gilles is an EMCC accredited coach at Practitioner level and is currently coaching part-time 

at www.getunstuck.ie. 

How to become a Life 

or Executive Coach 

International accreditation should be 

the number one priority of anyone 

considering a career as a life coach. This 

ensures that you are coaching in line 

with international best practice within 

a quickly progressing profession, and 

should be working and studying with 

the goal of progressing through the ICF 

credentials. International organisations, 

governments and individual clients 

view those credentials as a mark of 

approval and quality. 

provides you with a globally recognised 

credential which is even more important 

as technology allows coaches to engage 

clients all over the world. 

ICF also accredit Life Coaching Courses 

such as the Diplomas offered by 

Kingstown College. This is the fast track 

to ICF credentials with 160 recognised 

The path to professional life or executive training hours. 

coaching anywhere in the world will 

look like this 

Since the 1990s, coaching as a 

profession has evolved from a separate 

1. Study an accredited Life Coaching 

Course like the Advanced Diploma in 

Personal, Leadership and Executive 

Coaching 

private practice to being a leadership 

style within progressive organisations. 

Not only does it help to achieve 

corporate goals and targets, it also helps 

retain talent within the organisation. 

2. Build up your coaching hours – even 

with pro-bono clients 

Life coaching courses explore intriguing 

subjects such as resilience, positive 

3. Apply for Accredited Certified Coach psychology, emotional intelligence, 

status with ICF, or Practitioner with EMCC conflict, values and beliefs. Every client 

is different and every coach is different, 

4. Continue to learn and develop as a 

life coach with Continuing Professional 

Development opportunities such as 

seminars, conferences and Masterclasses 

so often life coaches are not only using 

the popular coaching models such 

as GROW, they are developing new 

models which help their clients resolve 

challenges and achieve goals. 

About the Coaching Profession 

Do you have what it takes to be a Life 

The techniques of Life coaching were Coach? 

used by people in various disciplines 

from sport to business for the last 

century, but life coaching really only 

became established as a profession in 

the 1990s. It was during that time that 

the International Coach Federation 

was founded, which is now the gold 

standard for life coach accreditation 

Paula King is the course director of 

the Advanced Diploma in Personal, 

Leadership and Executive Coaching at 

Kingstown College. She is the recipient 

of the Global Leadership Coaching 

Award and was recently announced 

as European Coach of the Year. She 

with 30,000 members worldwide. believes that a coach should approach 

Anyone considering the profession a session with “the total understanding 

that the human being in front of them 

has the answer within them”. 

But one of the most important skill 

taught on life coaching courses is to put 

judgement aside. And that is not easy 

because as coaches we could approach 

an issue with our own pre-determined 

beliefs and values –which may not be in 

line with those of the client. 

“Put aside judgement” advises Paula, “If 

we walk in to a room with our clients, 

genuinely holding them in unconditional 

positive regard we cannot go wrong.” 

That said, a coach also needs to 

recognise that clients may have 

cognitions that are not serving them, 

leading to emotions that are disabling 

them, leading to actions that are not 

assisting them to achieve their goals. 

“[As coaches] We work in that space 

using all of our tools, our techniques 

and professionalism to help clients 

achieve their goals and their vision.” 

Start your journey to becoming a coach 

with Kingstown College! 

info@kingstowncollege.ie



Coaching is not Therapy but can 

be Therapeutic 

George Everly, JR, PHD 

As the pandemic evolves, coaches will increasingly be called upon to provide 

skills, tools and ways to support those suffering from stress and anxiety. Cathy 

Jones Moore highlights a number of models and tools which can be called upon 

during and after traumatic times. 

the feedback has 

been brilliant with 

clients saying they 

did not know how 

powerful coaching 

was 

Rapport – how to connect with our 

clients is the first thing we learn about 

as coaches. The importance of that first 

chemistry meeting and the use of our 

body language are critical to putting our 

clients at ease and generating rapport. 

Assessment – screen for evidence of 

adverse reactions – as coaches we 

need to assess our client’s needs i.e. 

do they need coaching, counselling or 

therapy? Let’s find out more about our 

client’s requirements through powerful 

questioning and listening, to allow us 

to assess their needs. A key part of PFA 

is reflective listening and it is a tool 

that many of us use with our clients to 

establish their goals and bring clarity to 

their thought process. 

Intervention - summarizing what you 

heard, normalising reactions, helping 

to form a plan – this is at the core of all 

coaching models. We need an action plan 

for our clients to help them achieve their 

goals and ascertain how they are going to 

achieve these goals in the short term. 

Disposition – ending the contact and 

planning a follow up – like all good 

coaches, we summarise and plan the next 

session with our clients. PFA should not be 

a once-off intervention and coaching is 

rarely a once-off session. 

What is really interesting is the fact that 

by administering psychological first aid 

during times of trauma, future mental 

illnesses can be reduced. 

was very beneficial and powerful. What 

was their reason for Living? What are their 

greatest achievements? What are they 

most proud of? Such powerful questions 

during these challenging times for us all. 

These questions brought home to them 

the importance of their self-identity, 

which at times was lost working on the 

front line during this pandemic. 

Optimisation – what are their hopes 

and dreams for the future? 

A great question to help focus clients 

and indeed ourselves during these 

times. Empowerment – who can help 

you right now? This model is very 

useful for the Assessment PFA Model 

As coaching professionals, we are dealing 

and during which, the role of us coaches 

Prioritization – helping the client 

The basic principles for PFA aid are 

by administering 

with challenges that Covid-19 has brought 

to our businesses, our clients and our 

really hit home to me. Psychological 

First Aid (PFA) may be defined as “a 

determine what is most urgent at this 

time and similar to goal setting, what is 

very similar to coaching and this really 

resonated with me during my time with 

psychological 

networks. As coaches, we are also being 

challenged like never before to deal with 

compassionate and support presence 

designed to mitigate acute distress and 

the priority for our clients right now in 

this moment of time? Like any coaching 

Connect a Coach, a voluntary organisation 

offering free coaching sessions to people 

first aid during 

times of trauma, 

future mental 

the new emerging issues of this pandemic. 

These issues have made us look within 

ourselves and at our knowledge for tools 

and ways to support our clients. 

assess the need for continued mental 

health care“ (Everly & Fynn 2005). 

If we look closer at the RAPID model of 

psychological first aid, a model that is 

tool or model, there is an action plan, 

and we help our clients to prioritise 

what is important and what actions can 

they make today, to allow them to move 

forward. We often break their goals down 

working on the front line. Most of my clients 

during this time were very distressed, 

very confused and very frightened with 

many crying uncontrollably. The biggest 

challenge as a coach was to assess if 

illnesses can be 

reduced 

A lot of clients are currently experiencing 

trauma and anxiety, clients that would 

never normally suffer with anxiety. I 

therefore decided to complete the John 

used frequently during stressful periods, 

we can see exactly how the role of the 

coach can work during traumatic times 

and the similarities between PFA and 

into manageable timelines whilst not 

ignoring the end goal. It’s important that 

“baby steps” are identified as otherwise 

the mountain can be high to climb and 

the person needed to be referred on to 

counselling or if coaching was a solution. 

I found that applying coaching tools, such 

Hopkins Psychological First Aid course 

coaching: 

seem too intimidating. 

as the Resilience ROSE Model (Paula King),



The CBT Model of anchoring was very 

beneficial by asking clients to remember 

a good time in their lives when things 

were going great. Some of which recalled 

the smallest things such as spending 

the evening at home with their children 

watching TV, an activity that they could 

no longer partake in. By visualising and 

remembering the good times of their 

lives, this really helped get them through 

the day. 

Dr. Claire Hayes, Cognitive Behaviour 

ABC Model of Emotion – Thoughts are 

not facts! We have over 60,000 thoughts 

a day of which 90% are the same as the 

day before. This can be very damaging if 

our thoughts are all negative and we need 

to help our clients through their thoughts, 

their beliefs and their actions. It is our 

client’s thoughts, not their circumstances 

that determine how they feel. Are their 

thoughts helpful or unhelpful? Never has 

there been a time like the present to work 

with our clients on their beliefs and values. 

SPOT coaching tool is also very useful – 

clients now want shorter sessions and many 

of which are now online and therefore are 

time limited. This linked with the VUCA 

model can be highly valuable to our clients 

in allowing them to see the wood from the 

trees during this stressful period. 

During the past few months, I had to refer 

one client onto counselling and the others 

were happy to engage in the coaching 

sessions. The feedback has been brilliant 

with clients saying they did not know how 

powerful coaching was and some admitted 

they did not understand what coaching was 

prior to this. 

A care worker working on the front line in 

nursing homes, having seen a lot of death, 

was very distressed upon first contact. Her 

main feedback was that coaching created 

that “safe space” for her to firstly speak 

about her experience, assess them and put 

a plan in place to allow her to move forward 

- to me this epitomises coaching in its truest 

form. 

I was completely and utterly lost and could 

not see any solution to my problems. After 

only a few sessions with my coach, I began to 

see my life improving and felt so much better 

in myself and hopeful for the future. I would 

advise anyone who is going through a hard 

time to give it a go because it improved my 

outlook immensely. Thanks for everything. 

Client Testimonial July 2020 

Dr. George Everly refers to the surge after a 

pandemic or a natural disaster, there is always 

a surge for mental health professionals and 

this demand can range from 15-25% of all 

those affected. Therefore, we can surmise 

that the demand from Covid-19 will be much 

higher due to the greatly increasing affected 

numbers. We can see this already happening 

in Ireland to date and the question is “How 

can we demonstrate the value of coaches 

during these testing times?” 

When the incident is sudden or devastating, 

25% or more of the population may exhibit 

what has been termed, the disaster syndrome, 

a condition marked by survivors appearing 

dazed, stunned, and experiencing a potentially 

broad range of acute mental and emotional 

symptoms. Problematic psychological 

reactions to disasters may also be prolonged, 

with prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress 

disorder ranging from 11% to 40%. (ref 2) 

If we relate this back to the Psychological 

First Aid and the skills required, ultimately 

this is how coaches can benefit our clients. 

If we, as coaches, are to change our practices 

and look at ways of supporting our clients, 

we can make a profound difference to 

mental health in the future. Through the 

use of powerful coaching tools and by using 

our coaching standards and ethics, we can 

make a huge contribution overall to positive 

mental health. 

We are not counsellors, but we can be 

therapeutic. 

References 

Ref 1 ROSE Model – Paula King Kingstown College 

https://www.kingstowncollege.ie/rose-model/ 

Ref 2 https://journals.lww.com/jphmp/ 

Fulltext/2014/09001/The_Development_of_a_ 

Model_of_Psychological_First.5.aspx 

Ref 3 https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ 

health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/ 

navigating-covid-19s-mental-health-impact 

Ref 4: Dr. Claire Hayes – Finding Hope in the 

Age of Anxiety 

Cathy Jones Moore 

Cathy Jones Moore is a qualified Executive & Life Coach. She is an accredited EMCC Practitioner and member of the ICF. She coaches many 

leading executives and private clients who wish to move forward and empower them to live their best lives. Cathy has strong belief in the 

whole concept of coaching and what it can contribute to a client’s life. Cathy is also an experienced Human Resources Director with over 20 

years’ experience across various industry sectors and coaches. Cathy has a real interest in Positive Psychology and the benefits of same within 

the coaching field. Cathy is currently a volunteer coach for Connect a Coach.



Benefits of a Coaching Style in 

From the beginning our staff, like the rest 

of the world, were plunged into a “VUCA” 

My favourite tool for a coaching style 

conversation with anyone in those 

Supporting Healthcare Workers 

During a Pandemic 

situation where life became “Volatile, 

Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.” Their 

“essential worker” status meant they had 

to face the outside world on a daily basis 

leaving what many felt was the relative 

safety of their homes to provide care to their 

early months was “CIA.” So many staff 

were overwhelmed by their feeling of 

powerlessness and or extreme anxiety about 

falling ill themselves or passing the virus 

onto others and many struggled to continue 

working normally. CIA worked really well 

from the 

beginning our 

staff, like the rest 

patients in a less than safe environment. 

in these situations as it focused people on 

what they had control of in that time, what 

of the world, were 

Rose Curtis, a Clinical Nurse Manager in Occupational Health and Wellbeing, 

has provided invaluable support to colleagues and peers throughout the past 

year. Here she reflects on the significance of using coaching tools in supporting 

coaching conversations. 

Mental chaos and dissonance ensued, torn 

between wanting to support their patients 

but also protect them by keeping away from 

them, while at the same time protecting their 

loved ones, as many quickly became sole 

earners in the home. 

they may be able to influence and what was 

absolutely outside their control and had to 

be accepted, at least in the short term. 

While there were many offers from external 

sources for formal coaching for staff in those 

plunged into a 

“VUCA” situation 

early months, staff felt they did not have 

them using this tool was also very 

Everyone had a unique experience 

setting and one day a week starting 

and beyond to try and address the 

In the early weeks safety was the number 

the physical or mental capacity to engage 

powerful. 

of life in 2020, living their personal 

a coaching business and training for 

volume of support over 500 staff require 

one priority for patients and staff. As you will 

in same. Many did however reach out to me 

and sometimes professional Covid-19 

the London marathon on the side. The 

to unite and form a human shield to 

recall there were weeks of national guidance 

for two or three informal sessions where CIA 

This simple framework worked very well 

pandemic story, and I am honoured to 

ultimate five-year plan was to reduce my 

prevent the infiltration of Covid-19 to our 

re-iterating that masks were not required for 

became a corner stone or mantra for them to 

for many staff on a one-to-one level and 

share mine with you. 

occupational health hours and grow my 

vulnerable patient cohort. As I write this, 

all healthcare workers given the scientific 

be able to find a way to navigate through this 

it also worked in group settings. 

coaching hours in the area of coaching 

seven months into the battle, not one 

information available at that time and the 

storm, the likes of which has not been seen 

As a healthcare professional who worked 

middle management in healthcare. 

patient has so far contracted Covid-19 

scarcity of PPE nationally. In my role as 

in our collective lifetime. 

Staff support groups were facilitated 

part-time until March of this year, I had 

Covid-19, however, had other plans. 

in the hospital which is testament to the 

occupational health and wellbeing advisor, I 

twice daily in the early months of the 

what I felt was a perfect balance of 

incredible daily efforts and sacrifices our 

very quickly saw this cause, fear, anxiety and 

The CIA coaching model enabled staff to 

pandemic, and questions around CIA 

working four days a week in a hospital in 

By the middle of March, my part-time 

staff make to protect them. 

stress among staff and conflict between staff 

clarify their thoughts and empowered them 

were used to open up discussions and 

an Occupational Health and Wellbeing 

hours had to be increased to full-time 

and management. Staff felt unsafe and felt 

to choose where best to concentrate their 

conversations. The commonality of 

they were putting their patients at risk, while 

time and resources. Owning their power and 

the many things that suddenly had to be 

management felt they had to follow national 

not giving control to Covid-19 to immobilise 

accepted such as mask wearing and PPE 

guidance and use the limited supply of PPE 

available for high-risk situations. 

The hospital management team went into 

over-drive doing everything in their power to 

get the desired level of PPE to keep patients 

and staff protected and supported. Covid-19 

meetings were convened daily to ensure we 

were supporting staff as much as possible. 

Using my coaching skills and knowledge 

during this journey was invaluable, and my 

toolkit was packed beautifully by Kingstown 

College. 

Coaching Style Conversations 

A coaching culture has been encouraged 

and embedded in my organisation and thus 

bringing a coaching style to meetings and 

interventions had a calming and reassuring 

effect on many staff.



using my coaching 

skills and 

knowledge during 

this journey was 

invaluable, and my 

toolkit was packed 

beautifully by 

Kingstown College 

“S” “set the goal” 

“P” plan the sequence of events 

“O” look at their palette of “Options” and 

finally 

“T” take action, identify the action that will 

first be taken and when. 

Managers found it clarifying and empowering 

as well as being solution focused. The 

approach is an efficient and effective way 

to move along a situation for someone who 

may otherwise procrastinate due to lack of 

clarity. I found the SPOT model invaluable 

when demands were very high and time 

very short. 

dig really deep to figure out new ways of 

working in our beautiful new hospital. 

In my role, having a finely tuned situational 

awareness was invaluable during this 

time. Staff were trying to juggle so many 

things at home and abroad, personally and 

professionally and everyone’s resilience 

and mental health and wellbeing waxed 

and waned at differing times. Being 

mindful of each other’s (as well as our 

own) vulnerabilities became key. I found 

“switching perspectives” useful for staff to 

better appreciate and better understand 

what might have been going on for peers, 

colleagues and managers during this time as 

conflicts inevitably bubbled up during this 

period of such uncertainty and change. 

G O T T H E A P P Y E T ? 

COPING 

The SPOT model was also useful for those 

of us in organisations who use a coaching 

style but are not exclusively in a coaching 

quickly became apparent. In fact it became 

the common theme amongst all the support 

meetings. The need for staff to wear masks 

all the time when treating patients to feel 

safe is at the basis of Maslow’s Hierarchy of 

Needs. Until their safety needs were met, 

they were not interested in addressing any 

other concerns they had around Covid-19. 

It was an enormous relief, therefore, when 

national guidance changed in April to allow 

healthcare workers wear masks when 

providing care for all patients. 

role. I do a “SPOT” check on myself each 

day as I drive to work, which now begins 

with swabbing symptomatic staff each 

morning for Covid-19. I set my goal, plan 

the day as best I can, considering my 

palette of options to assist my arrival at 

destination “success” and finally prioritise 

which action I am going to start with. It 

takes a few moments but is invaluable 

in clarifying the situation and setting the 

intentions for the day. 

As an aside to the whole Covid-19 world, it 

The last seven months have been challenging 

in ways I would never previously have 

considered. I am extremely grateful for the 

support, training and education I received 

and continue to receive from the team at 

Kingstown College in Personal, Leadership 

Middle management also benefited from 

coaching conversations and I found “SPOT” 

coaching useful. During the early stages 

being at work felt quite frenetic and time 

was a very valuable commodity that very 

few of us had. Being able to schedule twenty 

minutes with a manager and quickly work 

through the model was particularly useful; 

is worth mentioning that our organisation 

moved from an archaic 1917, not fit for 

purpose, hospital to a magnificent stateof-the-art 

building in June of this year 

also. This was to be a project of enormous 

magnitude pre Covid-19, let alone during 

Covid-19 times. It was the culmination 

of nine years work and required staff to 

and Executive coaching which I believe has 

helped many healthcare workers survive and 

in many cases thrive during this pandemic. I 

am privileged to be part of the front line 

Covid-19 battle. 

Rose Curtis 

Rose Curtis is a Clinical Nurse Manager in Occupational Health and Wellbeing. She has worked at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin 

for over 20 years supporting and promoting staff wellbeing from recruitment to retirement. She is passionate about coaching, staff engagement, 

open communication and continuous self-development. She lives with her husband and twenty-four year old twins and is, as she says herself 

“living the dream.” 

WITH 

DROUGHT 

An educational forum on 

desertification and what 

we can do to stop it. 

FOR GRADUATES AND LEARNERS 

BY INVITATION ONLY 

Exclusive Content, Live Streams, Networking 

Coaching Models, On-Demand Webinars. 

Be Part of the Coaching Community! 

Request Invitation from leah@kingstowncollege.ie



The Leadership Coaching Programme 

at Wits Business School in South 

Africa Goes Virtual 

A reluctance from coaches and coachees to do anything other than face-to-face 

coaching prior to the pandemic, has led us to examine our beliefs about how 

and where coaching conversations are carried out. Jessica Reekie describes the 

adaptation and transition process to managing coaching conversations and 

delivering education courses online. 

The Leadership Coaching Programme 

The programme also includes a one-day 

available technologies. As so many 

at Wits Business School (WBS) in 

Leadership Development Workshop 

other working parents experienced, 

Johannesburg, South Africa, was started 

where the MBA students are given 

the task was more daunting due to 

by Dr Viveka Christierson in 2009. The 

an opportunity to reflect on their 

school closure and the evaporation 

concept is a simple but highly effective 

leadership development goals. 

of the childcare that I relied on, to be 

one; WBS MBA alumni are invited to 

able to work. After experiencing the 

complete a brief course in effective 

This year, Leadership Development 

full cycle of Kübler-Ross and Kessler’s 

and ethical leadership coaching and, in 

Workshops were held with three MBA 

(2014) grief and loss stages: denial, 

return, they act as mentor coaches to 

classes, in February and early March. As 

anger, bargaining, depression and 

up enough energy. The material was 

one of the savings that online education 

for virtual delivery. After reviewing 

the current MBA students. 

usual, these were held in a classroom, at 

finally acceptance (DABDA), I mustered 

prepared, and the class was re-invited to 

offers. Other costs such as the printing 

and comparing several programmes 

the Business School campus in Parktown, 

attend the course, now delivered online 

of course material, venue booking, and 

around the world, I found the Kingstown 

The programme is popular with MBA 

Johannesburg. The coach training was 

using Zoom. 

catering are no longer relevant resulting in 

College, Advanced Diploma in Personal, 

alumni who are not only given an 

scheduled to take place later in March, 

a considerable saving for the programme 

Leadership and Executive Coaching 

opportunity to learn a new skill but also 

also in a classroom, on campus and the 

To my surprise and delight, the virtual 

overall. Another benefit was discovered 

which was due to start in June. It met 

have an opportunity to practice it with 

coach allocations were to be done in 

online delivery went exceptionally well, 

when I sent out the invitation to MBA 

all my selection criteria for a coaching 

the MBA students. In addition, it gives 

early April. Like the rest of the world, 

and many of the concerns anticipated 

alumni to apply for the second coaching 

course and beat the other programmes 

the alumni coaches an opportunity to 

we did not foresee the disruption to our 

about online teaching were unfounded. 

class, which was to be delivered online 

that I reviewed, easily. I persuaded my 

give back to the next generation of 

leaders in South Africa, and to their 

alma mater. The MBA alumni are invited 

back to volunteer as coaches on an 

lives that was just around the corner. 

