

Happier At Work®
Aoife O'Brien
Happier at Work® is the go-to podcast for client-facing leaders who want to create thriving workplaces where people and businesses succeed. Hosted by career and workplace culture strategist Aoife O’Brien, each episode explores the psychology of work, tackling the biggest challenges and opportunities shaping today’s workplace—from leadership and career growth to workplace culture, imposter syndrome, and employee engagement.
Blending expert insights, psychological research, real-world stories, and actionable strategies, Happier at Work® helps you build a career and workplace where people feel valued, supported, and inspired. Guests include leading psychologists, bestselling authors, and professionals like you who are putting these ideas into practice.
Whether you’re a leader looking to create a high-performing team or an ambitious professional navigating career growth, this podcast gives you the tools to drive real change.
🎧 Subscribe now and join the movement!
Blending expert insights, psychological research, real-world stories, and actionable strategies, Happier at Work® helps you build a career and workplace where people feel valued, supported, and inspired. Guests include leading psychologists, bestselling authors, and professionals like you who are putting these ideas into practice.
Whether you’re a leader looking to create a high-performing team or an ambitious professional navigating career growth, this podcast gives you the tools to drive real change.
🎧 Subscribe now and join the movement!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 27, 2020 • 47min
27: Saskia Kremer on Personal Leadership
This 7th episode in the Leadership Series features Saskia Kremer. We speak personal leadership and what you need to do in order to manage yourself. We cover things like being proactive rather than reactive, reflecting on your day “if you don’t run the day, the day runs you” but in a non-judgemental way, chunking your vision down to smaller pieces, and celebrating the wins.
Saskia helps successful, time challenged high level management, directors and business owners, who can’t find the bandwidth to pursue more profitable projects and increase their performance, without the overwhelm.
Saskia, once a Missionary, worked alongside Mother Teresa herself, which brought her around the globe, helping people discover their meaning in life in sometimes heart-breaking circumstances. She left the missions following her own experience of burnout to pursue her lifelong dream of having her own business.
In 2016 she moved from Holland to Ireland and specialized in working with business owners, consultants and managers showing them how to create a bigger vision for their business and life, create clarity on more profitable projects and create higher performing teams. She has worked with countless clients in Europe and continues to build her reach.
Her story was featured in National Newspapers and with Irish broadcasters including RTE one with Ryan Tubridy. You will find her speaking and inspiring people at events globally.
www.saskia.ie
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien
www.empowermentcoaching.ie

Mar 20, 2020 • 48min
26: Timen Baart on Trust
This 6th episode in the Leadership Series features Timen Baart from TrustXP. We speak about all things trust in the workplace, with a specific focus on employee trust and what as leaders we can do to drive trust. We answer questions like: What is trust? Why is it important? What drives trust? Timen shares his insights on this elusive topic, and delves into the key drivers: fairness; competence; identification; reciprocity; transparency. It all starts with leadership!Timen Baart is the author of Win With Trust. Timen presents why an empathetic approach to trust is the key to success in business. He explains that employee trust requires leaders to view employees not as liabilities, nor assets, but as individuals who are the hero in their own story. Trust starts as an elusive concept, but Timen presents a framework to identify trust issues and provides a way to systematically improve trust. It arms managers and leaders with the awareness and skills to increase trust, and to make the business case for trust. As the CEO of TrustXP, he works with companies and consultants to measure and enhance employee trust.www.trustxp.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien www.empowermentcoaching.ie

Mar 13, 2020 • 47min
25: Asumpta Gallagher on Leadership
This episode features Asumpta Gallagher, the owner and founder of Best Practice. She launched her business in early 2018 to provide supports to GP’s, their Practices and their Staff. The services that Best Practice provide, enables GPs to spend more time being the Doctors they want to be. Best Practice helps to standardise processes, implement systems as well as providing tailored training to staff inhouse, remotely and through external workshops. A well managed Practice empowers and motivates the entire Practice Team, and results in a better work life balance for everyone as well as improved Patient Care. A full list of services can be found on www.bestpractice.ie Asumpta and I discuss what makes a good leader, the difference between managing and leading, ambition, success, asking for help and starting with why.www.bestpractice.ie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rZLZwwq6rA https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien www.empowermentcoaching.ie

Mar 6, 2020 • 56min
24: Tim Kidd on Putting People First
This episode features Tim Kidd, the Europanel Managing Director for Kantar’s Worldpanel division, with responsibility for the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Greece plus the US. Kantar Worldpanel is centred on the creation of data and insight to help clients understand people better (specifically what they buy and consume) and to inspire growth. Tim has been in the business for 27 years and is retiring at the end of March, which will be a sad and happy day in equal measure. He believes strongly that if we get the people part of business “right”, then clients will get more value from their relationship with us and this in turn will lead to us having a stronger business ourselves. And by “right” he means that everyone in the team knows where we’re going, what their part in that is, is able to grow personally, is valued and respected and has fun along the way too. Many companies talk about people, but he hopes his legacy will be a to have a led a team where the people focus is authentic.Tim and I discuss what makes a good leader, what it means to put people first, and what practical steps you can take to make it a reality!TIM.KIDD@kantar.comhttps://www.kantarworldpanel.com/ie/Careerswww.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien

