Interview series - Growing Professionals Orlaith Carmody

Orlaith is a Leadership, Talent and Development Director, Executive Coach (EMCC Senior Practitioner) and High-Performance Trainer with global experience. She runs her business with her partner/Husband Gavin Duffy and works with senior executives and organisations on personal and business growth.

Orlaith started her career as a journalist and worked with RTE until she had kids' and then pivoted her learning to do a masters in communication and then as an executive coach as she had already clocked up over 1,000 hours coaching clients adding education to her toolset.

Over the last few years, we have seen the trend in introducing online to part of the agenda with our clients, but we prefer the in-person approach which gives us more rapport with our clients that we engage with due to the pandemic like most companies like us we have had to go fully online and be creative how we have had to adapt how we now interact. eLearning can be great as an addition to the blended approach, but we still miss the traditional method of being with people in person.

Our whole communication style within organisations is now flattened. We need to use discussions, problem-solving and be there on purpose. The learning comes from within and finding a respectful way to help and adopt the way people want or need to learn.

How we create a buzz in the real world, or online the very first thing you can do is gain learners trust. Open up with a story or question and grab their attention so they can decide that this person is worth listening to and make sure they feel that they are being heard.  Setting up the scene that this will be easy to follow but before we do this, we have to make sure that people are at ease so little things like having something social-first to get to know each other.

Our concentration is a lot less online, so you have to get movement back so taking regular breaks to get the energy back in so they are ready to learn more as we know it can be tough with lots of distractions around us like our phones etc.