On 23 March, South Africa was put into 

a strict lockdown and all non-essential 

activities were prohibited due to the 

the pandemic 

has pushed us to 

The Zoom ‘breakout rooms’ worked well for 

small-group practical coaching exercises 

and the ‘video on’ classroom began to 

have the same feeling and camaraderie 

only due to the ongoing pandemic. WBS 

MBA alumni resident in other parts of the 

country and even other parts of the world 

including America, Mauritius and the UAE 

husband, Barclay, to sign up with me and 

we embarked on the intense, learning 

journey together. 

ongoing basis where they experience 

the benefits of volunteering, 

enhancing their emotional well-being 

(Elias, Sudhir & Mehrotra, 2016) and 

improving their coaching skills. From 

Covid-19 pandemic. As the lecturer and 

programme director, I was faced with a 

stark choice; either convert the coaching 

programme to an online virtual delivery 

or cancel it. 

overcome selfmade 

obstacles 

and to embrace 

amongst the classmates as one normally 

experiences in the classroom. 

And then there were the added benefits of 

not having to fight the traffic to get to class, 

who had previously been excluded from 

participating due to the requirement to 

participate in person, were now able to be 

part of the coaching programme. 

The moment that I joined the Kingstown 

College course, my expectations were 

exceeded. From the remarkable support 

and service orientation from the 

Kingstown College staff to the knowledge, 

the business school perspective, the 

programme serves the purpose of 

Like many educators around the world, 

technologies that 

or to spend too much time getting dressed 

into business attire to go into the business 

Never Let a Good Crisis go to Waste 

experience, and expertise of the Faculty. 

I am very grateful for the opportunity 

strengthening ties with their MBA 

alumni and also provides the MBA 

students with an opportunity to receive 

leadership coaching in support of their 

I quickly discovered that converting the 

programme to online delivery would 

require a complete revision of the 

learning material and a crash course 

were already 

available to us 

school. In fact, since only the top part is 

visible, no-one would know or mind if 

you wear your smart business shirt paired 

with your walking shoes and tracksuit 

The success of the online coaching 

course led me to think long and hard 

about my own development as a 

coach which led to online searches 

to participate in this programme. The 

experience has broadened my outlook 

in terms of global work and learning 

opportunities, which I believe will be an 

leadership development. 

in how to manage a classroom using 

pants! The savings in time is in fact only 

for programmes that were available 

enduring outcome of the pandemic.



One of the important skills that we learn 

by this global event (Lancefield, 

town or even country as us. 

References 

Communication Enhances Empathic 

as coaches is to enable our coachees to 

Cable, & Clarke, 2019; Kandri, 2020; 

Accuracy, doi: 10.1037/amp0000147; 

understand that it is not what happens 

Prince, 2020, University World 

The final stage of grief or loss has 

Berry, R., Ashby, J., Gnilka, P., Matheny, K. 

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/ 

to us, but our attitude to it, that affects 

our experience of events and ultimately 

the responsibility that we take for our 

response, that matters most (Frankle, 

News, 2020). Prior to the Covid-19 

outbreak, there was a reluctance from 

both coaches and coachees in the 

MBA coaching programme, in South 

been described as finding meaning 

in the loss (DABDA-M) (Kessler, 2019). 

I have found meaning in the crisis 

of this pandemic; viewing it as an 

it gives the 

alumni coaches 

(2011) A comparison of face-to-face and 

distance coaching practices: Coaches’ 

perceptions of the role of the working 

alliance in problem resolution, Consulting 

releases/amp-amp0000147.pdf 

Kübler-Ross, E & Kessler, D (2014) On 

Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning 

1959). There is no doubt that the global 

Covid-19 pandemic is a tragic event with 

so many human lives lost already and 

the devasting impact on economies and 

businesses, will be felt for a long time to 

Africa, to do anything other than 

face-to-face coaching. The reluctance 

seemed to stem from a belief that 

the rapport, trust in the coach and 

the coaching relationship and the 

opportunity to a re-evaluate my life 

from a different perspective. It has 

propelled me to take actions that 

expand my options both during the 

pandemic and after it is over. Crisis 

an opportunity to 

give back to the 

next generation of 

Psychology Journal: Practice and 

Research, https://www.researchgate.net/ 

publication/232543820_A_comparison_ 

of_face-to-face_and_distance_coaching_ 

practices_Coaches’_perceptions_of_ 

of Grief, Through the Five Stages of Loss 

Lancefield, D., Cable, D. and Clarke, D 

(2019) How technology is transforming 

coaching https://hbr.org/2019/11/how- 

come. However, there is also no doubt that 

the pandemic has pushed us to overcome 

psychological safety required for such 

a personal and intimate conversation, 

theory, Slaikeu (1990) posits that 

a crisis creates disequilibrium and 

leaders in South 

the_role_of_the_working_alliance_in_ 

problem_resolution, accessed online, 19 

technology-is-transforming-executive- 

coaching, accessed 15 October 2020 

self-made obstacles and to embrace 

technologies that were already available 

to us. Consequently, the barrier of 

geographical location for many activities 

could not be created effectively 

using a computer screen and Wi-Fi 

connection. The pandemic has clearly 

demonstrated that this is a limiting 

an opportunity for equilibrium to 

be re-established at higher level of 

functioning than before the crisis. 

Africa, and to their 

alma mater 

October 2020 

Elias, J.K., Sudhir, P. & Mehrotra, S 

(2016) Long-Term Engagement in 

Norman, C. (2018) The virtues of virtual 

coaching, https://coachfederation.org/ 

blog/virtues-virtual-coaching, accessed 

has been considerably diminished. 

belief and that online coaching 

Finding the Opportunity in the Crisis 

Formal Volunteering and Well-Being: 

online, 19 October 2020. 

sessions can be as effective as face- 

An Exploratory Indian Study, Behav Sci 

Coaching and Education: Disruption 

to-face coaching sessions (Berry, 

Since the global pandemic has resulted in 

(Basel). 2016 Dec; 6(4): 20, Published 

Prince, V. (2020) Executive Coaching in a 

and Opportunities 

Ashby, Gnilka, Matheny, 2011; Kraus, 

crisis and loss for all of us, are you able to 

to take advantage of the opportunities 

online 2016 Sep 27. doi: 10.3390/ 

COVID world: 5 predictions, https://www. 

2017). Similarly, another limiting 

find the opportunities and meaning in it for 

that online coaching presents? What 

bs6040020, PMCID: PMC5197933, PMID: 

linkedin.com/pulse/executive-coaching- 

The professions of both education and 

belief is that we and our coaching 

your own life? Are you willing to critically 

freeing assumptions can you substitute 

27690114, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. 

covid-world-victor-prince/?trk=portfolio_ 

coaching will be permanently changed 

clients need to be living in the same 

review your beliefs about online coaching 

for the limiting assumptions that you may 

gov/pmc/articles/PMC5197933/ 

article-card_title 

have? Are there any skills that you need to 

develop to be able to take advantage of 

Frankle, V. (1959) Man’s Search For 

Slaikeu, K. A. (1990). Crisis intervention: A 

this opportunity? 

Meaning 

handbook for practice and research (2nd 

ed.). Allyn & Bacon. 

Kandri, S. (2020) How Covid-19 is 

sparking a revolution in higher education. 

University of Zurich (2013) 

https://www.weforum.org/ 

Psychotherapy via internet as good 

agenda/2020/05/how-covid-19- 

as if not better than face-to-face 

is-sparking-a-revolution-in-higher- 

consultations, https://www.sciencedaily. 

education/ 

com/releases/2013/07/130730091255. 

htm 

Kessler, D. (2019) Finding Meaning: The 

Sixth Stage of Grief, Random House 

University World News (2020), https:// 

www.universityworldnews.com/page. 

Kraus, M.W. (2017) American 

php?page=UW_Main 

Psychological Association, 2017, 

Vol. 72, No. 7, 644 – 654 Voice-Only 

Jessica Reekie 

Jessica holds a master’s in psychology from Wits University, in Johannesburg, South Africa, an MBA and a post master’s Certificate in Leadership 

Coaching (CPLC) from Wits Business School (WBS). She is the Programme Director for the certificate programme in Leadership Coaching which 

trains MBA alumni to coach MBA students. She manages the MBA Leadership Development Coaching Programme at WBS. 

Jessica is a leadership development practitioner in private practice and has been helping others to reach their potential for over twenty years. 

She worked in various roles in banking for fifteen years before opening her own practice in the field of personal development.


DR. CHANDRIKA DESHPANDE: REVISITING PERMA IN A COVID WORLD www.kingstowncollege.ie 55 

Quotes from the Webinar Series 

This look back at the Webinar Series 2020 was kindly compiled by Mark Duffy, a Corporate Wellbeing Psychologist and Faculty Member of 

Kingstown College. Mark is fascinated by the psychology of optimal performance and wellbeing. He is a Corporate Wellbeing Psychologist (Coach 

and Trainer) and Tutor. He has worked with leaders across the globe in some of the world’s largest organisations including Microsoft, Google, YouTube, 

AirBnb, PayPal, Intel and Boston Scientific. 

He holds a Masters, four Diplomas and a BA in the areas of psychology, coaching, and occupational psychology. Mark utilises scientifically proven 

techniques in his coaching and training to help people become more confident, competent versions of their former selves. 

“Step into their shoes, even tie their shoe laces but don’t walk in them” 

PEDRO ANGULO: BUSINESS COACHING: GETTING WORK AND MAKING AN IMPACT 

“As leaders and coaches, we can help others to reach their peak performance by helping them to remove interference, often in the form of limiting beliefs, and 

helping them to identify and create moments when they are at their best - moments of flow.” 

JENNY ROGERS: COACHING: THE JOURNEY 

PAULA KING: FROM TRAUMA TO ACTION: MOVING YOUR COACHING BUSINESS FORWARD POST COVID-19 

“Our clients are moving towards the images they are creating. We are listening for what images they are creating and assisting them to develop positive visions for 

their future. We understand that words create worlds and our clients are living in the worlds they are creating. We understand the importance of a question and we 

understand if the type of question we are asking is assisting our client to move forward.” 

JANE PERRY: A STRENGTHS APPROACH TO WORK DURING COVID-19 

“Our strengths can be our greatest power and they can be our greatest vulnerabilities”. 

JAMES MCLEOD: SPOT COACHING: HOW, AS A COACH, YOU CAN HELP TO ACCELERATE LEARNING FOR 

YOUR COACHEES THROUGH THE SPEED COACHING PROCESS 

“We must gain specific clarity around how they will measure success. Go slow to go fast. If we go fast and just accept vague statements, we won’t be as effective at 

helping them. Go slower at this point. Understanding how to measure progress is a more difficult discipline than it sounds” 

“We need a holistic approach. We need to deal with the whole person. It is not just about work objectives. Emotion drives behaviour. They may need to talk about 

their personal life and we need to listen, without judgment” 

JULIE STARR: 2020: EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED… AND YET NOTHING HAS CHANGED 

“Mindset is our gateway to possibilities – focusing our intention and attention on what we want, rather than external events over which we have little or no control, 

is incredibly powerful.” 

PATRICK PRETORIUS: NO RUNNING AWAY – OVERCOMING SETBACKS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS 

“Resilience is a conscious decision. It boils down to a choice. You may originally think you can’t do it but there are untapped resources in you, you just need to know 

they are there. And know that your setbacks are your opportunities for success” 

JAMIE HEASLIP: LESSONS FROM DISRUPTION 

“Set goals - it’s easier to score when you know where the try line is”. 

MARK DUFFY: THE POWER OF GRATITUDE 

“Why wait for the benefit of hindsight? When difficult situations arise, trust that they will be transformative and seek this positive lesson in the moment. When 

presented with difficulties, become curious about what possibilities they allow. This is not denial of the negative, it is simply acknowledgment of the positive. If we 

seek the gift in everything, we will find it.” 

GERRY DUFFY: COMMUNICATION FOR COACHES IN A COVID AND POST COVID WORLD 

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”. - George Bernard Shaw 

LEAH HEADON: A GUT STATE OF MIND 

“Being aware of how your nutritional habits are changing- skipping meals, craving sweet things, poor appetite etc. can all be symbolic of how chronic stress is 

switching up your gut microbiome and emphasise how physiology influences our psychologically driven behaviours.” 

NADINE MCCARTHY: FIRE IN THE BELLY – GROUNDING THE SEASON OF IMBOLC IN LIFE AND LEADERSHIP 

“What are 3 seeds of possibility that you would like to sow and ignite?” 

DAVID CLUTTERBUCK: SURVIVING SURVIVOR SYNDROME 

“If you know someone that suffers from imposter syndrome, simply believing in them can help them to believe in themselves, due to the Pygmalion effect” 

DEIRIC MCCANN: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. - Maya Angelou 

JAMES CLUSKEY: JOURNEY THROUGH PERFORMANCE 

“Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.” - John Wooden 

ALAN BRERETON: MAKING VIDEOS - EVEN IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SEEN 

“Most people think they have to feel confident before they do something. In reality we have to do something before we feel confident”. 

ROSARII MANNION: MAXIMISING COACHING TO ENHANCE INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM PERFORMANCE 

“What would you ask for if you knew the answer would be yes? It is my belief that if we’re willing to keep asking, the answer will eventually be yes.” 

LIZ HALL: MINDFULNESS AND SELF-COMPASSION 

“You can’t control the waves but you can learn to surf”. - Jon Kabat-Zinn:



AI and Coaching Mutual 

behaviour of human beings, which is 

The digital world is a mirror of the 

physical world, and as people start to 

spend more time in it, our questioning 

guided by the brain. For the longer term 

it is worth to note the current research 

conducted by Neuralink 2 (a neurotechnology 

company founded by Elon 

an important 

area which needs 

is often how to follow the sweeping 

changes new technologies bring. 

However, we still have little information 

on how people who spend increasingly 

the majority of their time in a digital 

Musk ), which is developing implantable 

brain-machine interfaces. This is to be 

mentioned not because of an already 

achieved substantial progress, but due 

to the chosen approach to connect 

constant attention 

is the protection 

of this private 

reality will interact with the physical 

world when they come back to it, as 

electrodes in the human brain to AI, which 

registers the electric impulses and tries 

and sensitive 

human brain and psychology will have 

already undergone changes to adapt to 

to interpret them. If successful, this could 

possibly lead in 10 years to an interaction 

information 

the virtual world. 

between brain and AI on a completely new 

level. The idea of the founder of Neuralink 

emotions via facial recognition, body 

“In the near future, its (AI’s) impact is 

is that this is a way to find a solution to 

temperature, etc. and there come out 

likely to only continue to grow. AI has 

computers and AI’s doubling performance 

robots that can show emotions as 

the potential to vastly change the way 

capacity every two years, which the 

“emotional robot companions” 3 . Human 

that humans interact, not only with the 

human brain has difficulties to follow. 

coaches can offer the human contact, 

digital world, but also with each other.” 1 

handshaking, and all other subtle, but 

Coaches and the AI Momentum 

important human interactions. It is 

AI, “Digital” Reality and Coaching 

difficult to imagine that an AI could 

Coaches can play a double hatted role 

transmit the energy that is exchanged 

Coaching and Artificial 

Intelligence: Some Recent Trends 

Mutual adaptation between humans 

and AI is already an ongoing process in 

communication, interaction and interfaces. 

The relationship between man and 

machines will change and from a coaching 

point of view will open a huge range of 

- on one side help with the transition 

and necessary adaptation to the 

future - and on the other - safeguard 

the necessary balance. 

We know that biology plays an 

during a person to person contact and 

on which depends to a considerable 

extent the success of a coaching session. 

There might gradually emerge nuances 

between the digital personality and the 

physical one and coaching can help also 

new opportunities for collaboration once 

important role in cognitive processes 

by bridging the particularities between 

communication between humans and 

and behaviour - our mood, senses, 

them. 

The pandemic has sped up the adoption of new technologies and it’s predicted 

that by 2025 half of all work tasks will be handled by machines. Christa Ilieva 

dives into the recent trends in the area of AI and shares with us some insights 

linking AI to the coaching profession. 

machines becomes more natural. 

Though coaching is not linked to 

neuroscience, it is focused on the 

emotions, food, physical activity, 

hormones, the weather and so many 

other factors influence them. If we 

compare a human being to a tree, 

the crown is the head, and the body 

is the trunk and the roots. Coaching 

Another area where people excel is 

creativity which is the capacity to link 

different ideas, concepts in new ways, 

whereas something new and valuable is 

formed. Human creativity needs space 

can help people remain grounded 

and time, whilst AI “creativity” needs 

The first time the term artificial 

intelligence (AI) is considered to 

started their expansion in the last few 

decades. 

At present, and without most of 

us being aware, AI is increasingly 

without most of 

and maintain human connections 

in a future where people will spend 

most of all data, self-programming, 

and powerful servers. There could be 

have been used was in 1956 during 

a conference at the University 

Dartmouth College, US. It is generally 

acknowledged that Thomas Leonard, 

a financial planner from the US, 

The relation between coaching and 

AI cannot be separated from the 

development of AI in general and 

from its impact on almost all areas 

powering processes and devices 

and has entered our lives. A 

phenomenon known as AI effect 

occurs when with the advance of 

machine capabilities tasks which 

us being aware, 

AI is increasingly 

powering processes 

increasingly time in a digital world 

devised by AI. From a coaching point 

of view it might be useful to have 

small reference coaching groups 

on voluntary basis which are less 

a complementarity as human and AI 

creativity are different being driven by 

different processes. Music created by 

AI on the basis of algorithms, instead 

of sounds is at least at present very 

developed coaching as a profession 

in the 1980s. As the introduction 

of society. As AI shapes society, work 

processes and human relations, so it 

were considered to require AI, are 

no longer considered as AI driven; 

and devices and has 

immersed in the digital world. 

different as end result and emotional 

impact. Coaching can bring human 

of AI started in practice later, both 

coaching and new technologies - which 

will impact coaching, but coaching 

also will have an influence on AI in 

the Tesler’s Theorem says “AI is 

whatever hasn’t been done yet.” 

entered our lives 

Until now emotions remained a human 

privilege, and that of human coaches. AI 

centred interaction, a counterbalance 

to the impact on personality by digital 

seemingly have little in common - 

its field. 

has already some capability of capturing 

over immersion.



The question how coaches will choose 

increasingly take place via video calls 

These AI technological advances and 

to collaborate with AI and introduce 

and video conferences where AI is 

integration will give more time for 

new coaching applications and tools in 

their work, is only part of the equation. 

The other not less important part is that 

in parallel coaches will have to adapt 

constantly to the profound internal 

integrated. Transcripts of coaching 

sessions are already successfully done 

by free applications, supported by AI 

like Otter (otter.ai). The interconnection 

of AIs will give access to data on 

the human element during coaching 

sessions, using empathy and intuition 

and coaches will dispose with a 24/7 

increasingly intelligent virtual assistant. 

As more coaches get to know digital 

coaching can help 

people remain 

grounded and 

changes in companies and society 

in general, and to the new world of 

clients which might use themselves 

AI assistants, opening a new layer of 

collaboration not only between the 

many different situations with the 

capacity to interlink them and make 

suggestions to the coach for questions. 

AI can complement the work of the 

human coach, improve coaching by 

coaching, it can be expected that trust 

in new technologies will increase. An 

important area which needs constant 

attention is the protection of this 

private and sensitive information. 

maintain human 

connections in a 

future where people 

humans, but also between two AI 

entities. If we extrapolate further, the 

having data on numerous sessions, 

propose alternative approaches, do the 

As per the latest World Economic 

will spend increasingly 

question arises of when the moment 

will come when AI will start requiring 

and benefiting from coaching. 

accountancy part of coaching sessions, 

draw the attention when the coaching 

conversation goes in circles, follow the 

evolution in time of coaching sessions. 

Forum (WEF) report currently around 

a third of all work tasks were handled 

by machines, with humans doing the 

rest. By 2025 the balance would shift 

time in a digital world 

devised by AI 

Practical applications of AI in coaching 

AI-based chatbots will progressively 

and half of all work tasks are set to be 

be able to recognize patterns and will 

handled by machines. WEF noted that 

A few examples of AI driven coaching apps: 

There is a certain trend where younger 

improve interaction skills. 

the Covid-19 pandemic had sped up 

generations do not look at AI and 

the adoption of new technologies. 

• Rocky Rocky.ai is an AI coaching bot for strategic thinking, and self-reflection questions. It helps to implement habits, to identify 

new technologies as something 

In the field of team coaching and team 

daily priorities, gives advice and gives the possibility to have accountability at the end of the day. 

completely separate, but to some 

building, for example Riff analytics 5 

Roles that relied on human skills such 

extent as “friends” with which they 

uses voice data collected during video 

as advising, decision-making, reasoning, 

• Qstream https://qstream.com is an app for transforming learning to change behaviour and drive outcomes by engaging 

have grown up. There is already an 

calls to show how people interact in 

communicating and interacting would 

learners and analysing performance. 

ongoing process of integration of AI 

order to give feedback. It measures 

rise in demand. There would also be 

integrated in coaching tools. AI can 

how engaged people are or whether 

a “surge” in demand for workers to fill 

• Leadx https://leadx.org/ logo is that “every manager deserves a coach”. The LEADx Coach Amanda combines behavioural 

help use coaching models as GROW, 

anyone is dominating the conversation 

green economy jobs, and new roles 

science, artificial intelligence and expert content to improve leadership behaviours, employee engagement and productivity 

can demonstrate certain empathy, give 

by analyzing data on facial gestures, 

in areas like engineering and cloud 

with AI-powered nudges, coaching and micro-learning. 

appropriate responses and even give 

speech, chats and is working on 

computing 6 . 

the impression of talking to a human. In 

integrating in the future data on eye 

• ProReal https://www.proreal.world/ offers the opportunity to engage with clients using 3D gaming technology. It is a virtual 

the future AI can become better based 

contact and eye movement. 

reality communication tool to accelerate insight and change. It allows the coach and coaches, as well as other persons or 

on human emotions. 

