Bláthnaid Ní Fhátharta, Kepak’s chief communications & corporate affairs officer, recently completed the UCD Smurfit Executive Development Coaching for Impact at Work course and came away with a set of tools that can be used to overcome common workplace challenges.
“My key takeaway from the programme was increased self-awareness through coaching, which is critical from a professional development perspective,” she says. “I also came away with a set of tools and models that I can use to overcome challenges such as delivering difficult feedback in a way that promotes constructive outcomes. I also learned how a coaching approach can be used to empower team members.”
Ní Fhátharta began her career in academia as a marketing lecturer at Dublin Business School before moving into industry as a brand manager with Kepak almost 20 years ago. “I have been very lucky to have worked across several of their market leading brands, including Big Al’s and Rustlers. I now have group responsibility for the corporate brand as chief communications and corporate affairs officer.”
She decided to do the Smurfit Executive Development Coaching for Impact at Work course as a response to the rapidly changing work and business environment.
Rapid, constant, and disruptive change is now the norm and I know as a manager I simply don’t and can’t have all the right answers
“Rapid, constant, and disruptive change is now the norm and I know as a manager I simply don’t and can’t have all the right answers,” she explains. “To cope with this new reality, I wanted to understand how to adopt a coaching approach that would empower my team to develop their own solutions to the challenges they face. The coaching course in UCD allowed me to enhance my coaching ability by gaining an understanding of the various coaching models, latest principles, and best practice.”
Managers can’t rely on past experience to come up with answers to problems in the current environment, Ní Fhátharta adds. “In the past, managers were expected to have all the answers. That’s not good for the team’s development or the manager. You need to move to a coaching approach.”
Of course, there is still room for managers to mentor or advise team members. “There is a role for both. There are times when you need to be a mentor and give advice based on past experience. At other times it’s better to support the team member to find the answers and solutions for themselves. Ultimately, that’s better for them. That was one of my key takeaways from the course.”
For her, coaching is about empowering and accountability. “You are not supporting your team’s longer term development by giving them the answers; coaching is about empowering people to come up with their own solutions. For example, if someone on your team comes to you and says they are having a problem with a colleague, you can say that you know the individual concerned and will speak to them and sort it out. You feel good and the team member feels good, but next time they have a problem with a colleague they won’t be able to solve it.”
The in-person format of the course was very welcome. “This was actually my first in-person training session post-Covid. It was really great to get into a room with real people again. The course is very practical and therefore some of the learning elements such as observation would have been difficult in a virtual setting. Also, I also learned a lot from my peers, which again would have been missing from a virtual setting. That’s not to say there isn’t value in online learning, of course.”
Coaching is becoming integral to the fabric of the learning culture at Kepak — a skill that good managers at all levels need to develop and deploy
The physical surroundings also helped. “People going back to college again after some time might have had the lecture halls of old in their minds, but the Smurfit campus is very different. It’s very much set up to support every participant in achieving a memorable and enjoyable learning experience. The course was very interactive and while we were given a theoretical overview of coaching models, most of the learning was achieved through a process of practice and feedback from tutors and peers, which really helps to embed the learnings.”
Those learnings have direct relevance to Ní Fhátharta’s workplace. “Increasingly, coaching is becoming integral to the fabric of the learning culture at Kepak — a skill that good managers at all levels need to develop and deploy,” she explains. “Over the last two years we have evolved our approach to people development to one which focuses on empowering our people to help them reach their full potential and to take charge of their own careers and development. This programme very much supports this approach as coaching is at the heart of our enhancing performance process.”
She advises future programme participants to adopt a curious and open mindset.
“The practical coaching aspect of the course requires you to be fully present and use real personal and professional situations as discussion topics. You learn not only from the professional coaches who deliver the course but from the other coaches on the course, so you need to be willing to share your experiences to get the most out of the course. The course provides a safe and confidential space to share those experiences.”
Click here for more information on Coaching for Impact at Work, running from September 21st-23rd, 2022