Feb 28, 2020 • 55min
23: Stephen Naughton on What makes a Good Leader
This episode features Stephen Naughton, an experienced leadership coach and consultant with unique skills in operational leadership and team coaching. He has over 16 years’ experience in leading teams in financial services and developing the Operations Performance Centres of Excellence. Stephen covering a wide variety of topics such as leadership, emotional intelligence, diversity awareness, virtual communications and resilience. He continues to coach executives and also coaches college students on a pro bono basis. He's also the host of the Good Boss Bad Boss Podcast and has a passionate belief in the potential of every human being!Stephen and I discuss what makes a good leader, playing to your strengths, the importance of reflection, values, and the importance of connection in building trust. A leader must: inspire trust; clarify the purpose; align the systems; unleash the talent. Above all, a leader is someone who others want to follow!https://www.stephennaughton.com/good-boss-bad-boss-podcasthttps://www.stephennaughton.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien

Feb 21, 2020 • 58min
22: Fiona English on Meaning at Work
22: Fiona English on Meaning at Work by Aoife O'Brien

Feb 14, 2020 • 55min
21: Leadership Series Bernard Jackman - lessons from sport
This episode features Bernard Jackman, former Irish international and Leinster rugby player whose story of success and failure – of bouncing back – makes him an engaging and entertaining speaker who can talk with authority, ease and humour about what success looks like and how to take responsibility for, and create, your own success.Bernard and I discuss what leadership means, what makes a good leader, and recipes for success. Leadership starts with purpose, clear communication of that purpose, a strategy and plan in place to achieve that, and a clear culture of behaviours to enable the strategy. This is all made possible by clear communication channels and providing feedback as to where you are versus where you need to be.https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardjackman/https://www.linkedin.com/in/aoifemobrien https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5771014-the-talent-code

Feb 7, 2020 • 45min
20: Special Episode on Imposter Syndrome
In this special episode of the podcast, I speak with a range of people about their experience of imposter syndrome. Louise Goss is founder of Homeworker magazine, Adrian Whelan is a Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Intelligence for Investor Services at Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), Andrea Mara is a crime fiction author, Peter Hill works in analytics in the fast moving consumer goods industry in Sydney, Korina Duffy has her own business Korina Duffy Fitness. All of them share their own experience of imposter syndrome: how it shows up and what we can do about it.Imposter syndrome can show up in many ways. Trying to be perfect (perfectionism) or overcompensating because you think you don’t know enough and you’re going to be “found out”; procrastinating doing things because nothing you do is ever good enough; you think that “other people” know much more than you do, and you compare yourself to the anonymous masses; you’re trying to be a superhero and be the expert at absolutely everything; you’re afraid of being judged; you believe you’re underqualified; being out of your comfort zone; the more you know, the more you know you don’t know!Overcoming imposter syndrome: know that you’re not alone, it is experienced by people at all levels it doesn’t favour one gender versus another; recognise imposter syndrome for what it is; learn from your mistakes, using “failure” as a way to learn and grow; do the work now, don’t wait until you “feel” like you’re an imposter/ in a situation where your imposter will rear its ugly head; think about who you serve (it’s not about you); talk to someone about how you’re feeling; put together a success, praise, feedback folder; own your own story, be responsible for your own story.

Jan 31, 2020 • 36min
19: Sara Lasker on Hygge
This episode features Sara Lasker of Healthy & Hygge. We talk all things Hygge, considered a defining characteristic of Danish culture. Hygge is associated with cosiness and an overall sense of harmony with your environment leading to greater wellbeing. We discuss how it’s not just a winter phenomenon, how to be more Hygge, and what that looks like specifically in work.Health is more than just the number on a glucose meter. As one of the first people in the world dually certified as a Master Certified Health Education Specialist and Certified Diabetes Educator, Sara works to help people find harmony in all areas of wellness: Occupational, Social, Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, Emotional, Environmental, and Financial. She has worked in education, government, medical clinics, non-profits and worn many titles in life Daughter, Diabetes Advocate, Counsellor, Teacher, Wife, Medical Assistant, Coach, but those do not define her just like a number should not define you!www.healthyandhygge.comwww.onetonline.org

Jan 24, 2020 • 46min
18: Kate Maree O'Brien on Boundaries
This episode features Kate Maree O’Brien, leadership expert. We talk all things boundaries – how to recognise when your boundaries are unclear or non-existent, what lies beneath that behaviour, and how to untangle yourself from that web. People pleasing leads to over-functioning, which in turn leads to under-functioning of those around you. Are you taking things on for other people that they really should be doing for themselves? Turn unspoken agreements into spoken boundaries. We train people how to treat us. Don’t be afraid to say “no” when you mean it, it won’t damage the relationship. Take some time to really understand your needs, and communicate them. Never “let this one slide” or say to yourself “just this once” – it’s a slippery slope! Remember your “why”!Kate Maree O’Brien lives and breathes personal leadership. She’s the founder of SHE - Australasia’s largest women’s leadership and empowerment event – and over the last 15 years, has personally smashed through major glass ceilings – again and again and again, demonstrating all that she stands for in being able to rewrite our own futures. Kate was once addicted to drugs, anorexic and suffered from social anxiety. Nowadays she’s a highly regarded leadership coach, sought after speaker, and is well known for her down-to-earth teachings and bullshit free approach to creating breakthrough results.https://katemareeobrien.com/training/