The continuing integration of AI in all 

systems, increasingly merging them in 

smart phones, gives the possibility not 

only to take care of agendas, but will to 

fulfil the role of pocket coaches. People 

will be able to dialogue with them to 

express concerns and ask questions. 

It is useful to know - though outside 

The next steps will be representation 

of coaches and clients via holograms 

with full scale body representations. 

In this case coach and client that are 

in different cities will appear to sit 

right next to one another in a real 

room, chat and even make notes 

on a real whiteboard. Combining AI 

with the physics of optics, Stanford 

References 

1. www.internetsociety.org 

2. www.neuralink.com 

3. www.buddytherobot.com 

4. https://neurosciencenews.com/ 

ai-psychosis-words-14236/ 

5. https://riffanalytics.ai/ 

6. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54622189 

objects involved to be represented by avatars, placed in different scenarios, so that distances, interchanging views on situations 

promote awareness and allow a view from different perspectives. There can be several avatars for one person and it is very 

suitable to work remotely. This immersive digital environment creates presence, 3D objects and drawings can be created. 

• Woebot is self-care expert that can help to think through situations with step-by-step guidance using tools from Cognitive 

Behavioral Therapy https://woebothealth.com/the-app 

• The role of AI in recruitment is already a fact and AI will be integrated increasingly in management and leadership thus 

influencing the coaching practice for them. Some examples in the field of recruitment: Pymetrics https://www.pymetrics.ai/ 

and Hirevue https://www.hirevue.com/ 

the field of coaching, that according to 

researchers work on a system that 

studies AI based analysis of language 

can predict pre-clinical symptoms of 

trains itself to create algorithms 

to reproduce real-world scenes in 

Christa Ilieva 

psychosis with 93% accuracy 4 . 

In practice, what has already changed 

or will change in the short-term? 

Contacts between coaches and clients 

all their three-dimensional, everchanging 

complexity. In this way video 

conferences will be replaced with 

3D representations, with holograms 

creating augmented realities. 

Christa Ilieva is economist and holds a Master in International economic relations. She has experience in this field in different environments: 

private and public sectors and NGOs in several EU countries. Christa is graduate of the Kingstown college Advanced Diploma in Personal, 

Leadership and Executive Coaching and pursues with passion her coaching practice. She has also hosted solo and collective painting 

exhibitions. Christa has participated in brainstorming conferences and platforms on the impact of New Technologies and Artificial intelligence 

on society.



Honestly, we found ourselves slipping 

into despair at the onset of the pandemic. 

The constant news feeds, grim economic 

the positive 

predictions, and tragic case numbers 

seemed to loom everywhere. We tried 

transformations 

to make sense of panic buying and toilet 

paper hoarding. Together we decided we 

experienced during 

these unique and 

needed a lifeline to pull us out of the 

dismal abyss. We agreed the source of 

that lifeline would be optimism. 

challenging times 

Recall that optimism is a state of mind 

can develop feelings 

of confidence for 

the future 

that’s available to everyone, free of 

charge. Just like the clothes you wear; 

you can select an optimistic mindset. Dr 

Martin Seligman, known as the father of 

positive psychology, highlights the key 

Time to Check-In: A Practical 

Worksheet to Reflect on the Positive 

Changes Brought to you by the 

attributes that create this mindset in his 

book, Learned Optimism. Dr Seligman’s 

research shows that an optimistic person 

views success as long-lasting, and they 

feel empowered to make changes if 

life isn’t going in the direction they 

desire. Optimists also view adversity as 

temporary, and therefore they tend to 

recover from setbacks quicker. 

a sense of optimism at every possible 

opportunity will help position our clients 

and ourselves to rebuild stronger once the 

pandemic is over. 

Sustaining Positive Transformations 

Now let’s dive into that lifeline we 

mentioned previously, which is included 

client during a session to jump-start the 

discussion and act as a way to get to know 

your clients more deeply. 

The worksheet can help the client discover 

new goals they hadn’t considered. Our 

client, Roisin*, developed the idea of 

incorporating Random Acts of Kindness 

into her daily life. She deliberately left her 

Pandemic 

Which leads us to the vital question, “How 

can optimism play a role in our lives in the 

here as our reflection worksheet. Our 

design guides self-reflection and helps 

coaches and clients check-in with 

earbuds at home during her morning dog 

walks to be available to spread kindness 

throughout her neighbourhood. Roisin 

time of the pandemic?” By tapping into 

themselves, reflect on the past few months 

met two elderly dog owners as a result, 

It’s been a tough few months, but we made it! This self-reflective worksheet 

developed by Mel Poussin and Bridget Barbato helps us to increase our awareness of 

the positive changes we have put in place during these unique and challenging times 

and inspires us to sustain those changes for a more radiant future. 

an optimistic mindset, we can encourage 

our clients and ourselves to see the trials 

we are currently facing as momentary. Do 

you dream about hugging your family and 

friends? We do too! Can’t wait to make 

travel plans again? Ibiza, get ready! 

and take away the lessons they’ve learnt. 

The positive transformations experienced 

during these unique and challenging 

times can develop feelings of confidence 

for the future. 

and they formed a bond. She reported 

back that one of the men’s dogs tragically 

died recently and Roisin felt honoured to 

be able to offer him support. Coronavirus 

has taught us that we are all inextricably 

connected. Think of the impact stories like 

This tool will be of interest to those who 

Roisin’s could have on the world. 

What a year 2020 has been! How many 

As we go forward, it is interesting to look 

relate to the meme in Figure 1? Or maybe 

Optimism can enhance overall mental 

made good changes to their lifestyle, 

of us had exciting plans, holidays or 

back and reflect on the positive changes 

you consider this year a disaster and can’t 

health and wellbeing. Together we 

relationships or businesses during the 

We found that our clients attached 

weddings to celebrate? And yet, who 

we’ve made in our lives as a result of this 

wait to get back to “normal”? 

can cultivate hope and increase our 

spring lockdown and are seeking a strategy 

meaning to their goals as a result of 

would have thought that we would spend 

global pandemic. This process is here to 

inner resilience. Sadly, the coronavirus 

to maintain those changes. Furthermore, it 

the reflection. That meaning improved 

most of it isolated at home fearing for our 

help us: 1- celebrate ourselves, 2- maintain 

pandemic has caused an increase in 

can benefit those feeling anxious about 

their level of personal commitment 

health and feeling uncertain about our 

the changes that will up-level our lives, 3- 

demand for mental health services (Harris, 

going back to “normal” after getting used 

to see them through. Moreover, they 

future? 

stimulate our optimistic mindset. 

2020). In no way are we discounting 

to the last few months. 

considered solutions to make their 

the struggles people are facing. Yet 

dreams come alive even before the 

As a whole community, we can say that 

Optimism 

we strongly feel that we’re in a unique 

Within the coaching practice, the 

start of the session. For instance, one 

this year has been quite different and 

position as our clients’ champions to 

worksheet can lead a session. Email the 

client had considered meditation and 

probably even more challenging than the 

Let’s begin by taking a look at optimism 

highlight the good and avoid a sense of 

document to your client beforehand (we 

journaling as a way to live in the present 

others. It made us adjust our habits, rethink 

and its place in the time of the coronavirus 

helplessness. Recall that optimism is a tool, 

added editable text boxes to the pdf 

moment. During the coaching session, 

our goals, question our behaviour, and 

epidemic. You may be thinking, “Optimism, 

and Dr Seligman encourages an adaptable 

version which is linked in this article). 

prioritizing these goals and making 

find new ways to show up and succeed. 

now?! You must be joking!” Perhaps you 

approach (Seligman, 2006). Cultivating 

Or, you can introduce the tool with your 

them SMART came with ease.



Finally, it was interesting to note the 

feelings captured by the clients. In 

our experience, the clients’ feelings 

changed after their reflection work. 

Exploring the difference in emotions can 

be an excellent way to start the coaching 

discussion. One client reported feeling 

anxious when filling out the worksheet 

at home, felt optimistic at the beginning 

of the coaching session and was excited 

and confident at the conclusion. 

For a free downloadable version of the 

worksheet, visit Mel’s Youtube Channel, 

A Blissful Journey. Search for the video 

titled, “How to stay optimistic during 

the pandemic.” You’ll find a link in the 

video description. 

P.S. Let’s connect! We would love to hear if 

this article was helpful to you. Also, if you 

use the worksheet, share your experience 

with us. Send a message to Mel at contact. 

ablissfuljourney@gmail.com and Bridget 

at contact@magnificentminds.life. 

*Name changed to protect identity. 

Story used with permission. 

Credits: Canva.com 

References: 

Harris, A. (2020, Oct. 12)’ Disruption 

to daily lives’ sparks huge rise in calls 

to mental health support line. The 

Independent.ie, Health. Retrieved from 

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ 

health/disruption-to-daily-lives-sparkshuge-rise-in-calls-to-mental-healthsupport-line-39611578.html 

Murphy, Coral (2020, April 14) Vegetable 

Growing and Backyard Chickens: 

Gardening and farming booms during 

Coronavirus Pandemic. USA Today, Money. 

Retrieved from https://eu.usatoday.com/ 

story/money/2020/04/14/coronavirusgardening-hobby-and-self-sustainabilitycreate-interest/2923047001/ 

Seligman, M. (2006). Learned Optimism, 

How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. 

New York, Vintage Books. 

To wrap-up, this worksheet is versatile 

and can be used at the coach’s 

discretion to serve themselves and 

their clients best. Revisit this tool as a 

welcomed reminder of what motivates 

you. Perchance you were motivated by 

gardening during the spring quarantine. 

Outdoor projects like the amazing 

before and after in Figure 2 sustained 

many people during spring lockdown 

(Murphy 2020). The same way you keep 

watering your plants and removing the 

weeds - goals require maintenance. 


We can help you to create bespoke training content, provide e-learning 

delivery platforms for organization wide education and training, and any 

necessary assessments or knowledge reviews. 

Let’s talk about how we can combine your expertise with ours! 

Happy reflection from Mel and Bridget! 

Mel Poussin and Bridget Barbato 

Mel Poussin and Bridget Barbato met during their studies at Kingstown College and formed a strong friendship. They both completed the 

Mental Health and Wellness Coaching course during the spring lockdown. Mel is currently focusing on starting her own coaching business, A 

Blissful Journey, where she will empower women to make positive changes. She is also studying for a certification in digital marketing. Connect 

with Mel on Instagram: @a_blissful_journey_. Bridget would love to develop a coaching program for young adults and is currently working 

toward an EMCC accreditation. Find her on Instagram: @magnificentmindslife.



The Benefits of Teaching Life Coaching 

at Senior Cycle Level in School 

The vision and ambition of the Department of Education and Skills in relation to 

Wellbeing Promotion sets out to ensure that by 2023 the promotion of wellbeing 

will be at the core of the ethos of every school and centre for education. Catherine 

Connolly proposes fundamental elements to be included in a Life Coaching Programme 

to support wellbeing and flourishing of students. 

Introduction 

self-criticism, and limiting beliefs 

relation to Wellbeing Promotion 2018 

lockdown that they had the worst of 

it because they were separated from 

friends for months, had no part-time 

jobs, were stuck with their family all 

day, bored and lacking motivation. 

In wellbeing theory, there are 24 

strengths that underpin all 5 elements 

of PERMA. Engaging in activities and 

work that deploy your strengths leads 

to PERMA: 

Covid-19 is one 

of those crises 

that drives our 

lives into before 

and after; there 

is no known end 

Life Coaching is a thought-provoking 

or assumptions, to unlock people’s 

potential. At Senior Cycle level in schools 

sets out to ensure that by 2023 the 

promotion of wellbeing will be at the 

Looking to the future, we cannot yet 

• Positive emotion 

date, and the 

and creative process aiming to maximise 

personal potential. It is emotional 

intelligence in practice, a way of being, 

leading, thinking, of treating people. It 

creates an environment where people 

in Ireland, life coaching would be very 

beneficial to many students as it enables 

a focus on strengths, solutions and future 

success, not on weakness, problems or 

past performance. 

core of the ethos of every school and 

centre for education. Covid-19 is one 

of those crises that drives our lives into 

before and after; there is no known end 

date, and the consequence is permanent 

assume that there is certainty, it’s just 

not there. More certainty would make 

life more tolerable and manageable. 

Prolonged uncertainty affects wellbeing 

and creates a low level, free floating 

• Engagement 

• Relationships that are positive 

consequence 

is permanent 

change 

are inspired to flourish and to do the 

change. So, it’s not surprising that 

anxiety interspersed with bouts of 

• Meaning 

right thing. Life Coaching removes 

The vision and ambition of the 

psychological wellbeing has taken a 

worry and mood swings. How can 

internal obstacles such as fear, doubt, 

Department of Education and Skills in 

big hit. Many adolescents felt during 

adolescents deal with this uncertainty, 

• Accomplishment 

• Vitality: approaching life 

especially those in Leaving Certificate 

with excitement and energy. 

years? Teaching life coaching might 

and additional features: 

Flow according to Mihaly 

help. It could assist them in setting 

Csikszentmihalyi is the experience 

goals, developing a passion and staying 

• Self-esteem: the life force of the 

of full and deep enjoyable 

motivated. It might prevent them from 

personality - if that is suppressed 

involvement in what you are doing. 

losing their sense of direction and hope. 

or diminished, so is the person. 

Only 20% of people experience 

flow on a daily basis. 

Flourishing 

• Optimism: in order to flourish, we 

must build and sustain an enabling 

Flow 

Martin Seligman’s Flourish is an 

but realistic optimism. 

insightful guide into introducing a 

The major components of Flow are: 

programme of positive psychology 

• Resilience: this is high among the 

and wellbeing into schools. He 

qualities we admire in others, long 

1. You take on an activity that is 

describes PERMA and the Signature 

for in ourselves and hope for in our 

challenging and requires skill. 

Strengths test, both of which would 

children. Resilience is the ability to 

benefit many senior cycle students. 

bounce back and to go on with life. 

2. You are concentrating fully on what 

All young people need to learn 

Strong, effective ways of coping 

you are doing in the moment. 

workplace skills, but we can also teach 

with stress form the foundation 

the skills of Flourishing. Maureen 

stone on which resilience is built, 

3. The activity has clear goals. 

Gaffney’s book Flourish could also 

but if you do this often enough, 

be instrumental in any programme 

resilience becomes internalised 

4. The activity provides immediate 

on Life Coaching. Her exploration 

as an enduring personal quality. 

feedback. 

of optimism, post-traumatic growth, 

Knowing ways in which to generate 

resilience, among others, are 

and maintain positive feelings and 

5. Deep involvement removes from 

fundamental to the teaching of Life 

thinking - even under great pressure, 

your awareness the frustrations 

Coaching to adolescents. 

is also a crucial part of coping. 

and worries of everyday life.



Being mindful and 

flexible in thinking 

strengthens the 

immune system, 

increases the 

body’s capacity to 

handle stress and is 

accompanied by a 

general increase in 

physical wellbeing 

6. There is a sense of control 

feelings and behaviours, 

manage our emotions in healthy 

7. Self-consciousness disappears. 

ways, take initiative, follow 

through on commitments 

8. The sense of time is altered. 

and adapt to changing 

circumstances. 

All of the above would be included 

in a programme, but I would also 

like to develop questions and tools 

around the 4 elements of Emotional 

Intelligence: 

• Social awareness involves 

understanding the emotions, 

needs and concerns of other 

people, picking up on emotional 

cues, feeling comfortable 

• Self-awareness requires 

that we recognise our own 

emotions and how they affect 

our thoughts and behaviour; 

socially and recognising the 

power dynamics in a group or 

organisation. 

we know our strengths and 

weaknesses and have selfconfidence. 

• Relationship management 

is when we know how to 

develop and maintain good 

relationships, communicate 

• Self-management requires that 

we are able to control impulsive 

clearly, inspire and influence 

others and work well in a team. 

Mindfulness 

Mindfulness is a valuable tool, taught in 

many schools at primary and secondary 

level. When we are mindful, we break 

up our automatic patterns of thinking 

and of behaving and instead, we look at 

the world in a fresher, more novel way. 

Mindfulness enables us to: 

• Observe ourselves and what is 

going on in our minds 

• See the bigger picture vvv 

• Pause before we act 

• Modulate our responses 

• Resist the pull of those powerful 

automatic processes 

Being mindful not only connects your and feelings without getting lost in Finally, Covid-19 has forced us to 

thoughts and feelings in the moment, them. In difficult situations they are conduct some massive real-time 

but it also attunes you to your higher able to pause without immediately investigations into what education is 

self - the essential self that is there reacting. They have the great gift and how it works. The pandemic reminds 

behind your thoughts, emotions, your of staying focused on what is us that at least half of the education is 

routines and habits of your life, and happening in the present and are less not on the course or curriculum, it is the 

even the everyday story that you use to susceptible to distractions and lapses ‘hidden curriculum.’ Online technology 

explain yourself to yourself. In addition in concentration. We tend to be less is a great tool but without the intimacy 

to mindfulness, developing a flexible judgmental and critical of ourselves of being together it can produce 

state of mind is also crucial. This is a and others. Being mindful and flexible only a very limited and impoverished 

style of thinking and learning that in thinking strengthens the immune educational experience. The present 

involves actively keeping your mind system, increases the body’s capacity pandemic has reminded us that if 

open to the novelty and uncertainty to handle stress and is accompanied by schools and colleges do not remain 

inherent in all situations, rather than a general increase in physical wellbeing. open, neither society nor the economy 

approaching things as fixed. 

can function properly. The importance 

The future state of normalcy! 

of socialisation and schooling has been 

Conflict Coaching as an element of 

appreciated more. It has also reminded 

Life Coaching can be taught, which will Covid-19 has taught us, among other us that programmes that include life 

develop a mindful style of thinking: things, that the short-term thinking coaching with resilience, optimism and 

that existed for a long time has led to a emotional intelligence at its core are 

1. Focus on what is happening in the frayed fabric of society in places. People needed now as much as ever in schools. 

moment. 

were too busy to get to know their 

neighbours and work colleagues, which 

2. Focus on new aspects of what is has cost society dearly. Social capital 

happening. How is it different? Is is the effective functioning of groups 

there a subtle difference? Is mood and communities through interpersonal 

or emotional tone different? relationships, a shared sense of identity 

and a shared understanding. The 

3. Focus on the context rather than teaching of life coaching can contribute 

the person. 

to an environment in which people 

learn to trust and understand each 

4. Focus on other perspectives. other. In times of Covid-19, people 

have loved helping and being helped. 

When you think in a more flexible We have realised that Healthy Social 

way the quality of your thinking and Capital has led to Social Resilience. A 

learning improves dramatically. You fundamental part of Social Resilience 

reduce the automatic tendency to is how well people know each other 

jump to conclusions. 

and care for each other. The companies 

and communities that have workers and 

Mindful and flexible thinking leads citizens who care about each other have 

to greater awareness of thoughts thrived. 

Catherine Connolly 

Catherine Connolly is an experienced professional coach of conflict, life and executive coaching. She has worked in the education sector 

on managing change in schools and introducing positive psychology into the classroom. She is presently working closely with Leaving Cert 

students on time management, study skills and college options. Through her conflict and life coaching practice, she has assisted individuals 

and management in small business organisations throughout Ireland. Catherine has coached young people in the workforce in identifying 

their strengths and values in order to maximise their personal potential. She is passionate about helping people to flourish in their education, 

professional and personal life; by aligning with their strengths and building emotional intelligence and resilience. 

To learn more, visit https://coachingservicesireland.com.



Not For Sale, or Am I? 

The topic of selling oneself can often be mired in negative connotations. Marie 

Friel, a mental healthcare professional with twenty years’ experience in sales, 

opens our eyes to how our beliefs about selling can make the difference between 

obtaining the true success we crave for and deserve, or not. 

The ability to sell yourself is an important 

skillset to have, and it can often times mean 

the difference between being able to take 

decisive action that helps you towards 

your goals and deciding not to take action, 

which oftentimes means key parts of your 

goals may not be met. I have found that the 

feelings a lot of people have around selling 

themselves are ones that make them feel 

uncomfortable. In this article I will outline 

what the impact of this can be, and how it 

can prevent people from making the major 

changes in their lives without them even 

realising it. 

As someone who both comes from a 

mental health background and has years 

of experience in a sales environment, I 

understand the selling process and how this 

process is mirrored in everyday interactions 

with each other. When we discuss ideas with 

colleagues, discuss issues and solutions at 

meetings, and mostly when we decide to 

speak up or decide not to speak up. 

I heard a quote recently which goes along 

the lines of “You Meet Yourself When you 

Start Selling” (by Eben Pagan) and this got 

me thinking about what the impact of this 

could be. What do the words to “sell myself” 

really mean and what is their impact on my 

success? 

Let’s start by stating that selling is all about 

communicating clearly the values and 

benefits of something. Selling yourself 

therefore means you are communicating 

your values and what benefits you can bring 

to those around you. This is something that 

each and every one of us can benefit from. 

Being willing and able (or not) to sell yourself 

therefore is all about being able to take the 

action to influence others how you can be of 

benefit. 

the A for 

Aspiration should 

also be A for 

Action therefore 

SOAR Model could 

be SOAAR 

In a recent meeting that I attended, the 

group was made up of people from many 

different backgrounds. The topic of selling 

yourself came up, and I was surprised at how 

the word “selling” came with such negative 

connotations. Selling yourself was attached 

to connotations and images of pushy 

salespeople or being arrogant and willing 

to do or say anything just to get ahead. The 

truth of the matter is we are all salespeople 

to some degree. And we need to be able to 

sell our ideas to those around us to ensure 

they can be implemented. 

Whether we are trying to get that new 

job or promotion or show a potential 

coaching client the positive experience 

of being coached, our lives are filled with 

scenarios where we are either selling 

ideas, concepts, persuading people 

and communicating about ones’ own 

capabilities and achievements so that 

new doors and pathways can open to 

provide better futures. In other words, 

selling one’s self can be about having the 

confidence in communicating about the 

self in a positive way to others. 

“To Sell Is Human” is a great book by 

psychologist Daniel Pink about why 

‘selling’ is a natural part of being human. 

It shows how to become a better ‘seller’ 

in your everyday life whether it is in 

work, school, family, or relationships. 

Interestingly, he conducted a survey 

called “The What Do You Do at Work?” 

This survey shows how 1 in 9 Americans 

work in sales. But the author also states 

that the other 8 in 9 also spend their days 

“moving others and depending for their 

livelihoods on the ability to do it well.” 

More and more people are now selling in 

some shape or form. 

Let’s explore the impact that our ability to sell 

ourselves might have in scenarios such as: 

Interviews 

When applying for roles and job, you may 

at some stage look for feedback from a 

friend about how suitable a job would 

be. Sometimes they tell you that you 

are ‘selling yourself short’, or that you 

are ‘capable of more.’ It means that they 

have already seen what you can do based 

on your achievements and successes or 

potential. 

This can be due to not believing in 

yourself or being uncomfortable about 

having to promote your abilities in an 

interview so you can get the job you want. 

This unwillingness to sell yourself can 

result in not doing a good interview or 

worse still, not applying for the job. The 

truth is it doesn’t matter how skilful or 

talented you are, if you do not know how 

to sell yourself to others by showing the 

real you, and how beneficial you can be, 

you may always fall just short of reaching 

your goals. 

Promotions 

In a workplace situation, it can be common 

to find people who have far less skills, 

talents, or experience than you. You may 

find some people are more successful 

than others regardless of merit or 

experience. In a lot of cases, the factor that 

separates such successes from failures is 

the fact that successful people are more 

comfortable with showing the world who 

they really are and what they stand for. 

They can more easily influence people in 

a way that is beneficial to their goals. 

They are willing to embrace the 

competitive environment in a team for 

example by showing people what they are 

really worth rather than forcing oneself to 

settle for less and this is all done in the 

spirit of healthy self-promotion in most 

cases. 

Self-Confidence 

Selling ourselves short is a behaviour 

related to self-confidence that limits both 

our effectiveness and the actions we are 

willing to take. In some cases, it can also 

affect the levels of respect we get from 

others in both our personal and working 

lives. 

Some key drivers here might be our 

own negative internal dialogue. The 

internal dialogue is explored in popular 

psychology and psychotherapy and being 

aware how this will influence our mindset 

is important. We know that positive selftalk 

leads to positive emotions and can 

lead to positive actions being taken. 

We must also be aware that we have a 

negative bias default mechanism within 

ourselves. This pushes us towards our 

weaknesses rather than our strengths. We 

just focus on this which in turns erodes 

our self-belief and confidence and we 

hide away from the world. This exhausts 

our self-esteem and reinforces our fixed 

mindsets with thoughts such as “I cannot 

do that.” The limiting action reinforces the 

limiting belief and other people sense 

whether or not you believe in yourself. 

Beliefs 

In a coaching situation, the coach can 

understand the beliefs of the client, and 

the client can understand what beliefs 

are holding them back from achieving 

their goals, however, the client must be 

willing to take the correct action on the 

correct beliefs. This may mean that the 

client be willing to push themselves to 

the front of conversations by promoting 

their own skills and abilities, to promote 

the benefits that they can bring to a given 

situation. 

There may be valid reasons why 

someone cannot bring themselves to sell 

themselves to others, deep set patterns 

of beliefs and such. Whatever the cause, 

the effect is the same, the client will not 

push themselves out of their comfort 

zone and will not speak up in a crowd. 

In the long run the client may reach 80 

or 90% of their goal, but the ability to 

sell themselves in a situation may be the 

difference between making the last 20% 

of their goal and not making it. This is the 

80/20 rule, the last 20% of the success 

is 80% of the work, and so the concept 

of having to sell oneself may be the most 

difficult task they have to achieve to meet 

their goal. 

From another viewpoint we can see that 

beliefs are so linked with the internal 

saboteur. If those internal narratives 

that are not serving us well are not 

reframed and reassessed, we will not take 

that positive action and we may never 

influence others. The inability to sell 

ourselves can mean we may continue to 

miss out on that job interview or promotion, 

no matter how much coaching is received.



The SOAR Model is a coaching model 

linked to appreciative inquiry which 

stands for Strengths Opportunities 

Aspirations and Results. This very much 

focuses on our own self-awareness 

and helps us understand our feelings, 

motives, and desires so that we can deal 

with them positively. 

21 QUICK MARKETING 

IDEAS FOR A NEW OR 

ESTABLISHED COACH 

This is linked to our belief system, and 

a limiting belief can result in certain 

aspirations never being expressed and 

not even being considered. In such a 

circumstance success can never happen, 

as action can never be taken. The ability to 

sell ourselves, therefore, is the necessary 

action so that success happens, but we 

must believe we are capable of such action 

first. If a coaching client is not willing to 

commit to take consistent action to help 

change a negative mindset, they will 

never learn to sell themselves effectively 

in for example that board room setting or 

amongst their team. The A for Aspiration 

should also be A for Action therefore 

SOAR Model could be SOAAR. 

It is the action that produces the result, • Recognising what the driver was 

that action in a lot of cases is influencing and why we sold ourselves short. 

others and convincing them that you are And recognising those situations 

the right person. To round off here are where the limiting actions we have 

some practical things that can be done taken are the result of a negative or 

to help us sell ourselves in a better way: destructive belief. 

spending time readjusting the negative 

internal dialogue with a more positive • Determining what a better course 

one, focusing on ‘can-do’: 

of action would have been in each 

situation. 

• Recognising what our aspirations are and 

assessing whether they truly reflect what • Asking ourselves whether we clearly 

it is we want or are they what ‘we think 

communicated our abilities and what 

we want.’ 

we can bring to a situation. 

• Recognising those actions that we have The last 20% of the goal takes 80% of 

taken which are the ones where we ‘sold the effort and it is 95% psychological in 

ourselves short.’ 

nature. 

Marie Friel 

Marie Friel works in the pharmaceutical industry and has over twenty years of experience both in sales and as a Mental Healthcare professional, 

she is an aspiring coach having recently qualified as a coach from Kingstown College, Dublin. 

1. Review your Email Signature – Consider adding your qualification, 

professional membership, or lines from testimonials 

2. Develop a Buyer Persona – Think about the demographics of your ideal 

client, how they spend their day, their time and their money. 

3. Design / Re-Design your Logo – If you don’t have a logo, get one. If you 

have one, is it time for some essential maintenance? 

4. Create Video Content for your Website – Long form content can be a 

great way of displaying yourself as an expert in your space. 

5. Create Video Content for your Social Media Channels – Social media like 

Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn all love video content because it keeps their 

users on the platform for longer. 

6. Start an Email List – From all your clients in the past, to all those who have 

contacted you about your services, add them to a GDPR compliant email list. 

7. Write for a Newspaper – With a few small tweaks a blog could be a column 

for a newspaper. 

8. Be a Contributor on a Radio Station – You never know who is listening so 

be sure to align the subject matter with your ideal client. 

9. Try Social Media Advertising – Find a post that really worked for you on 

Facebook. One that organically reached a lot of people and had some good 

comments and likes. Then simply hit the “Boost” option to help it reach 

people who are not your followers (yet!) 

10. Create an Offer – It can be tiring for clients to be in a constant decision 

mode about the next session(s). Help them out by bundling your services 

together and create an offer. 

11. Develop your own Coaching Model – If you have experience working with 

a particular type of client, let the world know what an expert you are! 

12. Co-Market with another Coach – Is there another coach from your class 

or from alumni who is practicing in the same or a complementing space? 

13. Upgrade your Zoom Studio! – We need to be, and look, professional! 

14. Create Quotes – A simple and effective visual for social media. A square 

image with some text as a quotation from you or a favourite author. 

15. Plan a Photoshoot – Plan a photoshoot now by listing the type of photos 

you need for your website, social media etc. and gather the props. 

16. Develop a Case Study – Sometimes clients need Inspiration. Have you 

worked with a client in the past who would make a great case study? 

17. Get 5 Testimonials – Your website, brochure or social media feed will really 

benefit from evidence of a positive client experience. 

18. Increase your fee by 20% – With inflation, you are going to need to 

increase it by 5% per year anyway, so let’s get a few years out of the way! 

19. Share content from reputable sources – If you are busy and you cannot 

create your own original content, do a quick google search and find a report, 

a survey, an article etc that would be interesting to your ideal client. 

20. Review your Website – Any references or dates that need to change? 

21. Create a Premium Product – If your usual coaching fee is €250, create a 

premium offer at €2,500? A retreat? A workshop? Psychometric testing? 

START 

SOMEWHERE 

We can all do with a little 

inspiration when it comes to 

marketing our coaching 

practice or consulting 

practice. This list is not an 

entire to-do list for you. 

Instead, it’s a starting place. 

Some of you are seasoned 

marketers so it could be a 

time to review what you’re 

doing. Others are new and 

may need to just pick two or 

three from the list to get 

started.



Business Consulting with a 

Coaching Style 

Like leaders who use a coaching style, business consultants can also benefit from 

the models and philosophies of coaching. Carey-Ann Lordan of Red PR walks 

us through her process with client companies, and how models like GROWTH 

provide a framework for conversations with staff at all levels of the organisation. 

As a recent graduate of the Advanced 

Diploma in Personal, Leadership and 

Executive Coaching at Kingstown 

College, I was keen to apply the 

knowledge learned in a real sense 

within my business. I own and run 

a communications company called 

Red PR and we specialise in business 

solutions with a particular focus on 

communications. 

For the last 10 years, we have worked 

across a wide variety of sectors. 

COVID-19 has put many of those 

businesses in unchartered waters and, 

through no fault of their own, they have 

had to adapt and pivot quickly to save 

jobs and keep their business afloat. 

Previous to the Kingstown College 

course I completed a Level 9 Advanced 

Diploma in Innovation and Enterprise in 

Trinity College Dublin. I have combined 

the learning from each to create a series 

of effective models and tools which are 

turning our client businesses around - 

even in these uncertain times. 

I like to take a Lean Business approach 

to improve the businesses I work with 

and the framework I like best involves 

people, processes and technology/ 

problem presented, it is important 

a suggested model for how it can 

systems. Following an in-depth analysis 

to note I have found it to be rarely a 

be overcome quickly for any of you 

of each of these key components, I then 

problem in isolation. I often uncover a 

embarking on a similar path. 

work with senior managers and their 

can of worms. 

teams to innovate and move it forward. 

Invariably, the initial brief I receive is 

As a business coach, 

This includes looking at who does what, 

how they do it, how it is delivered to the 

The trick here is to strike the balance 

and focus on the problems which 

from a senior management perspective, 

typically delivered by the business 

I am often engaged 

consumer and how I can improve it. 

need to be addressed for your client to 

achieve their organisational goal. This 

owner or CEO, which has obvious 

implications. Furthermore, the problem 

to help solve a 

problem..[but]… I 

have found it to be 

I firmly believe that the people behind 

most businesses are the greatest 

resource of all but because of poor 

communication and management 

practices, people are usually the 

is how you as a coach will be measured 

and your coaching engagement will be 

deemed to be successful. 

I cannot stress enough how important it 

I have been asked to solve is usually 

presented like a jigsaw puzzle that is 

missing many of the pieces required to 

achieve the overall company goal. 

rarely a problem 

in isolation. I often 

uncover a can of 

untapped resource with the most 

potential. So I start there. 

As a business coach, I am often engaged 

to help solve a problem. The problem 

is to not lose sight of that, especially to 

those of you who are reading this and 

have a natural tendency to lean towards 

prescriptiveness and wound healing. 

I’ve decided to share some of my key 

tips for overcoming the challenges of 

the initial engagement based on my 

experience of what has worked best for 

my clients and I. 

worms. 

I am asked to address can vary from 

issues with poor performance to media 

There is always a challenge faced by 

business coaches which I would like to 

I treat the business like a coaching client 

skills, assertive selling to challenging 

address based on my own professional 

and actively listen to everything I am 

work relationships. Regardless of the 

experience. I will also put forward 

hearing - and not hearing as the case



may be. I try to efficiently establish the 

achieve the goal quickly and efficiently, 

establish the bigger picture before I 

of their assessment against the average 

employees simple coaching questions 

values and beliefs of the organisations 

and to decipher the evidence I gather 

focus in on key areas and goals for the 

assessments of the entire team. I find 

can be helpful, like; What are you most 

and its workforce similar to how I would 

along the way, what is important and 

company. It helps to uncover much of 

this insightful as a conversation starter 

proud of the company for? Why do you 

handle an individual coaching client. I 

what is not. 

the current reality of an organisation. 

and helpful when establishing their 

think your customers choose you? 

endeavour to identify and hone in on 

ineffective patterns of behaviour which 

Naturally, my business solutions are 

The GROWTH Model is a helpful during 

I treat the business 

trust and confidence in me and my 

business know-how whilst encouraging 

When it comes to technology and 

can be deeply rooted within its culture 

and often come from the top down. 

The team dynamics and how people 

interact and communicate with 

bespoke and tailored to suit the unique 

requirements of each business however, 

here is the basic recipe I would like to 

share. 

those initial consultations with senior 

management to ensure the goal is 

clarified, SMART, and get a real sense 

of the current reality from a top-level 

perspective. Naturally, the ‘options’, 

like a coaching 

client … establish 

the values and 

bigger picture thinking and buy-in into 

the overall organisational goal. 

I also find asking employees to complete 

the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and 

systems a simple question like; Why 

do you do it that way? Often leads to 

ideation and design thinking while 

questions like; What frustrates you? 

Usually cuts to the chase and identifies 

one another is of vital importance. 

Unfortunately by the time I am called in, 

I am a big fan of the Lean Business 

Model Canvas! Much of what I refer to 

‘will or way forward’, ‘tactics’ and the 

‘how to get there’, will also be unveiled 

beliefs of the 

engaging in a little self-discovery to 

be useful in highlighting the benefits 

process and technology inefficiencies 

eg. double jobbing, inadequate 

there is often a whiff of toxicity in the air. 

Some employees are unaffected by, it 

while others are completely consumed 

by it. 

in the steps below act as tools for me 

to use as I backfill a company’s canvas, 

while coaching them towards an 

organisational goal. 

efficiently with the help of this model. 

When it comes to overcoming the 

challenges that are people-centric, 

it is crucial to establish ‘who’s who’ 

organisations and 

… endeavour to 

identify and hone 

of having lots of different personality 

types involved in the business, and 

how it can be an asset to team and the 

overall business. It also promotes an 

environment for self-awareness as we 

resources, procedures within the 

organisation. Many of these issues can 

easily be addressed, oftentimes saving 

costs and increasing productivity and 

well-being amongst the staff. This 

My job is to gather the information 

required to help coach the business 

and its people from their current reality 

to achieving an overall organisational 

goal. The challenge is to gather the 

The Organisational Analysis Tool is an 

effective framework to gain an overview 

or snapshot of the business. I find that 

combining it with desk research in 

advance of the initial consultation and 

very quickly. Although I pull in many 

different models as appropriate to 

achieve this, I find the Lencioni’s theory 

on dysfunctional teams very helpful - 

especially where tension is obviously 

in on ineffective 

patterns of 

behaviour which 

introduce change which is fundamental 

to creating the path of least resistance 

and/or optimum buy-in. 

Role suitability, individual capability 

can only serve you positively in your 

coaching and in the company as it 

moves towards its overall goal. 

My experience working with businesses 

information required to help them 

briefing to be helpful when trying to 

high. 

can be deeply 

and CPD opportunities/requirements 

often come up at this point as options 

has been vast, I grew up in a family 

business with both parents coming from 

rooted within its 

culture and often 

come from the top 

for the business to consider as we move 

forward. Notably, this is where those 

that are performing poorly usually tell/ 

show us why, and they can often leave 

the organisation. If that happens don’t 

family businesses too so I guess you 

could say it’s in my genes and much 

of what I do for businesses is innate 

however, the truth be told I have been 

working hard in recent years to upskill in 

down. 

panic! Business coaches come across 

this a lot! 

different areas to ensure that I am at the 

top of my game for clients who chose to 

work with Red PR. 

Only then do I start to wear my business 

and communications hat and mentor 

I hope you have found these experiences 

I like to have a confidential discovery 

somewhat to establish their value 

useful and if you are interested in 

session with employees to understand 

proposition, unique selling points, 

getting in touch visit redpr.ie I’d love to 

what else is going on in the business. 

customer journey mapping and an 

hear from you! 

At this session I start by sharing 

understanding of the business model 

their Lencioni assessment of the 

and profitability. As well as more formal 

organisation/team and chatting it 

business models and communications 

through. Then I show them a comparative 

theories applied here, asking 

Carey-Ann Lordan 

Carey-Ann Lordan is one of Ireland’s leading communications specialists with a demonstrated history of success in the public relations, 

marketing, event management, coaching, training and communications industry. A force to be reckoned with, Carey-Ann is a business 

development professional with a highly regarded reputation in communications. Her forte is business coaching and working with corporate 

clients across a wide variety of sectors to get their businesses from their current reality to realising major organisational goals. 

www.redpr.ie



an important 

element of 

coaching is the 

ability to adapt 

to the needs of 

the coachee 

Same Goal: Not the Same Approach. 

Adapting to Different Needs 

John Tracey coached two people in their mid-20s who have been working 

remotely since March. John has discovered, although they brought the 

same goal to the coaching session “increasing my self-confidence”, 

different approaches were required to achieve positive outcomes. 

I believe an important element of coaching is 

the ability to adapt to the needs of the coachee. 

When presented with scenarios that at first 

appear similar, it is important to ‘listen’ to what 

your intuition tells you too. 

From April to August, I coached a number of 

people in their mid-20s who expressed their 

coaching goal as being to ‘increase my selfconfidence.’ 

On the face of it, a similar goal, 

but the coachees were coming from different 

starting points as illustrated in the following 

examples. The coachees are graduates and 

have been working for 2-3 years in professional 

services, but did not work in the same teams. 

‘Anne*’ had been successful in sport, playing 

at a provincial level, but all the while felt like 

an impostor; that it was somehow a mistake 

that she had been selected to the team. 

This permeated into her work context. In the 

second instance, ‘Beth*’ felt intimidated by the 

educational achievements of her peers, who 

were perceived as ‘superior’ or ‘more qualified’ 

and added to her self-doubt. ‘Beth’ is a double 

graduate in different disciplines and had 

successfully run a small business..(* not their 

real name) 

Pre-Covid, working as part of a team in an office 

setting, it was possible for each to find support 

amongst their respective teams. There were 

colleagues to bounce ideas off over a casual 

coffee, or to peer review work ad hoc and give 

supportive, constructive feedback. The social 

aspects of a co-located team provided for a 

level of self-confidence and peer support. 

However, with working from home (WFH) , this 

support was absent and was not meaningfully 

replaced by virtual communication. They were 

in different parts of the country, back living 

with their parents and in a distinctly non-work 

environment. There was no easy access to the 

same kind of support available in the traditional 

office setting and in the absence of this support, 

self-doubt and negative introspection grew. 

Self-Perception 

I brought the GROW model into the opening 

coaching session in each case. It became clear 

when working through the Reality, that there 

was a need to go deeper into the coachees 

self-perception. What was being presented 

as ‘Reality’ didn’t match the evidence being 

provided. They were being recognised as 

performing well in appraisals and yet they 

felt that this was not accurate based on their 

self-perception. I asked them questions to 

inquire about their perception of themselves 

and subsequently decided to explore their 

awareness of their strengths. I took a strengthsbased 

approach with both, and I asked each 

coachee to list their strengths. 

a healthcare professional as well as a business 

degree. One of her main strengths is dealing 

with people and building rapport. She also felt 

that she had a lot of relevant knowledge but 

lacked the confidence to express herself in 

meetings or in a group dynamic. She became 

These are just two examples of scenarios 

where the goal is similar but required different 

approaches to bring about positive change for 

the coachees. What they highlight to me is the 

importance of actively ‘listening’ with all your 

senses and adapting your approach to bring 

When Anne spoke about her sporting anxious and self-doubting when faced with the best outcome for the coachee. 

achievements, she focused on negative feedback 

to the near complete exclusion of the positive. 

Not being selected for the provincial team was 

seen as a failure and an embarrassment whereas 

being selected for the team was put down to luck 

rather than ability. As we progressed through the 

exercise the indications of her strengths came 

out; technical ability, commitment to meeting 

deadlines, accuracy in details, relationship building. 

However, she did not rate these as being important 

nor did she consider 6+ years of work experience 

as a strength. As we went through the SOAR 

model, she began to realise she was more capable 

then she believed and that she had disregarded 

some of her key strengths because they were 

not conscious actions, they were “just things I do 

without really thinking.” When we talked about 

the impact of not doing these things, both to 

Anne and her wider team, the realisation of their 

importance as strengths became clear and how 

her negative perception was not justified. We used 

the SOAR model to re-frame Anne’s perception 

of her strengths into actionable opportunities for 

development points to raise her self-awareness. 

Journaling helped to record situations and 

outcomes, and this yielded a further positive 

response. She then worked to re-frame her point 

of view and to be more aware of her positives and 

capability to develop her strengths. A quote from 

Julie Starr resonated strongly; “I am both enough 

and still capable of more.” This quote curbed the 

self-criticism and encouraged change for the better. 

On the other hand, Beth had good awareness of 

her strengths and was able to support them with 

appropriate examples. She has qualifications as 

the prospect of having to contribute in these 

settings and feared she would look foolish to 

her colleagues. When it came to delivering a 

presentation, she would prepare thoroughly 

and have her script written. However, she 

found that if she was distracted or interrupted 

from her script, she would become flustered 

and have difficulty getting back on track. Beth’s 

method of dealing with anxiety and self-doubt 

was to try to control as many aspects of the 

interaction as possible. We worked through 

the CIA model and looked hard at what Beth 

could realistically expect to control or influence 

in a variety of situations. The restrictions due to 

Covid-19 were also a factor in the overall sense 

of not being in control. Beth journaled her 

group activity at work for a number of weeks: 

preparation, presentation and feedback from a 

trusted colleague and how she was feeling at 

each stage. Over time she was able to sit with 

her anxiety and take it apart to understand 

that a key element was fear of looking foolish 

to others. Through this reflection process she 

began to understand how her perception of 

her performance was contrary to the observed 

feedback. Accepting that it was tolerable to 

cede control was not easy but being able to 

focus on what could be controlled helped. Over 

a period of three months Beth became more 

self-confident and less reliant on scripting. She 

would still prepare thoroughly, but she trusted 

herself more to contribute in meetings, albeit 

with some underlying anxiety. The difference 

now is that she understands the source of the 

anxiety and can respond to it. 

Covid-19 and the restrictions we face day-to-day 

as a result are having a profound effect on many 

people. Situations that would be tolerable and 

manageable in pre-Covid-19 circumstances 

are accentuated and may become difficult and 

even intolerable when support structures are 

no longer present. Working from home has 

presented challenges in the form of lack of 

peer support and opportunity for self-doubt. 

Back in March-April there was a certain novelty 

with WFH, but this is not the case as we head 

into another period of more severe restrictions. 

Social contact provided by a workplace is a 

strong emotional support for people who now 

work alone at home. Virtual meetings and 

video calls can’t replace the physical one to 

one coffee and chat that can mean a great 

deal to people. It’s often when we can’t do 

something that we miss it and that we realise 

the small things are big things when it comes 

to our wellbeing and self-care. 

John Tracey 

John Tracey is a Senior Manager in EY Technology Consulting. He has been coaching colleagues for a number of years and completed the Advanced Diploma 

in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching earlier this year at Kingstown College. He has a keen interest in people developing themselves, professionally 

and personally and coaching allows him to be part of the journey. He is passionate about positive outcomes for coachees. He lives in Dublin with his wife and 

three children (& two dogs). He enjoys the outdoors and swims regularly in the sea. The mindfulness that comes from a plunge in cold water is hard to match!



Case Study: Mentor 

Her – How AIB is 

driving Diversity and 

Gender Balance 

AIB is a bank which is well known for the marketing 

campaign “We back Brave” which encourages clients 

and customers to realise their ambitions. Anne 

McComish, Chair of the Mentor Her programme at 

AIB, takes us behind the scenes of the initiative which 

drives the same sentiment within the organisation 

itself. This case study reveals the motivation, the 

approach and the results of this successful initiative. 

“Helping women to realise their true 

Two years on, I find myself in 2020, 

potential to be the best that they can be” 

chairing the Mentor Her programme 

along with a committee of five 

I was immediately hooked reading this line: 

other senior leaders and successful 

‘Mentoring’, ‘helping’, ‘being the best they 

women, all of whom share a passion 

can be’. After 30 plus years in the Financial 

for mentoring, coaching, learning 

Services industry I understood the importance 

& development and supporting the 

of mentoring and coaching in my own career, 

advancement of women leaders in 

so a call out for volunteers to support this AIB 

AIB. 

programme and my immediate reaction was… 

Where do I sign up?! 

AIB and Diversity & Inclusion 

AIB’s Diversity & Inclusion journey 

began under the banner “iMatter” with 

six Employee Resource Groups that 

“Meeting up with my fellow mentees reminded 

right talent, skills and capabilities within the 

experience. Gender balance is not 

In 2018 the 30% Club completed a 

Diversity is about 

what makes each 

make up AIB’s Diversity & Inclusion 

agenda, ‘Women’s Network’ being one. 

And it’s out of Women’s Network that 

our Mentor Her initiative was conceived, 

me that we’re all continually learning and 

trying to figure out what the next steps are. This 

was really eye-opening because sometimes I 

used to feel like I was the only one feeling that 

organisation to fulfil AIB’s purpose and execute 

the bank’s strategy. Mentoring aligns perfectly 

with this. And by mentoring our people we in 

turn back them to achieve their own dreams 

only the right thing to do but it is also 

critical for the success of the bank 

and an important factor in succession 

planning. 

study, ‘Making The Change Count’, 

of women in Financial Services in 

Ireland. The study found that in the 

sector, four levels down from CEO, 

of us unique and 

Inclusion is the 

extent to which 

starting as a pilot programme in 2018. 

Our ambition for Women’s Network is 

to raise awareness, educate and share 

insights and learnings from within and 

way.” 

Why Mentoring? 

Our Purpose at AIB is to back our customers 

and ambitions in their careers with the bank. 

So, why a programme that is specific for 

women? 

As well as having 50% of positions 

on the executive committee occupied 

by women, AIB was found to have the 

joint-most gender balanced boardroom 

women represented 54% of the 

population, but at CEO level, women 

only represented 13%. 

Research has shown that women often 

we feel valued 

outside AIB to all employees, creating 

a network that is for both men and 

to achieve their dreams and ambitions. Our 

people are our key resource and that’s why 

At AIB we’re committed to improving 

gender balance at senior levels, 

in Ireland in the second Balance 

for Better Business report issued in 

face further challenges in their careers 

such as imposter syndrome, work-life 

and included. 

women to support the advancement 

of women in leadership in the Bank. 

our strategic pillar of ‘Talent & Culture’ is at the 

heart of delivering on this purpose - having the 

creating a workforce that has a broad 

and diverse mix of talent, skills and 

November 2019, with five women on 

its ten person non-executive board. 

balance, lack of confidence, and lack of 

female role models.



Mentor Her is designed specifically to 

guide, challenge and nurture women in 

AIB to believe in themselves and achieve 

their highest levels of performance. 

Built on accountability, collaboration 

and trust, the programme supports 

the advancement of women leaders 

in the bank and is a huge contributor 

to embedding a diverse culture in our 

workforce. 

What do our mentees want to achieve 

from the programme? 

“I lacked confidence in myself and my 

abilities. And now I can genuinely say it 

has been a year of immense learning for 

me.” 

There are so many benefits for both 

mentees and mentors on the programme 

but some of the common themes that 

emerge from our mentees are: 

• Confidence to put myself forward 

• A sounding board outside of my 

friends at work 

• To gain more respect in a male 

dominated environment 

• To have my thinking and assumptions 

challenged 

• Renewed career direction and clarity 

• Building a network 

How does Mentor Her work? T 

“From the get-go, when filling out the 

application form I was forced to start 

thinking about myself, my career and 

where I wanted to go.” 

Mentees 

From our business services and support 

teams across AIB Group, applications 

are invited from women across all levels 

of seniority within the organisation 

from all AIB locations. Applications 

are individually reviewed in detail 

and scored based on evidence of selfdevelopment 

and self-awareness. 

Mentors 

We’re very lucky to have a great 

wealth of engaged mentors, both male 

and female senior leaders across the 

organisation, who so willingly volunteer 

their time and expertise and share 

their personal experiences with their 

mentees. 

Another success of Mentor Her is 

attributed to the personalised approach 

and time and effort put into matching 

mentors to mentees - no use of 

algorithmic matching or AI! Successful 

applicants are carefully matched 

to mentors based on the mentee’s 

requirements, business experience and 

goals for the programme. 

Applications to the programme open in 

Dec – Jan with the programme running 

from March to December each year. 

When surveyed, 91% of our mentees 

stated that the matching process worked 

really well. Mentors and Mentees can 

choose to continue their mentoring 

relationship after the programme ends 

and many go on to do so – a testament 

to the power of the programme. 

A Continuously Evolving Programme 

Each year the programme is 

evaluated, enhanced and evolves 

through feedback and insights from 

the participants. Some of the further 

supports that have been introduced 

include: 

• Peer Networking. Networking, 

peer to peer learning and a 

nurtured the sense of community 

are at the heart of Mentor Her. At 

our Mentor Her events we host 

external speakers, discussing 

topics to complement our online 

learning resources. (98% 

of mentees surveyed stated 

this enhanced the programme.) 

However, COVID19 took our 

events programme virtually in 

2020, with the development 

of a ‘Women in Leadership’ 

programme delivered through six 

interactive modules. 

• Guides for Mentors and Mentees. 

To provide guidance on how the 

mentoring relationship should 

work introducing coaching and 

mentoring models such as The 

Wheel of Life, GROW and the use 

of Powerful Questions. 

• Buddy System. Introduced in 

2020, a number of graduates 

from our 2019 programme were 

allocated 10 – 12 mentees. They 

meet as a group to support the 

development of networks with 

the ‘buddy’ acting as an advisor 

to ensure mentees get the most 

out of the programme. 

• Mentor Her Academy. An on-line 

portal of resources and learning 

for applicants introduced in 2019, 

the Mentor Her Academy utilises 

the learning material already 

available in AIB, but packaged 

for our Mentor Her community. 

It includes a discussion board 

to allow mentees and mentors 

engage, share articles and 

insights. 

Research has 

shown that 

women often 

face further 

challenges 

in their 

careers such 

as imposter 

syndrome, 

work-life 

balance, lack of 

confidence, and 

lack of female 

role models.



• Spotlight topic. AIB has identified 

behavioural and technical capabilities 

developed in line with the Bank’s career 

structure, organisational values and 

purpose. The Academy focuses on one 

monthly spotlight topic and provides 

on-line learning aligned to the topic. 

• Mentor Her Media. Mentor Her Media 

is currently in development which 

will contain videos of interviews with 

Senior Leaders in the organisation 

discussing their individual careers and 

what mentoring has meant to them. 

How do we measure Mentor Her’s success? 

The benefits our mentees, mentors and 

in turn AIB get from the programme are 

far too many to list and these benefits 

continue to be realised long after the 

formal nine months of the programme 

are finished. However, using pre and post 

programme surveys, in just nine months 

the improvements in confidence, direction 

and skill sets are significant. 

Mentor Her has been nominated for 

Diversity & Inclusion awards in 2019 and 

2020 at the CIPD Awards and in the 2019 

Women in Finance awards. 

Since 2018 Mentor Her has had 155 

participants and the Mentor Her 

Academy has been made available to 

all 297 applicants to the programme. 

Reflecting on what we have achieved so 

far, I am reminded of the phrase “When 

eating an elephant, take one bite at a 

time.” While our numbers are currently 

small, we are making a difference, one 

step at a time. 

Mentor Her 2019 Pre and Post Survey Results 

Questions with answers ‘Strongly Agree’ or 

‘Agree’ 

Programme 

Launch 

Programme 

Close 

Movement 

I understand my strengths and how to apply them in my career 35% 95% +60% 

I have a good network within the Bank 35% 84% +49% 

I know what opportunities are open to me 27% 73% +46% 

I have a clear career pathway 22% 68% +46% 

I am confident in interviews 53% 96% +43% 

I know how to influence people and get support 55% 93% +38% 

I put myself forward for new/promotional opportunities 55% 82% +27% 

I am confident speaking up in meetings 71% 96% +25% 

I have the skills to build a good network 65% 89% +24% 

I have a good network outside of the Bank 39% 57% +18% 

Anne McComish 

Anne McComish is Head of Finance Report and Communications with Allied Irish Banks, and is Chair of the Mentor 

Her Programme.



The Importance of ‘Perspective‘ 

in Coaching 

At the starting point of every opinion or attitude and behind every behaviour or 

action is a persons’ perspective. Dermot Ferris takes us on a journey gifting us 

with his insight into lasting change through depth of perspective. 

The message 

that a person 

receives and the 

way in which 

they interpret it, 

is not always as a 

result of the fault 

or merit of the 

Lasting Change 

Visionaries like David Cooperrider (1986) 

identified and promoted the observation 

sender but instead 

The Kingstown Academy taught me that the 

creation of an effective coaching relationship 

was dependent on the establishment 

of mutual trust, honesty, integrity, and a 

partnership approach in a non-judgemental 

that “Organisations move in the direction 

that they inquire” and in doing so he 

allowed companies to better understand 

the genesis of their existing culture and 

also laid down a roadmap for companies to 

is often directly 

influenced by the 

attitude of the 

and positive atmosphere. My coaching 

journey has also taught me that the journey, 

follow in their desire to implement lasting 

change. What was so enlightened about this 

receiver to the 

not the destination, is the important element 

of the process and the initial identification 

of the true motivation for change is vital. 

The effectiveness of a coaching relationship 

revelation was the requirement that staff 

be consulted about change; included in the 

decision-making process; empowered to 

implement the change and given (and take) 

sender at that 

time. 

can be measured by change, but this in my 

responsibility for its implementation. Grant 

“Everything starts in your mind! As you think, 

cornerstone is “Perspective.” I will return to 

and indeed thankful to have made the 

view is far too simplistic a measure because, 

& Hartley (2013) reinforced this vision by 

so you feel. As you feel, so you respond” 

this concept later. 

pre-Covid-19 decision to broaden my life 

if achieving change is the only desired 

contending that the success of a change 

horizons in seeking further education and 

outcome then this can also be achieved in 

program is directly related to the “sign in” at 

by rewards that are external to the activity. 

While I would love to take the credit for 

Like millions of people around the world, I 

so, in October 2019 I embarked on a journey 

many ways that do not involve coaching. 

a cognitive level of its participants. This ties 

Helping the client to understand which of 

this insight, I willingly acknowledge that it 

have found 2020 to be a very challenging 

of discovery and learning in Kingstown 

in neatly with Carr’s contention regarding the 

these are at play in any given situation and 

is an interpretation of a quote by Alan Carr 

and testing time due to the appearance 

College when I signed up for the Advanced 

For example, my natural and personal instinct 

cognitive process referenced earlier. 

why that is so, is critical if the client is to 

(1985) which he originally developed in his 

of Covid-19. While thankfully not having 

Diploma in Personal, Leadership and 

is to “help” people by way of mentoring. This 

identify the appropriate trigger for change. To 

cognitive therapy approach to assist people 

suffered from it, I have nonetheless been 

Executive Coaching. I am fortunate because 

approach, combined with my business and 

What lies behind the client’s motivation to 

do this, we must lead the client on a journey 

to stop smoking. That said, I believe it to be a 

challenged by its presence in many 

of the timing of my decision and for the 

life experience would in many cases I believe, 

seek and participate in coaching is therefore 

of discovery where they identify what 

fundamental truth which, if acknowledged, 

respects, from the fundamental way I live 

many good friends I made there, fortunate 

achieve a positive change and would do so 

central to the overall process. 

underpins and influences their current view 

correctly interpreted, and understood can 

my daily life at one end of a scale, to the 

also because of the tools that it has given 

in a much more efficient and timely manner. 

of the world, their current thought processes, 

bring significant benefits to our world of 

way I am living my life at the other end of 

me to deal with my new challenges. I am 

Indeed, traditional management styles are 

Perspective Coaching 

their actions, their interactions, their beliefs 

coaching. 

it. In between lies the newly constructed 

thankful for the help, guidance and indeed 

based on initiating, dictating, and implementing 

and their desires. It is my contention that 

societal barriers which must be endured, 

inspiration I received from the course 

top-down organisational and behavioural 

The theory of “Self-Determination” proposed 

all the above are directly influenced by the 

Its importance for me emanates from 

counter-balanced by the exciting new 

leaders along the way. What I got from 

change based on the existing company culture 

by Deci and Ryan (1985) looked at ‘Intrinsic’ 

client’s current ‘perspective.’ 

its direct link to what, in my view, is a 

opportunities that slowing down my life 

this experience was far more than I had 

and/or the individual management style of 

motivation; internal interest deriving from 

cornerstone of all opinion, feelings, 

has thrown up. 

expected in so far as it did for me what I was 

the initiator. If however the achievement of 

the distinctive needs of the person for 

“If you were born where they were born 

attitude, bias, fear, prejudice, racism, social 

being taught to help others to do and that 

lasting change is the objective then a different 

competence and self-determination and 

and you were taught what they were 

interaction (positive and negative) and that 

For many reasons I feel very fortunate 

is achieve lasting transformational change. 

approach is required, indeed essential. 

‘Extrinsic’ motivation which is constructed 

taught, you’d believe what they believe.”



While this adage is attributed to Abraham 

(knowing what is happening around you) 

an issue to discuss. The resulting outcomes, 

Or more simply put; “If I like you, I want to like 

to effectively and honestly implement the 

Bibliography: 

Lincoln, it serves to reinforce my proposition 

and more importantly an improved level 

therefore, were more meaningful, more 

your message and if I don’t like you, I will look 

“Truth Equation “(Green 2000) is, I suggest, a 

that at the starting point of every opinion 

of self-awareness (knowing what you are 

powerful, and more relevant to the client. 

to take offence from it.” I have found that 

good platform on which to build our future. 

David Cooperrider (1986) “Appreciative 

or attitude and behind every behaviour or 

experiencing). 

an acceptance and understanding of this 

Inquiry: Toward a Methodology 

action is a persons’ perspective. It is therefore 

The Forcefield Analysis with one client 

principle is a very valuable tool to have in 

This approach, which I attribute to my 

for Understanding and Enhancing 

imperative as coaches that we help the client 

Ultimately it is the client that must fully 

allowed us both to look in detail at the barriers 

one’s toolbox when confronted by conflict, 

time at the Kingstown Academy, will help 

Organizational Innovation” 

to understand this perspective if we are to 

understand, acknowledge and accept their 

and aids (actual and perceived) to achieving 

resistance, and what otherwise would be 

us and our clients to better identify and 

help them identify and understand their 

own motivations and responsibilities and 

the new goal. Some of the perceived barriers 

deemed as illogical behaviour. 

ultimately understand and accept their true 

Deci, L. and Ryan, M (1985) Intrinsic 

motivation for change. I say this as if it is easy 

how they fit with their core values, and 

were the result of preconceptions about 

motivations and in doing so achieve the 

Motivation and Self-Determination in 

to achieve, which I know is not the case, but 

Whitmore (2015) encapsulates this for me 

the mindset of Senior Management and 

My emphasis on the importance of 

benefits from coaching, namely self-directed 

Human Behaviour. New York; Plenum 

this realisation fundamentally reframed my 

when he says that “When you truly accept, 

the skillset required to succeed in what 

“Perspective” as a cause of, and a potential 

learning, self-realisation, personal growth, 

preconceived approach to coaching. 

choose or take responsibility for your thoughts 

was perceived to be a politically charged 

solution to, many issues has been learnt 

improved personal performance resulting in 

Anthony M. Grant & Margie Hartley (2013); 

and your actions, your commitment to them 

environment. In this instance I felt that a 

through my life experience and I have found 

lasting, transformational change. 

Coaching: An international journal of Theory, 

On several occasions as both client and 

rises and so does your performance.”, 

change in perspective would be useful to my 

it to remain true in my coaching practice also. 

Research and Practice. Developing the 

coach, my eyes were opened to the fact 

client, and I therefore found the “Three Chair 

While this is a somewhat daunting challenge, 

leader as coach: insights, strategies and 

that the client (who in some cases was me) 

I have found that achieving a better 

Model (traditionally for conflict coaching)”, to 

Consequently, I believe this element should 

I take comfort from the founding father of 

tips for embedding coaching skills in the 

was not always able to specify what change 

understanding of these elements also helped 

be helpful as it resulted in the much sought 

be thoroughly investigated and challenged, 

coaching when he says that “There is no one 

workplace. 

was actually being sought and / or required. 

me as a coach to choose the correct tools rather 

after and rewarding “light bulb” moment 

identified, actioned/discounted before 

right way to coach” (Whitmore (2015) and I 

In some instances, the initial goal was 

than simply using the tools to implement a 

with the client. 

prompting the client to move on to other 

hope that the journey I have just taken you 

Weiner, B. (1979) A theory of motivation 

actually abandoned or redefined as a result 

change process predetermined by the client 

solutions. 

on will be of assistance to you in your search 

for some classroom experiences. Journal of 

of the application of Appreciative Inquiry 

but not tested, challenged or validated. 

On occasion I have introduced my clients to a 

for ‘your way’ of coaching. 

Educational Psychology, - (1992) Human 

Principles and Powerful Questioning and in 

thought process that I personally formulated 

It is also advisable to identify any changes 

Motivation: Metaphors, theories, and 

other cases it became obvious to both my 

The Leadership Timeline Model, in 

many years ago when dealing in the area of 

in the client’s perspective since the previous 

research, Thousand Oaks,CA:Sage 

client and myself that the coaching process 

combination with an overlapping Personal 

conflict resolution but which I now believe 

meeting and the use of powerful questions 

may not actually result in anything other 

Timeline Model is an approach which I 

has a broader application and is in keeping 

in the warm up/rapport building stage can 

Carr, Alen (1985) The easy Way to Stop 

than a beneficial change in perspective 

have found to be very useful in helping my 

with the principles of coaching. This insight 

help you to determine where they are, for 

Smoking. 

based on an improved level of awareness 

clients identify pivotal moments in their 

(which I now boldly call a ‘Perspective Coaching 

example, on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs vs 

lives, sources of stress and happiness and 

Principle’) I believe gives the client not only 

the last interaction with them. 

Whitmore.Sir. J. (2015) 5th Ed. Coaching for 

overlapping events that gave rise to these 

pause for thought but ultimately an insight 

Performance, The Principles and practice of 

feelings. This work allows for and promotes 

into the possible motivations of others and/or 

I do this to ensure that my current approach 

coaching and leadership; Nicholas Bradley, 

a broadening of perspectives and improves 

a greater understanding of the motivation for 

remains valid and it has been particularly 

London. 

their understanding of the situation they find 

their actions. My principle simply states is that: 

relevant during the turbulent Covid-19 times 

themselves in. 

where many priorities and perspectives have 

we must lead 

My subsequent use of “The Wheel of Life” for 

“The message that a person receives and the way 

in which they interpret it, is not always as a result 

shifted significantly over a very short period. 

the client on 

a journey of 

discovery where 

example was much more focussed on a real 

and agreed issue rather than being used as a 

prism to identify or a net to hopefully catch 

of the fault or merit of the sender but instead is 

often directly influenced by the attitude of the 

receiver to the sender at that time.” 

The Truth Equation 

If, like me, your coaching journey has only 

just begun, then you also enthusiastically 

look forward to the insights we have yet to 

they identify what 

learn and indeed impart. A commitment 

underpins and 

influences their 

Dermot Ferris 

current view of 

the world 

Dermot is a family man with a wife and four grown children and a highly experienced Entrepreneur and Businessman. Dermot held Senior 

Executive Director positions in both the Corporate and SME sectors before establishing his sourcing company in Hong Kong alongside his 

consulting and LED Lighting companies in Dublin. Dermot is a Business Mentor with Enterprise Ireland and separately with the DCU / Ryan 

Academy and in 2020 qualified as a Personal Leadership and Executive Coach. He is a Graduate in Economics and Politics from UCD, a graduate 

in Marketing from the College of Marketing, a Graduate in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching from the Kingstown Academy. 

Linkedin.com/in/dermot-ferris-779a4913



The Value in 

a better and happier existence than 

ourselves, is in no doubt linked to these 

been given. She has discussed the 

concept of ‘illbeing’ and the important 

Becoming More 

Comfortable with the 

Uncomfortable 

that beating heart 

means you’re close 

to the truth 

worrying trends. 

Secondly, if we are constantly being 

told that feeling happy, fulfilled, strong, 

focused, courageous or calm, etc. (the 

‘good’ feelings) is how we should all 

be feeling, then either consciously or 

sub-consciously we are interpreting the 

opposite of these emotions or feelings 

role in expressing our challenges 

and our vulnerabilities as a way to 

contribute to our overall prosperity. “It is 

almost impossible to take the ‘big idea 

of wellbeing’ and human flourishing 

seriously without acknowledging and 

trying to contemplate its relation to 

matters of suffering, unhappiness, 

arrested development and illness.” 

as ‘wrong’ or ‘bad.’ We are saying there 

With a multi-trillion dollar Wellness Industry encouraging a utopia of constant 

happiness, Mark McDonnell explores the unrealistic expectations placed on us 

and how expressing our vulnerabilities and acknowledging the full spectrum of our 

emotions is a way to contribute to our overall prosperity. 

is no place for feelings of sadness, of 

feeling dejected, of being confused, 

stressed, afraid or angry. We think that 

by feeling these things we are failing at 

life. 

Given the right environment, exploring 

your vulnerabilities can be a great 

source of wisdom. 

My experience in coaching, and also 

working with over 45,000 teenagers 

Full Spectrum of Emotions 

has given me a great insight into how 

teenagers and adults deal with the full 

As I sit to write these few words on 

far in a fairly short space of time from an 

state of happiness and fulfilment, that 

While of course we don’t want to reside in 

spectrum of emotions. Of course we 

discussing the recent passing of her 

World Mental Health Day, I find myself 

era where un-happiness, sorrow, grief 

a positive outlook on life is the only 

those challenging states for long periods, 

are all different, and will experience 

grandfather. All she was doing was 

surrounded by newspapers and 

or pain was to be silently endured, to 

outlook to have, that we must always 

I do believe there is an immense value to 

and deal with emotions in our own 

expressing the sadness she was feeling 

magazines bulging with content 

where we are now, much more realistic 

feel a deep sense of gratitude and 

be gained by becoming more comfortable 

unique way, but I believe we are seeing 

inside that had been bubbling away for 

focusing on our physical, emotional and 

and honest about the experiences and 

appreciation for our lives, that there are 

with unpleasant or challenging feelings. 

a massive societal swing to over- 

months. 

mental wellbeing. This is good. 

emotions we all navigate throughout 

‘good’ ways to feel, and ‘bad’ ways to 

To be curious with them. To not push them 

protect. We are observing many adults 

our lives. Again, this is good. 

feel. 

away immediately or to silence them with 

constantly on high alert to prevent 

Realising. 

There’s no doubt we are living in a 

distraction or substances. To speak about 

adversity or challenge visiting our 

more accepting world for people who 

What I do feel we need to discuss is a 

I see a couple of real problems with 

them and to listen to what they are telling us. 

young people. We are circling overhead 

Purging. 

experience or have experienced mental 

Wellness Industry in full flight placing 

this messaging onslaught. Firstly, these 

our teenagers like water planes ready to 

health challenges (which is most of us). 

unrealistic expectations on us. Elements 

unrealistic expectations are placing 

Dr Maeve O’Brien has written about the 

quench any stressful situation that may 

The most natural thing in the world. 

There is no shortage of column inches, 

of this multi-trillion dollar economy 

massive pressure on us as we feel we 

importance of challenging and contesting 

flare up. 

radio slots and TV interviews for people 

(valued at $4 trillion in 2018) have built 

must be constantly in this blissful state, 

the presentation of wellbeing we have 

What message are we giving that young 

to share their stories or to give their 

business models on the narrative that 

and if we’re not, we’re failing. This utopia 

I believe this approach is doing a huge 

girl? That sadness and grief are wrong? 

professional advice. We have travelled 

we should all be residing in a constant 

of constant happiness is not reality. 

dis-service to teenagers, and to society 

That these feelings are shameful or 

as a whole. We are preventing the 

not welcome? How will she learn 

My role with The Soar Foundation means 

opportunities to build resilience and 

from the experience and know she 

I’m cognisant of teenage development 

develop coping strategies, which means 

will be better equipped to deal with 

and how we emotionally and mentally 

our future generations are ill-equipped 

future challenges if we are not brave 

progress into adulthood. The recent ‘My 

World Survey 2’ research conducted 

given the right 

to navigate the ups and downs of life in 

a self-sufficient way. 

enough to welcome the full spectrum 

of emotions? 

by Jigsaw and UCD surveying approx. 

20,000 teenagers revealed some 

interesting findings. In the past 10 years 

there has been a significant drop in 

self-esteem and life satisfaction, while 

environment, 

exploring your 

vulnerabilities can 

We need these challenges, and we need 

to be brave in discussing these challenges 

to understand how they have affected us 

and what we can learn from them. I will 

The Stakes are High 

As a coach I will always be curious 

about a person’s life and the 

we are seeing increases in anxiety and 

depression. The always happy and 

be a great source 

never forget a kind and well-meaning 

principal in the West of Ireland running 

challenges they have endured. Only 

then will I understand them, and 

always living your best life narrative, 

coupled with the fake word of social 

of wisdom 

from across the classroom during a Soar 

workshop to try and prevent a young 

the values and strengths they have 

gained from these challenges to go 

media where we feel everyone is living 

girl from shedding a few tears while 

and achieve future goals.



there is an immense 

value to be gained 

by becoming more 

comfortable with 

unpleasant or 

challenging feelings 

I have worked with a client recently who it through mutual curiosity. What did he fear to enter holds the treasure you 

was struggling with his self-confidence. think sparked it off? How was he feeling seek.” 

His self-esteem was so low that he was during this period? How did he cope? 

seeking approval from his peers like a And looking back now, what does he There was a point in the above 

young boy would from his father. He think he gained from the experience? conversation where my heart was 

was unable to lead his team with any 

beating faster, my breathing more 

sense of conviction and was constantly Upon reflection he recognised that rather rapid, and I knew the stakes were high. 

feeling like an imposter about to be than feel shame or embarrassment, he I could sense the same for him. Our 

found out. As he said himself – “I’m was immensely proud of his ability to natural internal protectors could have 

scared s*itless”. 

persevere and get through that difficult understandably steered us to safer 

time. He identified coping mechanisms waters. But that beating heart means 

I felt it was important to understand he used then that he could benefit you’re close to the truth. I’ve learned 

him more and explore the root of from again. He identified his strength that’s when to hold firm, to push on, 

where these feelings may be coming of character, his resilience, his problem because the real breakthroughs reside 

from. I asked him about his life to date solving, and a realisation that if he got just outside our comfort zone. 

and to land on what he thought were through that difficult experience he has 

the significant or defining periods. He what it takes to navigate his current 

worked his way up to his early twenties challenges. He looked like a different 

and at that point I saw a change in man at the end of the session. He 

him. He was nervous and hesitant, but had an enthusiasm for the challenge 

he went on to share his experience of ahead as he realised the inherent 

paralysing panic attacks and a general capabilities he possessed. All because 

sense of constant fear after he had we weren’t afraid to deal with the more 

moved to Australia at 21 years of age. uncomfortable experiences in his life. 

We didn’t run from this conversation. As mythologist and philosopher Joseph 

We settled in and tried to understand Campbell has written, ‘The cave you 

Mark McDonnell 

Mark McDonnell is the CEO of The Soar Foundation, an organisation that has delivered Character Building Programs to over 45,000 teenagers 

throughout Ireland. Mark has graduated from the Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching with Kingstown College in 

2018. His work with The Soar Foundation, and as a coach, is driven by a desire for people to have agency over their lives and to move forward 

with a better understanding of self and purpose. 

Using Design Thinking Approach 

in Coaching: A Review of Designing 

Your Life Program 

The “Designing Your Life” book helped Sinem Bahadırlı to redesign her life, 

prepared her to leave the corporate world and start a new life as an independent 

professional coach. Here she describes the design thinking approach and how we 

can integrate the principles into our coaching practices. 

During my coaching program at 

Kingstown College, I discovered the new 

field in psychology, positive psychology. 

Working on strengths in positive 

psychology rather than improving 

weaknesses resonated so much with 

me. After studying the research of 

Martin Seligman, the founder of positive 

psychology and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 

the creator of the flow theory, a colleague 

of mine recommended me a new 

book that is based on Seligman’s and 

Chikszentmihalyi’s studies and built up 

a new perspective on them by adding 

the design thinking approach. That is 

when I met with the “Designing Your 

Life” program (DYL). 

After teaching design in Stanford 

University for several years, Bill Burnett 

and Dave Evans realized that their 

students didn’t have much of an idea 

about how to kick off their new lives 

after they graduate. They needed 

help to design their lives. Therefore, 

they created the “Designing Your Life” 

elective course in Stanford to teach 

their students how to apply design 

thinking to their lives and build their 

careers with fulfillment and joy. The 

course became the most popular 

elective in Stanford. Shortly after, its 

fame expanded to the tech companies 

in Silicon Valley. Google even has an 

internal group of facilitators to deliver 

the “Designing Your Life” program to its



employees. For the ones who cannot 

attend live workshops in the US, Burnett 

and Evans wrote the book, “Designing 

Your Life” to share what they teach with 

the rest of the world. 

“Designing Your Life” book helped me to 

redesign my life, prepared me to leave 

the corporate world and start a new life 

as an independent professional coach. 

Since then, in my coaching practice, I 

frequently referred to their methods 

and applied their tools with my clients, 

especially with the ones who are ready 

to start a new life. Burnett and Evans 

developed a DYL coach certification 

program for professional coaches who 

want to learn how to apply DYL methods 

and tools in their coaching practices. 

This summer I finally had a chance 

to attend the DYL coach certification 

workshop to learn from the creators 

of the program. In the workshop, I 

practiced how to apply design thinking 

in various different coaching scenarios. 

I learned that the DYL tools also work 

with the clients who aren’t necessarily 

aiming for a major change in their 

lives. The methods and tools in DYL 

can be applied to all types of coaching 

clients, who could be looking for either 

more self-awareness or an incremental 

change in their wheel of life. 

Good design solves problems for its 

users. Design thinking is a process of 

applying designers’ human centric 

techniques to solve problems in a 

creative and innovative way. The 

process follows a series of steps which 

starts with understanding the user, 

challenging assumptions, defining 

problems, creating prototypes, testing 

and redesigning. Although the concept 

was born by designers, design thinking 

isn’t exclusive for designers. The 

approach has gained a lot of popularity 

in the past decade. Today it is also 

widely used in art, science, engineering 

and business (Johansson - Sköldberg, et. 

al., 2013). 

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans suggest 

that design thinking can be used to 

design lives. Especially for the ones 

that feel stuck without options, the 

design thinking process helps to get 

them unstuck and initiates the creative 

process to be able to map out new 

options for their future. In DYL, both 

the designers and users are the same 

people. They can either apply the 

program themselves by reading their 

book or alternatively get support from 

the DYL certified coaches to facilitate 

the design thinking process for them. 

The Designers Mindset 

An important requirement which Burnett 

and Evans explain in their book is that in 

order to achieve successful results with 

design thinking is a 

process of applying 

designers’ human 

centric techniques 

to solve problems 

in a creative and 

innovative way 

the design thinking approach, the client/ 

designer needs to adopt the designers’ 

mindset (2020). Designers are curious. 

The beginner’s mind motivates them 

to start with the process. Curiosity 

is also handy to prevent falling into 

a judgement trap. Designers have 

the ‘bias to action’. They turn their 

curiosity into action. As long as they 

try new things, they learn what works 

and doesn’t work for the users. The first 

design is rarely good. It is an iterative 

process that they continuously build up 

the initial design by trying and testing 

new things. That’s why they know that 

designing is a process, not an event and 

it takes time 

to reach the ultimate design. Designers 

are also open to reframe problems. If 

the problem is not actionable, then it is 

a gravity problem, a problem which one 

cannot do anything to change. Good 

news is that DYL tools are also helping 

designing is a 

process, not an 

event, and it takes 

time to reach the 

ultimate design 

with reframing. The fifth mindset is that 

designers ask for help. They are open 

to collaborate, talk to other people, 

learn from them and ask for their help 

when they need it. These five designer 

mindsets aren’t far from the coaching 

world. Although we might name them 

differently, we expect our clients to 

adopt a similar mindset during the 

coaching sessions. As a coach you can 

either discuss this mindset expectation 

with your client in your chemistry 

meeting or include it in your coaching 

contract. Whether you use DYL tools 

or not, I believe that adopting the 

designer mindset definitely facilitates 

the coaching journey both for the coach 

and the client. 

The design thinking process follows a 

series of steps. The standard design 

process starts with empathy. Through 

empathy, the designers put themselves 

in users’ shoes, try to understand what 

they feel and what they think. In DYL, 

Burnett and Evans add another step in 

the process that comes before empathy, 

which is “accept”. Before empathizing 

with the user (the client in DYL), it’s 

important to look into the nature of 

the problem; whether there is a gravity 

problem that they need to accept or 

not. That step is crucial to pick the 

right problem, thus the right goal to 

work on. Once the client accepts what 

they cannot control, they can open up 

a space to redefine it as an actionable 

problem. 

From the second step onwards, the rest 

of the program follows the same steps 

in the standard design thinking process: 

Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype 

and Test. The chart below explains those 

steps, comparing the standard definition 

in design thinking vs. in DYL program:



ACCEPT 

EMPATHIZE 

DEFINE 

IDEATE 

PROTOTYPE 

TEST 

DYL in a Coaching Scenario 

Let’s use an example to understand 

how to use those steps in a coaching 

scenario. In this sample scenario, a 

coaching client has his work visa is on 

hold for his new job offer in the US due 

to Covid-19 restrictions. He feels stuck 

and unhappy, looking for a solution in his 

coaching sessions. In the “Accept’ stage, 

the coach can use the inquiry method 

to understand the overall situation and 

clarify if the client can do something 

about the visa process. In this scenario, 

the client can’t change the process and 

can’t start the new job without the visa. 

So, the coach walks with the client in 

this stage until the client accepts that he 

has a gravity problem. 

The initial problem that the client framed 

isn’t actionable, however he still needs a 

change in his life. In the second stage, the 

coach could either take a step back and 

ask the client what he wanted to change 

before he got the new job offer or move 

a step further in the timeline and invite 

him to visualize his life after they got the 

work visa. Even this simple questioning 

in the ‘empathize’ stage can uncover 

significant insights about the client and 

what they want to change in his life. The 

coach can also use other coaching tools 

and exercises to help the client improve 

Standard Design Thinking Process 

Empathizing with the user, understanding their 

problem 

Defining the problem for the user 

Brainstorming and generating ideas for possible 

design solutions 

Starting to create solutions; small, testable version 

of the solutions 

Testing prototypes, collecting feedback, improving 

the prototype 

their self-awareness and deep-dive into 

the source of the problem. One tool in 

the DYL program used in this stage is 

the lifeview & workview exercise. The 

client writes their lifeview and work 

view, a short description of what good 

work and good life look like for them. 

Whatever is important for the client in 

work and life is reflected in their views. 

Burnett and Evans believe that who 

you are, what you believe and what 

you do need to be aligned. If not, one 

struggles to find inner peace and keeps 

questioning why they are doing what 

they are doing (2016). After writing work 

and lifeviews, the client reviews them 

to check the consistency between their 

current lives and the manifestos they 

wrote. This exercise can be considered 

as an alternative values assessment tool, 

as it checks if the client honors their 

values and helps them to spot the things 

that can be improved to live up to their 

values. 

After the self-discovery stage, the coach 

works with the client to reframe their 

initial problem statement. Let’s assume 

that in the sample coaching scenario, 

the client came to realize that one of his 

top values both in life and work is selfgrowth/learning 

and he doesn’t feel he 

can grow any further in his current job 

and the main motivation behind his 

Designing Your Life Program 

Accepting the gravity problem 

Working on self-awareness, understanding values, 

needs and wants 

Reframing the initial problem statement as a new 

actionable problem 

Mapping out multiple future plans that incorporate 

some possible solutions in them 

Having prototype conversations or experiences to 

collect info about the ideas in future plans 

Testing prototypes, evaluating findings and decision 

making 

job change was the need to learn new 

things. With this insight the coach can 

ask the client to reframe his problem 

and set a goal for this new actionable 

problem about self-growth. 

The process gets more interesting in 

the ideation stage. The initial solution 

that the client thought of, which was the 

job offer in the US, is out of the picture 

now and the client feels like he’s lacking 

options. The coach can use different 

creative tools such as mind mapping, 

brainstorming, sketch notes etc. to 

facilitate the ideation process for the 

client. There is another great exercise 

that Burnett and Evans use for ideation, 

which is called Odyssey planning. For 

this exercise, the client maps out 3 

alternative 5-year future plans. In case 

they struggle to come up with different 

plans, you can suggest them to use their 

existing option as their plan A. For the 

second one, they can draw what they 

would do if plan A can’t happen. In the 

third one, they can go wild and imagine 

a future without time and money 

restrictions. After they draw the plans, 

they evaluate their plans based on their 

resources, confidence level, coherence 

with their work and lifeviews and also 

assess how much they like them. A good 

way to assess how much they like the 

plans can be through storytelling. The 

coach can observe their body language 

while the client tells them about 

different plans and ask the client how 

they felt when they’re telling the stories. 

In the end, they don’t have to pick 

one plan. They can mix and match the 

Whether one needs to rebuild their life 

or have an incremental change in their 

life, “Designing Your Life” program is 

offering different tools and exercises 

to support your clients’ creativity and 

learning during this journey. It brings 

References 

Burnett B. & Evans D. (2016), Designing 

Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, 

Joyful Life, Vintage Digital, New York: 

USA 

components they like in different plans. many familiar coaching theories 

In the Odyssey plans, there will be some 

ideas that the client doesn’t know much 

about but they are curious to find out 

more. Let’s say that the client in our 

sample scenario is curious to find out 

more about the “back to school” idea he 

had in his plan B and understand what 

it is like to study an MBA program. He 

can turn his curiosity into a prototype 

question in this stage and ask openended 

questions such as “What can I 

learn in the MBA program?”, “How much 

would it cost me?”, “Where can I work 

after I finish the program?” etc. To find 

answers to his questions, the client can 

either have prototype conversations 

(e.g., with the ones who have done an 

MBA) or if possible have a prototype 

experience (e.g. attend a class in MBA 

program). 

In the final stage, the client assesses 

their learnings during prototyping. If 

their learnings are enough for them to 

make a decision, they can choose to start 

applying the future plan they choose. 

Alternatively, they can start with partially 

applying some ideas in their plan. 

together in a very practical way that 

can be easily understood and applied 

by the clients. My advice would be 

to try the tools and exercises on you 

first, understand how you can integrate 

them with your practice in an impactful 

way, then adopt and offer them to your 

clients. 

Burnett B. & Evans D. (2020), Designing 

Your Work Life: How to Thrive and 

Change and Find Happiness at Work, 

Knopf Publishing Group, New York: USA 

Johansson-Sköldberg, U. & Woodilla J.& 

Cetinkaya M., (2013), Design Thinking: 

Past, Present and Possible Futures, Wiley 

Online Library 

Sinem Bahadırlı 

She began her professional career in Google, Ireland. From customer experience to sales, she worked in different roles and managed various 

projects for Google’s digital marketing and advertising products. During her time in Google, she designed mentoring programs, worked in 

building the coaching culture in EMEA sales organisation and mentored Irish startups. After leaving Google, she founded Positive Coaching 

Center, offering 1-1 and group coaching for people development, designing and facilitating workshops for team development. She is also 

working as a Global Development Volunteer in the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. 

In her coaching approach, respecting the authenticity of every individual, by applying positive coaching tools and methods, she helps her 

clients to discover and build on their personal strengths, broadens access to the person’s intellectual and psychological resources, resulting 

in improved performance. Her field of work includes, but not limited to, changing perceptions, dysfunctional beliefs & behaviours that are 

limiting to reach one’s potential, optimising work performance, conflict management, increasing productivity, expanding career opportunities, 

increasing self-confidence, managing work/life balance. 

Apart from 1-1 coaching sessions, she is also delivering Designing Your Life and Designing Your Work Life group coaching programs. For more 

information: https://www.positivecoachingcenter.com/book-online



we’ve come up 

with “Performance 

Time”, which is 

time you take for 

yourself 

The last seven months have seen a great change 

in how we all work due to the new arrangement 

of working from home rather than in an office. 

With Covid-19, priorities changed within Allied 

Irish Bank (AIB) to meet our customers changing 

needs, but the workload remained heavy. To 

be able to perform in this new environment, I 

made an effort to take some time to focus on 

my own wellbeing and ensure I could maintain 

some balance in all aspects of my life. 

Working Structure 

I converted an upstairs spare room into my 

office and I am at my desk at 8.30am most 

mornings. As best as possible I keep to the 

normal hours and take an “elevenses” break 

with my kids (when they were off from school) 

if the meeting diary allows it. I took up the offer 

from AIB to take home an office chair, keyboard, 

mouse and screen, which has made a big 

difference to my comfort and wellbeing at work. 

My Own Fitness and Wellbeing 

My first priority was to keep up my fitness 

through the lockdown. I have always done a 

fitness class (known by my kids as “Fat Club”!) 

twice a week with three lads that live local to me. 

In the first two weeks of lockdown, we moved 

to the nearby GAA and did the sessions at 

social distance outdoors. We then transitioned 

to Zoom, so I had class on a yoga mat on my 

decking at 6:15am every Wednesday and 

Living with Lockdown 

and Coping with 

Covid-19 

Recent Kingstown College graduate John O’Connell 

tells us how he coped through the Covid-19 pandemic 

and some tips that have helped him through the 

lockdown since mid-March 2020. 

Friday throughout the warmer months. I also 

enjoy running and have been able to do 8 – 10 

km once a week and 5km on two other days. 

It was lovely to get out in late June for a virtual 

charity 5km run with Sarah, my two boys and 

dog Monty. 

As we are on Zoom, our fitness coach offered 

us a maintenance session at the same time 

every Thursday morning. This is effectively a 

45-minute foam rolling session, working out 

all the knots and pressure points in the body, 

followed by a 15-minute breathing meditation. 

I find this particularly good for addressing any 

niggles in the body and the mind. 

Most evenings, I traded my commute on the 

M50 with a walk with my wife Sarah. We would 

do about 3 to 4km and it helps clear the head 

after sitting at the desk during the day. 

As a former amateur jockey, I enjoy getting out 

on a horse every so often. My sister trains a few 

race horses beside my home and I’ve gone 

back riding two horses out on the gallops at 

weekends. I was called up early one morning 

in May to ride out before work. Getting out for 

some physical activity at 7am is a great start to 

any day and is something I hadn’t done in a long 

time due to early travelling to and from work. 

Now with winter on our doorstep, we are 

heading into darker mornings and evenings, I’m 

going to have to adapt my schedule. I’ve been 

discussing this with my colleagues in work and 

we’ve come up with “Performance Time”, which 

is time you take for yourself during the day. Be 

that a walk or run during lunchtime to get some 

fresh air and get outside when it’s bright and 

weather allows it. 

Keeping Kids Active 

I am blessed with three great children: Lucy 

(12), Johnnie (10) and Davey (7). It wasn’t easy 

for them before school holidays and staying 

focused on home schooling had its challenges, 

but we focused on English, Irish and Maths 

predominantly. 

The good weather in the first few months was 

a saving grace, as it has allowed them to be out 

in the garden and on the trampoline. They’ve 

been out riding the ponies as well, which has 

been a brilliant outlet and distraction from TV 

and Xbox. 

From end March, I set up a fit club with them and 

their cousins (who had cocooned next door) 

every Monday and Friday evening. I would get 

them active in the garden doing many mobility 

and core fitness routines that I do at my fitness 

class. From March to July, this was the only main 

structure during the weeks of severe lockdown. 

Coaching Course 

I’ve always had an interest in Coaching and did 

enquire about 9 – 12 months ago as to what 

was involved in getting qualified as a coach. 

others in unlocking their true potential and 

making more possible. 

from my desk and get out. I consciously take 

the initiative and ring friends and family. I make 

sure that on a weekly basis I ring or have a 

About two weeks into Covid-19 lockdown, I 

was speaking to a colleague about coaching 

and it prompted me to look up and see what 

courses were available. I discovered a free 

webinar with Kingstown College the following 

Saturday that discussed a six-week intensive 

Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership 

and Executive Coaching. After the webinar and 

some discussions with Sarah, I enrolled in the 

six-week course. It started on April 7th, three 

nights a week 6:30 – 9:30 Tuesday, Wednesday 

and Thursday, all via Zoom. Every session was 

very engaging and felt like the fastest three 

hours of each day. 

My whole coaching experience so far has 

been very motivational. From my first coaching 

session, I put my faith into the models I was 

introduced to during the Kingstown College 

Diploma. I was amazed how well each session 

went and how much my respective clients got 

from each session. At the end of these sessions, 

when I’m asking for feedback, I find that the 

models have really helped the clients get some 

clarity or increased self-awareness on their issue 

or themselves. So far, it’s been encouraging that 

by trusting the process and allowing the client 

to lead the content really motivates the client to 

change or get unstuck. 

social zoom call with friends. I also take time 

to regularly call my 94-year-old Aunty Mary 

(a Dominican Nun) and when I was allowed 

during the summer months, I got to visit her 

for 30 minutes at a time. I know my aunt gets 

plenty from my calls, but I get great energy from 

them too. 

As we head into further restrictions, I accept that 

lockdown hasn’t always been easy. I believe 

I have remained positive and made the most 

of every opportunity that was available. My 

coaching experience has been very enjoyable 

and a huge help to my own wellbeing and sense 

of purpose. I’ve just recently finished reading 

The course work included: two coaching book 

reviews; a coaching article review; four peer 

coaching sessions as a coach and a client (these 

continued after the initial set); four external 

client coaching sessions, an essay and two 

Mastery Coaching sessions, where I coached, 

was coached and observed. 

I read Sir John Whitmore’s Coaching for 

Performance and Jenny Rogers Coaching Skills. 

Both were very useful and brought to life much 

of the content covered during the course. I 

successfully completed all assignments and 

was delighted with the results I received in July. 

In August, I got accredited with the European 

Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). 

I’ve continued coaching and I am currently 

working with two clients, in an effort to achieve 

100 hours of coaching to get accredited with 

International Coaching Federation (ICF). I have 

over 35 hours complete so far and once that 

is complete, I will continue on my journey to 

becoming a coach and adding real value to 

Human Connection and Purpose 

A challenge during lockdown has been 

connecting with friends and family. There are 

days when I don’t leave the surrounds of my 

house. To combat this, I make myself get up 

Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which 

has so many messages about mental strength 

and purpose. Something we all need in these 

times. 

John O’Connelle 

John O’Connell heads up Key Projects in Homes & Consumer, which is part of AIB Retail Banking. After graduating from Trinity with a Degree in 

Management Science (1999), John’s career to date has been in Banking, (BOI, KBC and AIB). John received a Post Grad in Leading and Managing 

People, Coventry University (2011). John has a track record for improving individual and team performance, which led to many of his colleagues 

advancing their careers with his guidance. His interest in developing others led John to pursue coaching and a Diploma in Personal, Leadership 

and Executive Coaching in Kingstown College (2020).



Case Study: Implementing and 

Embracing a Global Coaching 

Programme in PayPal 

PayPal has clear ambitions to be a global leader in how they use a coaching 

style. PayPal engaged Kingstown College to train coaches and leaders across 

all their sites to an international standard, but what does a coaching programme 

look like in an organisation of 25,000 people? Dave Reedy is a Senior Director 

within Performance Enablement and he takes us behind the scenes. 

Global Performance Enablement 

continents, however, leaders are 

introspective, there can be some dead 

flexible and encourage life balance 

silence for a while until they get used to 

PayPal, a global organisation, facilitates 

within their teams. Introducing a 

the new approach where the teammate 

convenient and cost-effective sending 

coaching ethos takes on different forms 

is being asked to self-assess and to 

and receiving of payments online. 

in different cultures but the result is 

speak more than the leader. That has 

PayPal operates in over 200 countries 

generally unmatched enthusiasm for 

proven to be challenging for a lot of 

and has site operations in the Americas, 

the experience and evident empathy 

Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle 

for customers. 

East. In all, around 25,000 people are 

employed. With a current customer 

Evolution of Coaching 

base of 330 million, the goal is to have 

people because the level of patience 

group and individually. The end result 

organisation to nurture the internal 

a billion customers within five years. 

Dave recognizes the evolution that 

may not be there. Leaders are busy and 

would create a more productive team 

talent pool. 

coaching has undergone from ‘I will 

manage performance targets and it can 

with increased performance output 

Within the realm of Performance 

tell you what to do’ to ‘let me help 

be tempting to circumvent the model 

when the focus is on the inclusion piece 

The Coaching Engagement 

Enablement, there are a number of 

you understand what to do,’ the what 

as it seems easier to tell the teammate 

i.e. if I get to talk about me and I get 

functions supporting Global Customer 

Service. Among other Senior Director 

behind the why and as that has evolved, 

coaching models have sprung up all 

once you make those 

what to do and set a goal from there. 

As the leaders self-assess, they realise 

to share my ideas and I am part of the 

solution then I am going to feel more 

A structure is in place at PayPal to 

support the coaching programme which 

responsibilities, Dave Reedy leads one 

of those functions called Site Coaches. 

Site Coaches support all the internal 

PayPal sites around the globe and are 

tasked with managing, building and 

over the place. Coaching encourages 

employees to do self-reflection and 

self-assessment to figure out what they 

are doing right and what they need 

to work on and then to set their own 

connections, with the 

heart and the head, 

then you get a more 

that they were telling, versus pulling 

information out of people by using 

good quality probing questions. 

Even with very successful team leaders, 

included in my team. I am going to feel 

more connected to our whole company 

and to the values of the organisation. 

PayPal strives to build and develop 

includes a recommended frequency, and 

length, of sessions. A teammate receives 

at least four coaching sessions a month 

and those sessions can be a combination 

of scheduled as well as unscheduled 

facilitating a coaching culture within 

PayPal in an effort to optimize customer 

engagement. The Site Coaches also 

positively influence third-party partner 

organisations in managing and leading 

goals. Dave notes “we do provide goals 

within PayPal for our teammates to 

strive for…what we try to do within our 

coaching model is to ask the coaches 

and the leaders to use our model to 

engaged teammate, 

you get better 

customer experiences 

there can be some hesitancy with 

commitment to the model. Dave points 

out that on a team of fifteen people, not 

every single person is going to respond 

to the way the leader likes to lead. His 

leadership and coaching skills at 

every level which is championed 

through the Leadership in Action 

Program. Administering a continuous 

development environment where a 

or what are called Integrated coaching 

sessions. Integrated is a fancy name 

for side-by-sides where the team 

leader will sit down and coach with 

the employee. Sometimes, depending 

their teammates using the PayPal 

help the teammate understand what is 

message to the leaders is that they 

priority is placed on training employees 

on the performance of the person, 

coaching model. 

driving that number (goal) in terms of 

could be finding opportunities to create 

with coaching skills reinforces 

there are additional coaching sessions 

behaviour.” 

a more and more inclusive team by 

healthy succession planning, greater 

scheduled and sometimes more time 

Working within a global organisation 

focusing on how they would treat each 

opportunity for employees who pursue 

is spent on integrated coaching. Each 

brings time zone challenges where 

For those teammates who are new to 

person as an individual and drawing 

opportunities to apply for promotion 

site has a Site Coach and each leader 

employees may support multiple 

the concept of coaching and not that 

them into conversations both within a 

to team leader roles, and for the 

is evaluated by a Site Coach. Generally



speaking with some exceptions, there 

is one Site Coach for every thirty 

leaders. They are tagged with doing two 

observations in a month and to make 

sure that those observations are a Triad. 

The Triad is where the leader coaches 

the teammate with the observation of 

the Site Coach. The team leader has a 

coaching session with the teammate, 

then the Site Coach has a debrief of 

the coaching session with the leader to 

enhance awareness of what the coach 

did well, to examine the opportunities 

available to the coach and to review 

what they will do to make adjustments 

for that particular session going forward. 

There are also requirements for group 

leaders, the next level up, to carry out 

coaching observations as well, and 

interestingly enough, VPs and Directors 

and Senior Directors are starting to get 

increasingly into observations of the 

coaching model. Recently, a VP from 

EMEA attended a coaching session and 

gave some great feedback to the leader 

as well as the coach. 

Generally, in order to optimize 

efficiency, scheduled sessions are 

thirty minutes. The integrated sessions 

depend on the length of the customer 

contact. If it’s a lengthy customer 

call, the leader wants to support the 

teammate as much as they can in that 

particular setting. They have a debrief 

afterwards so as not to leave it up in the 

air and say, okay, well thanks, I got to go. 

The staff use integrated coaching codes 

where, once they sign off the phone, 

they use the integrated coaching code 

to catalogue the time that they spent 

and are spending after the call which 

can be up to ten minutes. It is the call 

plus the after contact time that the 

leader does the follow up on. 

Embracing a Coaching Mindset 

One of the things required when 

developing coaching and leadership 

skills is a strong commitment to 

resilience. Coaching is not an easy 

profession to be in and if one expects 

it to be smooth and easy, it is not going 

to be that. To be successful in the role 

requires a combination of organisational 

backing, resilience, the ability to be 

introspective and an investment of time. 

PayPal keeps track of the coaching 

program through several metrics; 

numerical, quality and survey data. 

Dave took over the role 18 months ago 

and stresses the importance of meeting 

metric targets. One thing he noticed 

was missing was the heart part of it and 

how the real selling point and the real 

focus needs to be on how the coach has 

changed the heart of somebody. “How 

have you impacted somebody’s day 

when you have had a good coaching 

session and you have had those aha 

moments and you have improved that 

person’s approach to every single 

contact that they take because they 

focused on a particular goal and saw 

some success.” Coaching is having an 

impact on one person at a time and 

once connections are made with the 

heart and the head, the result is a more 

engaged teammate and better customer 

experiences. 

When hiring new employees, PayPal 

looks for entrepreneurial spirits that 

are coachable and introspective as 

well as having previous professional 

experience, flexibility, the ability to take 

ownership and be empowered to do 

what needs to be done for the customer. 

Recruiting external people with 

coaching experience gives a fresh eye 

to how things are working within the 

company, not only with the coaching 

model, but with customer service, and 

how teammates are engaged. 

A very powerful dynamic that works 

well is when a Site Coach is promoted 

to a leader running larger teams and 

Before COVID-19, our leaders would sit 

near their team members to do integrated 

coaching sessions. We have adapted our 

coaching models to ensure the health and 

safety of our employees, so integrated 

coaching is currently done virtually. 

because of that they are a sort of a 

disciple for the coaching model and are 

able to use what they have learned to 

be an influencer, combined with their 

skill set, the way and how they do it and 

their positional power as a group leader. 

The Future of Work 

PayPal responded to the pandemic in 

March when things were haywire, by 

making some very fast adaptations in 

their centres around the world, and as 

quick as they could get people out of 

the brick-and-mortar environments and 

into their homes, the better. 

They adapted quickly and part of 

that adaptation was getting approval 

for putting systems and processes in 

place to coach virtually. The expedited 

company growth created service-level 

challenges and taking time off the 

phone even for regular coaching was 

at times sacrificed and continues to be 

at times when all hands are needed on 

deck. 

Dave predicts the physical working 

environment will form a hybrid model 

where employees can work from home 

and/or in the office. Some people 

have indicated, through the employee 

engagement model, that they want to 

continue to work from home because 

they are comfortable with it. Others 

need the separation of home and office. 

One of the challenges with a hybrid 

model is the difficulty with planning 

the allocation of seating, however, a lot 

of progress has been made improving 

the internet connection at employees 

homes. 

Recently PayPal began to consider 

part-time schedules and discussed 

how to adjust their coaching model 

to that. Dave suggested identifying 

people that could be self-coaches – 

people with introspection and who 

have excelled in their previous roles. 

Oh my gosh, this stuff 

really works. 

Part of the evaluation process would be 

to have the leader assess them, check 

for quality, check that they did it, and 

listen to a customer contact or read a 

customer message. This approach would 

be a more efficient use of time for the 

leader and incredibly empowering for 

the teammate to know they are trusted 

to self-evaluate with the knowledge of 

being checked which creates a good 

possibility for success. 

Success of the Coaching Programme 

PayPal’s core values are collaboration, 

innovation, wellness, and inclusion. 

According to Dave, looking across each 

of these four core values, coaching is in 

every single one of them. 

Candidates eyes light up in interviews 

when PayPal communicates that they are 

core values-driven and that they invest in 

coaching. One candidate said that PayPal 

was at the top of their list because of 

the values-driven organization and knew 

about how they coached and how they try 

to lead people behaviourally under the 

understanding that as one exhibits the 

right behaviours one gets the right results. 

PayPal is attracting high-calibre candidates



as the reputation of the company is 

positively growing. The company is seen 

as committed to individual teammate 

engagement and the investments made 

in coaching is something that is becoming 

well known. When people hear how the 

organisation does things and hear the 

questions asked in interviews, they are 

very motivated by it. 

One of the goals of the coaching program 

is to ensure employees feel totally 

engaged in the company and that every 

single minute on PayPal time is focused on 

creating an experience for customers that 

keeps them coming back. With today’s 

customers anywhere around the globe, 

time is at a premium. When teammates 

solve a customer’s issue with a quick and 

clear answer, the customer is more likely to 

say, “Oh, I love this organization.” It elicits 

the feeling of “this is a great company. 

They really know what they are doing. 

They care about my time. They have solved 

my problem.” And that is the behaviour 

PayPal want in their teammates. When 

coaching shows a dramatic increase in 

their performance because they focused 

on the right behaviours, the employee 

may be highlighted for recognition in an 

internal communication. 

Success happens on a daily basis and the 

weekly report shows dozens of examples 

where coaching has made a positive 

difference. Successful interactions depend 

on several different factors, for example, 

the number of years of experience that 

an employee has had in an organization, 

the experiences they have had in that 

organisation, the type of person that they 

are and their communication style - are 

they directive or expressive? 

The team are trained in assessing the 

customer communication style, for 

example whether the customer uses an 

expressive, facts-based, or analytical style. 

The teammates are trained to match the 

style of the customer through listening 

for keywords, phrases, and tones that 

help to understand what those styles are. 

Styles are matched because the opposite 

- matching an expressive with an analytic 

approach - would be missing opportunities 

to make a really good connection. 

There are lots of stories and, as a global 

team, they learn to focus on the small little 

wins that connect the heart and the head. 

Dave tells a story about an employee 

in Omaha, Nebraska who was correct in 

identifying the customers communication 

style as expressive, but when it was 

time to decide how she was going to 

communicate with the customer, she was 

very doubtful that it would work in terms 

of how she prepared it. After a while, Dave 

and the employee agreed on an approach 

to match the feedback to the customer on 

their particular issue in an expressive style. 

The employee hummed and hawed about 

it and went back to the call and proceeded 

to go through the steps to communicate 

in that expressive manner and behold, the 

look in her eye was priceless and Dave can 

still see it to this day. It was almost like “Oh 

my gosh, this stuff really works.” 

Rapport building is crucial to have a good 

solid footing in the coaching relationship. 

In PayPal rapport building and engagement 

activities, both group and individually, are 

part of the whole structure of relationship 

building that can be anything including 

having conversations about somebody’s 

home life. If there is a particular issue that 

people have that is bugging them and could 

create a situation at work where they are 

distracted, the best leaders are the ones that 

are helping people through those situations 

by being a good listener, providing corporate 

resources to help individuals in that space 

and just being. Dave says leaders are a part 

Mom, Dad, uncle, brother, psychologist, 

sociologist, so when one is leading a team, 

one plays all these different roles and as 

the relationship is built, the confidentiality 

builds. 

Coaching helps to develop people’s sense 

about themselves and confidence grows as 

a by-product. Through self-assessing, people 

begin to believe in themselves and open 

up to other possibilities in their lives. It is a 

wonderful experience to see that happen 

and witness people jump into new roles and 

embrace a more positive way of being once 

they are given the opportunity. 

Introducing a 

Coaching & 

Mentoring Culture 

Talk to us about training your leaders, site coaches and coordinators to an 

international standard. 

Coaching Skills for Leaders | Programme Coordination | Executive Coaching



if the client has 

a wide range of 

feelings, help them 

choose the most 

important one and 

Increasing our 

work with it 

Emotional Wellbeing 

in the Workplace 

Benefits: 

• Encourages us to find the most 

Could you please describe what 

nourishing perspective that we can 

happened? 

Wouldn’t it be cool to have an effective framework to help us navigate through 

our emotions? Thanks to Pablo Calal, we now have just that - an effective 

Cognitive-Behavioral model to help us constructively deal with and manage our 

emotions called The DEPEND Model. 

• Understand the relationship 

between thoughts, feelings and 

behaviors 

• Explore our triggers 

find at a time 

• Allow us to create an action plan 

based on our needs 

Works best: 

If you reframed to make any personal 

remarks, how could you describe what 

happened? 

What are the actual facts? 

• Create emotional relief and 

emotional wellbeing 

Covid-19 related situations, Working 

E stands for Emotions: How did you 

Whether your client is a business owner, 

questions will have a massive impact 

If we aim to feel better, we need to be 

remotely, Burnout, Change management, 

feel? 

a leader or an employee, they probably 

not only at the business level (ability 

aware of our thoughts/beliefs. 

• Provides us with a framework 

Emotional wellbeing, Conflicts, Difficult 

have their own beliefs about how the 

to be effective, productive and 

to explore our emotions 

colleagues, Difficult employees, Fear of 

In this part of the process, we look at 

world works. We build up these mental 

successful) but on a personal level 

The DEPEND Model 

constructively while challenging 

failure, Performance and productivity 

how the person felt. For many of us, 

maps based on our experiences, our 

as well (engagement, commitment, 

our limiting beliefs 

issues, Adapting to new roles, Cultural 

our feelings might be quite vague: it 

learning, our upbringing, our culture, 

happiness and wellbeing). 

Wouldn’t it be cool to have an effective 

shock. It can be used to explore any 

felt bad, it wasn’t nice, etc. Naming the 

our friends, etc. Those beliefs help us to 

framework to help us navigate through 

emotional situation in and out of the 

feeling helps us to increase awareness, 

make sense of life as we know it but, are 

Why am I talking so much about 

our emotions? 

workplace. 

acceptance and accountability. I find 

they always accurate? 

mental maps, beliefs and business 

it very useful to work with a list of 

culture? Because our thoughts (or the 

For many years, I have been fascinated 

D stands for Describe 

feelings, as they help us acknowledge 

If we extrapolated this concept to 

procedures and principles behind the 

with the idea of creating a protocol 

our emotions and bring more 

the organisation, we’d come face 

to face with the business culture. 

What does the organisation think 

business) are an essential component 

of our wellbeing. 

to manage our emotions. However, it 

wasn’t until I completed my training 

as an Executive Coach at Kingstown 

what we think 

affects how we 

It is always important to understand the 

situation that triggered those emotions. 

You will have plenty of time to explore 

awareness. 

Since I became an Executive Coach my 

about management? Is there room 

for learning and improvement? What 

If I had to summarize my seven years of 

experience as a Therapist in one single 

College that all the pieces fell into 

place. The methodology of coaching 

feel and what we 

your client’s perspective, at this point it 

is important to try to remain as objective 

love for using the 0 to 10 rating scale 

system has really grown. They really 

about change? Is the business culture 

fostering growth, empowerment 

concept, it would be the following: 

what we think affects how we feel and 

has allowed me to create an effective 

Cognitive-Behavioral model to help us 

do about it 

as possible: this will allow your client to 

step back and detach enough to be able 

help us break things down into more 

manageable parts. 

and meaning? The answers to these 

what we do about it. 

constructively deal with our emotions. 

to explore it more openly.



Naming the feeling and rating it on a 

What beliefs might have been present 

How accurate are those thoughts? 

If there is something that you are 

Thank you for reading this article, I hope 

scale of 0 to 10 helps us understand 

at the time? 

struggling to accept, what could you do 

you enjoyed it. Before I go I have one 

what’s going on. Additionally, something 

How do you know? 

to be more understanding and loving 

last question for you, how could you 

quite curious happens. Let’s say that I 

Once we know what they were thinking 

until you do? 

implement this model to increase your 

feel hateful, and I rate my hate at a 3 

we can move to explore the way the 

What evidence do you have to support 

own emotional wellbeing? 

out of 10. As we begin to rise up the 

scale that hate begins to change and 

starts becoming its opposite, in this 

case, love. Opposite feelings differ only 

in degree. This is interesting because 

client reacted. 

How did you respond? 

What did you do? 

that view? 

If you explained what happened to 

somebody else, would they be able to see 

it the same way you do? 

naming the 

feeling helps 

us to increase 

Recommendations: 

• Use this model as a framework: 

grasp the concept and use your 

own questions. Listening at level 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if 

you have any doubts, I will be happy 

to hear from you. My Linkedin profile 

is Pablo Calal, my email is pablocalal@ 

the gap between them might be smaller 

than it seems. 

What connection do you think there 

N stands for Nice. 

awareness, 

2 and 3 will provide you with way 

more powerful questions. 

emotionalprotocol.com 

How did you feel? 

How would you name that feeling? 

is between what happened, your 

thoughts, your feelings and the way you 

responded? 

What’s the most constructive 

interpretation that you can make? 

acceptance and 

accountability 

• Be flexible: sometimes you might 

only need to use some parts of the 

model or even change the order. 

We might also take this opportunity 

We have been pretty challenging; it is 

Make it your own. 

How would you rate that feeling on a 

to explore what might have triggered 

time to show some love. I would say this is 

scale of 0 to 10? 

those feelings in the first place. 

perhaps one of the most important steps. 

• The model works best when it’s 

To understand why, there are a few things 

D stands for Do 

applied to situations that have 

If 0 would be the lowest rate of your 

E stands for Evidence 

that are worth mentioning: 

already happened. 

current feeling, what feeling would be a 

It would not be a coaching model if we 

10? (Tip: the easiest way to find this out 

This is one of my favorite parts of 

• When it comes to rating your 

wouldn’t take at least one small action 

• Make sure the client chooses an 

would be using an antonyms dictionary) 

the model. We are about to put our 

emotions, it doesn’t matter 

step, would it? Hehe, that’s what the last 

example that feels comfortable 

Judge Judy hats on and step into the 

how low your rating might be, 

step is all about. 

exploring. 

P stands for Perspective 

courtroom. 

it is alright, it could not be any 

different. Acceptance is key. 

What could you do to increase your 

• If the client has a wide range of 

We have explored the context, the 

We have discussed how intrinsically 

rating by one point? 

feelings, help them choose the 

client has named and rated their 

related our thoughts, feelings and 

• What you consider to be 

most important one and work with 

feelings, now it’s time to put things into 

behaviors are. At this point, we have a 

constructive at a lower rate might 

Looking at the situation, at your 

it. 

perspective. The purpose at this stage 

pretty good idea about what happened, 

look very different from what you 

thoughts and behaviors, what have you 

is to bring attention to the thoughts 

what they were thinking, how it made 

would consider constructive at a 

learnt? What do you think you could do 

• Please be aware that, even though 

they were having. 

them feel and what they did. Now it’s 

higher rate. However, as long as it 

differently next time to make you feel 

this is an effective model to deal 

time to see how accurate those thoughts 

feels nice at the time, it’s alright, 

better? 

with our emotions, it might not 

What was going through your mind 

really were. 

that is all you need. 

be enough for some clients. You 

when this happened? 

If you had your wellbeing in mind, what 

should always be open to the 

• Typically, you can only go up one 

would you do to improve this situation? 

possibility of referring your client 

notch at a time. You can’t jump 

What if you considered the wellbeing of 

to a specialist. 

from 2 to 9 in one go. That is why 

everyone else involved? 

focusing on finding the most 

constructive interpretation that 

you can make at a time is always 

so powerful. It will always lead you 

to the next notch. 

Pablo Calal 

• At what point will your current 

feelings turn to the opposite? At 

what exact moment will hatred 

turn into love? This might be an 

interesting conversation to have 

with your client. 

Pablo Calal is an EMCC accredited Executive Coach with a background in Psychotherapy. He helps small business owners, leaders and 

employees to increase emotional wellbeing in the workplace. He helps them manage their emotions in a constructive manner while 

empowering them to reach their business, leadership and/ or professional goals. 

Website: https://www.emotionalprotocol.com/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablo-calal/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emotionalprotocol 

Email: pablocalal@emotionalprotocol.com



UnCoached and UnCoachable: 

The Gap we Should be Concerned 

About 

Have you noticed the massive increase in people who are seeking coaching? Have 

you noticed the increase in organisations who are embracing a coaching culture? 

Have you noticed more leaders adopting a coaching style of leadership? Of course 

you have! Well, I’m not concerned about them. I am concerned about those who 

are not in coaching, and the organisations who are stuck in a traditional culture. I’m 

concerned the gap will grow too wide, too quickly, and people are being left behind. 

In my role at Kingstown College I 

have the privileged opportunity to 

exchange thoughts with some of the 

most brilliant minds in coaching - 

industry professionals and college 

faculty. I hear about the success 

stories of clients; I discuss new inhouse 

training; I talk to the global 

companies who roll out complete 

culture change. 

Those who are coached receive a 

gift. They experience another human 

being listening to them for an hour. 

Truly listening. No agenda. It’s an 

opportunity to hear their thought out 

loud and gain clarity on their position, 

cohesion in their planning, and 

confidence to take massive action. 

The opportunities for success and 

progress are phenomenal. And so a 

gap is created. 

Envy 

Watching others 

around them 

succeed, while 

they perceive 

themselves as 

perpetually stuck, 

can’t be a good 

thing. 

Have you heard the news reports and 

studies that are telling us that young 

adults are browsing Instagram to 

see the amazing lives being lived by 

bloggers and high flyers, only to find 

that it makes them feel even more 

down about their own life? The air 

brushed life that is published is often 

far removed from the truth of how 

that blogger lives and the quality of 

the relationships they have. 

But what about witnessing a person 

who is in coaching? What about seeing 

them excel with confidence and speed? 

They are overcoming challenges and 

achieving goals and targets like it’s 

goingout of fashion! Is that not causing 

culture to grow and, dare I say it, selfactualise. 

What a powerhouse that 

creates! What a powerful endorsement 

for the benefits of coaching for the 

organisation and the individual! 

And so, the gap gets wider. 

UnCoached or UnCoachable? 

How can we unlock the potential 

and the possibilities for those who 

have not yet discovered that they 

have the capacity to be sufficiently 

intraspective to be coached towards 

a chosen ambition? If we can crack 

that nut, we open up huge possibilities 

for our organisation and ourselves. 

Imagine a world where even more 

the same affect as the big bad social 

people experience the emotions 

media platforms? 

If progressive organisations are of being valued, self confident and 

identifying and hiring the talent which motivated. 

It could be argued that it is worse. 

Those who are in coaching may 

actually, really, be that successful and 

happy! Which in turn makes the gap 

wider, and the motivation to get started 

even more difficult to muster up. 

In a recent interview with Dave Reedy, 

a Senior Director at Paypal, he told 

me that they deliberately hire people 

is coachable, what are the options 

for those who are not coachable 

(yet!)? As a coach, I imagine you have 

encountered people who do not share 

your excitement for coaching. You may 

hear responses such as “Oh, that’s too 

deep for me!”, or “I don’t have any goals 

I want to work on”. What if they just 

haven’t had that type of conversation 

before with someone who is prepared 

If we don’t find a way to achieve this, 

the gap will get wider. Those who 

are coached will grow exponentially 

while those who are not coached, or 

coachable, remain stuck and stagnant. 

Watching others around them succeed, 

while they perceive themselves as 

perpetually stuck, can’t be a good 

thing. 

who are “intraspective” (Websters to champion them? It’s not that they 

Dictionary would define this as don’t want to have it, but they don’t As a profession, I think we have a 

‘capable of seeing inwardly’). Isn’t that 

interesting: The recruitment policy is 

deliberately favouring those who are 

capable of self reflection and personal 

growth. They are hiring people who are 

“coachable”. 

It makes sense that if you have a 

coaching culture that you would hire 

talent which ‘fits’ with that culture and 

the practices that go with it. 

think it’s possible. And why would I 

set a goal to work on if I don’t think I 

would have the support or ability to 

go after it? These are possibly the 

symptoms of a person who has not yet 

experienced a coaching conversation. 

So is uncoachable what we see on 

the surface of a person who is simply 

uncoached? Is there an ‘aha!’ moment 

inside them just waiting to be shown 

the way out? 

duty to explore how we can address 

this gap. It’s easy to get caught up 

in the excitement of being at the 

front of the herd, but what about the 

vulnerable at the back? I’m certainly 

not saying we should stop what we do, 

or that we should stop being amazing 

organisations, but we may need to be 

more cognisant of those who are not at 

the same stage of the journey. In fact, 

they may not have even been aware a 

journey was possible. 

Take a moment to think about that. An interesting thought from Sir 

A global multinational, a household Ken Robinson, (paraphrased from Just a thought…. 

name experiencing massive revenue Michelangelo) is that “the problem 

growth, is consciously recruiting with human beings is not that we aim 

coachable people. They are training 

leaders and site coaches in line with 

to high and fail, but rather that we aim 

too low and succeed”. 

ICF competencies, and creating a 

Alan Brereton 

Alan Brereton is an Executive Coach and Faculty Member at Kingstown College. With an education background in HR and Law, and experience 

which includes TV and Media, Alan brings a unique blend of experience and insight to his work as a coach. He also serves as Head of Marketing 

at Kingstown College and Editor of Coaching Magazine.



Updated ICF Competencies come 

into Effect 

The ICF Core Competencies were developed 

to support greater understanding about 

the skills and approaches used within 

today’s coaching profession as defined 

by ICF. These competencies and the ICF 

definition of coaching were used as the 

foundation for the development of the ICF 

Coach Knowledge Assessment (CKA). The 

ICF defines coaching as partnering with 

clients in a thought-provoking and creative 

process that inspires them to maximize their 

personal and professional potential. 

The Core Competencies are grouped into 

four domains according to those that 

fit together logically based on common 

ways of looking at the competencies in 

each group. The groupings and individual 

competencies are not weighted – they do 

not represent any kind of hierarchy and 

are all core and critical for any competent 

coach to demonstrate. 

The updated ICF Core Competencies 

were released in November 2019, 

marking its first update since the 

competencies’ creation in 1998. The 

updated Core Competencies will be 

integrated in ICF-Accredited Coach 

Training Programs curricula beginning 

in January 2021. 

To learn more about the updated ICF 

Core Competencies, you can watch the 

Updated Core Competency Video Series 

on the ICF YouTube channel. 

Applying for an ICF Credential 

The two primary requirements are hours 

of training and hours of experience. Hours 

of training refers to an ICF accredited 

training programme. For example, if you 

have completed the Advanced Diploma 

in Personal, Leadership and Executive 

Coaching, you are completed 160 training 

hours which is more than enough for the 

ACC and PCC credentials. Developing your 

coaching hours of experience will be your 

next task. You can begin to count those 

hours from the time you begin an accredited 

training programme. At ACC level, for 

example, the 100 hour requirement can be 

divided into 25 pro-bono hours and 75 paid 

hours. ICF like to ensure that credentialed 

coaches are of the highest standard so the 

requirement to have been paid for your 

services is a key indicator (although there 

is no stipulation of what fee should be 

exchanged). 

When making the application itself, a 

coach will also be required to submit an 

audio recording and a transcript of a 30 

minute coaching session, and should 

have successfully completed the Coach 

Knowledge Assessment which is a multiple 

choice assessment based on the core 

competencies and the code of ethics. 

The journey to an ICF credential does have 

some requirements that necessitate thought 

and time, but these requirements ensure 

that your credential is valued and respected 

by the market. 

ICF is an independent body so to start 

your accreditation journey, visit www. 

coachfederation.org



Meet the Faculty 

Edward Boland 

Director, Executive Coach & Lecturer 

Edward Boland is a Director of Kingstown College. Edward is a highly experienced coach, mentor, trainer 

and facilitator. He has a particular interest in the area of career coaching and has worked with hundreds 

of clients assisting them in how to prepare for and conduct a professional interview. He is the only 

qualified Assessor in Ireland for the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and he is a Board 

Member of the EMCC in Ireland. 

Paula King 

Director, Executive Coach & Lecturer 

Director of Kingstown College, Paula is a psychologist and leadership coach. Paula holds an MSc in Coaching 

and Organisational Development from Portsmouth University and is Past President of the European Mentoring 

& Coaching Council (EMCC) Ireland. She is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the (ICF) Master Practitioner Level 

EMCC Global; Senior Practitioner Level Team Coaching (ITCA) and Coach Supervisor (distinction) with EMCC 

Global. She is recipient Global Coaching Leadership Award – European Coach of the Year from EMCC Global. 

James Mcleod 

Executive Coach & Senior Faculty Member 

James Mcleod is a key member of the Kingstown College team and a tutor and executive coach. He 

has over 30 years of business experience in a variety of senior leadership roles at established media 

powerhouses including The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. 

Dr. Chandrika Deshpande 

Research Lead 

Chandrika Deshpande is a Learning and Development professional specializing in Talent Management 

and Organizational Development. She in now actively engaged in Coaching and Research in the area of 

Corporate wellbeing. 

Jane Perry 

Executive Coach & Faculty Member 

Jane Perry is a member of the Kingstown College faculty. She specialises in developing personal and 

leadership strengths and, in doing so, facilitates business owners, managers, professionals and teams to 

be self-aware, stronger, more confident and notably more effective. 

Dr Rachael Clarke 

Executive Coach & Facilitator 

Dr Rachael Clarke is a Neuroscientist with 12 years healthcare leadership experience at a local, regional 

and global level, supporting leadership teams before following her curiosity into the learning and 

development space. 

Mark Duffy 


Mark Duffy is a member of the Kingstown College faculty. Mark is an executive coach, corporate trainer 

and faculty member with over ten years’ experience in the field. He is fascinated by the psychology of 

exceptional leadership, well-being and performance in the workplace. 

Judith Spring 


Judith Spring is a member of the Kingstown College Faculty and is involved in design and delivery of 

training programmes, consultancy and student support for the College. 

Fabio Garganego 

Executive Coach and lecturer with Kingstown College - Italy 

Fabio is a Faculty Member with Kingstown College, a Life and Career Coach with a particular interest in 

Corporate Well-Being. He has over 10 years experience in coaching and mentoring teams in different 

organisations. He has a Master degree in Electronic Engineering and an Master in Organization, 

Management and Innovation. 

Dr Jim Loughrey 

Associate of Kingstown College 

Dr Jim Loughrey is one of Kingstown College’s external assessors. He delivers executive coaching and 

coaching supervision throughout Ireland and has held a number of Executive Director and Board-level 

positions within the Public Sector. 

Andrea Splendori 

Executive Coach and lecturer with Kingstown College - Italy 

Andrea is a Faculty Member with Kingstown College, a Life and Career Coach with a particular interest in 

Corporate Well-Being. Andrea specialises in Career and Life Coaching as well as Corporate Wellbeing with 

a primary focus on Team Building. He has owned and run his own business for the past 20 years with a sales 

network that includes Ireland, UK and USA.



Alan Brereton 


As an Executive Coach, Alan works in particular with individuals and teams in the creative professions, and 

those who would like to develop the competencies of creativity and innovation. He has a background in TV 

and media and is Head of Marketing for Kingstown College. Alan lectures on the Advanced Diploma course 

and holds a BA in Human Resource Management, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies and has also 

studied Luxury Brand Management. 

In-House Training Solutions 

Talk to us about delivering diplomas and courses 

in-house for your organisation 

Abigail Abbott 

Support Coordinator at Kingstown College 

Abigail is the Learner Support Coordinator at Kingstown College. Abigail has delivered educational programming to 

primary, secondary, and third level students and previously worked for an International Education company as the 

Activities Manager and assistant Center Manager for their International Language Campus in Boston, MA, USA. Abigail 

also has a background in research, in the areas of student motivation, engagement, and wellbeing, specifically during 

times of transition (e.g. high school to college, college to the workplace, etc). Abigail has an MEd in Positive Behaviour 

Management from Trinity College Dublin and a BA in Psychology from Bates College, Maine, USA. 

Leah Headon 

Head of Community Development 

As a Performance Nutritionist & Leadership Coach, Leah works at optimising their health & performance in both team & 

individual based client scenarios. Leah successfully runs her own nutrition & lifestyle focused consultancy, Haeloo Nutrition, 

along with working for Kingstown College as Head of Community Development. Leah supports the college in growing 

community engagement through the Kingstown College App. Leah has a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Performance 

Nutrition along with a Ba (Hons) in Communication Studies & Diploma in Personal, Leadership & Executive Life Coaching.. 


Executive Coach & Project Manager 

Siobhán Cahalan is an executive coach, with a wealth of experience in international management and 

leadership roles. She also hold qualifications in Professional Coaching Practice and Ethics, Corporate 

Governance, Third Party Risk and Global Financial Compliance. 

Camila Romani 

Course Coordinator and Office Manager 

Camila is the Course Coordinator and Office Manager in Kingstown College. 

With 2 bachelor’s degrees, one in English Teaching and another one in Accounting; she has worked as course 

coordinator, customer service and administrative assistant in both corporate and educational settings. 

Carlos Filho 

Administrative Assistant 

Carlos is the Administrative Assistant in Kingstown College. 

He has a degree in Programming and has worked for several years in Universities in Brazil. In Ireland he has 

worked mostly in customer service, always in a friendly and helpful manner. 

ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN PERSONAL, 

LEADERSHIP AND EXECUTIVE COACHING 

Accredited by ICF and EMCC, also includes a Level 6 QQI 

Qualification 

This internationally accredited diploma is not only a popular 

choice for private coaching practitioners, but also for 

progressive managers and leaders who want to introduce 

a coaching dialogue to management style. 

ADVANCED DIPLOMA IN MENTAL HEALTH 

AND WELLBEING COACHING 

Accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching 

Council, and also includes a Level 6 QQI qualification 

As mental health and wellbeing becomes a greater priority 

for organisations, leaders and human resources professionals 

need to be skilled in addressing these challenges. Graduates 

learn how to communicate and interact with their clients and 

employees in a more positive and empowering way. 

CERTIFICATE IN MENTORING 

Accredited by Coaching and Mentoring International (CMI) 

This certificate is an ideal qualification to be delivered 

in-house to organisations which have, or would like to 

promote a culture of mentoring and coaching. Mentoring 

has also been well evidenced to impact positively on an 

organisations’ recruitment, succession planning, diversity 

management and talent retention. 

ACCREDITED CORPORATE COACH 

QQI Level 6 Professional Coaching Practice and Ethics, 

EMCC Accreditation (Foundation Level) 

Begin your journey to become an accredited Corporate 

Coach or Executive Coach. This course sets out best practice 

for coaches as well as equipping them with the basic tools 

to manage a coaching session with a client or employee. 

Graduates of this course have the opportunity to upgrade 

their qualification to the Advanced Diploma in Personal, 

Leadership and Executive Coaching, or Mental Health and 

Wellbeing Coaching. They may avail of an exemption from 

50% of the modules and assessment of that diploma. 

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT SPECIAL 

PURPOSE AWARD (QQI - LEVEL 6) 

Formerly Train the Trainer 

Kingstown College offers the complete Special Purpose Award which 

includes Training Needs Identification and Design, and Training 

Delivery and Evaluation. This qualification is the benchmark for 

those who analyse training needs, and design and deliver training 

programmes. 

OTHER SHORT COURSES FOR IN-HOUSE 

TRAINING 

• International Business Communication - Creating common 

platforms of understanding in international teams 

• Coaching for Managers 

• Creating Five Star Customer Service 

• Conflict Resolution and Diffusion 

• Mentoring for Managers 

• The Management Development Tool Box (10 modules) 

• The Leadership Development Tool Box 

• Convincing & Selling your Solutions 

• Communicating to Engage, Inform and Influence 

• Creative Problem-Solving 

• Advanced Negotiation Skills 

TUTOR LED WORKSHOPS AND 

MASTERCLASSES 

Training, Inspiration & Conference Keynotes 

Many organisations invite Kingstown College to deliver short 

inspirational or educational webinars, or full virtual training 

courses. While bespoke courses can be created we also have 

many topics ready to go! What topic would help your team 

or organisation move forward? Contact us to talk about your 

best solution.


We can help you to create bespoke training content, 

provide e-learning delivery platforms for organization wide 

education and training, and any necessary assessments or 

knowledge reviews. 

Let’s talk about how we can combine 

your expertise with ours! 

info@kingstowncollege.ie • +353 1 2845360

Kingstown College Coaching Magazine vol.6 2020/2021

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