Testimonials

Colm was my Executive Coach last year when I was going through a significant career change.  He helped me look at options from new perspectives and I honestly would not have moved function and role without these insights.  It started off with a wish to do something different and soon became a very tactical exercise to define stakeholders, mobilise advocates and hold myself accountable for making the change happen!  He has an excellent skill to come on the journey with you, to challenge you along the way and ensure you are getting the optimal outcome! I am reenergised with my new role in the same company I have been in for 20 years.

Anonymous, Senior Director, Pharma Industry

Colm has been coaching me during the last 9 months (6 sessions in total), and I would highly recommend him as a coach. The core development focus areas we covered included building personal brand, improving communication, developing skills and confidence in relationship building and building people management skills. Colm is a great listener and has an excellent ability in asking very good leading questions that helped me actively identify key issues and come up with solutions. I started feeling the benefits of coaching straight after the first session after I applied some of the recommendation to they way I introduced myself and presented my story. Over time, sessions covered various areas helping me to gain more confidence and apply them to various day to day situations. Colm is also very easy going and fun person to work with and has a natural ability to build trust, such that it is very easy to share the key concerns with him and then subsequently work on them. I would highly recommend Colm if you want to work on your personal brand, presentation, and relationship building abilities.

Danylo Razlovan, Senior investment Associate, Waterland Private Equity Ireland

I engaged with Colm in the first year of a new leadership role.  Colm helped me identify areas of strength and areas that I could focus on and develop as a leader.  He did this in two ways, firstly, by discussing what I myself perceived to be my strengths and weaknesses and, secondly and more importantly, I think, by conducting a 360 review my colleagues.  The feedback from colleagues I found particularly useful in encouraging me to continue doing what I do well but also spurring me on to develop in other areas and contribute more effectively as a leader.

Prof Frank Monahan, Dean of Agriculture, UCD

I worked with Colm over the summer of 2021 after internally transitioning from a HR Manager to a HR Director role. After supporting me to quickly identify what I believed to be challenges and/or development areas, Colm conducted a really valuable 360 evaluation with my new senior management peers. This proved to be a really solid and authentic foundation from which we worked over the course of a number of coaching sessions.

Working with Colm helped me to identify and understand my insecurities as a leader and develop realistic mechanisms and tools to step into my new role with authority and, more importantly, confidence in my ability, my values and approach. I really enjoyed working with Colm, he has a great ability to lead the sessions in a way that facilitates positive, progressive and solution focused thinking that is sensible, practical and aligned with your own leadership style and values. Colm got to the core of what was really impacting me in stepping into my new role and his approach felt like it was adapted to my specific needs as a coachee and not a specific model or generic approach. 

I hope to work with Colm on my own professional development again in the future, aswell as seeking to involve him with our senior leaders on organisation wide programmes.

Celine McNamara, HR Director, Jigsaw - National Centre for Youth Mental Health

I undertook 6 coaching sessions with Colm last year to explore options to develop and expand my current role. From the start I found Colm great to work with. He is very professional and has an excellent manner. He is non-judgmental, intuitive and extremely personable and this facilitated a very open and honest working environment. He understood the competing demands of work, but helped me focus on the importance of spending time to work on wider career goals, alongside the day job. He provided useful tools and methods to help me assess my priorities and key objectives, but created the space for me to determine what worked best myself. This has had a more sustainable impact, as it was led by me. I would highly recommend Colm.

Darina White, Head of Legal Projects, Arthur Cox

I commenced my coaching relationship with Colm in March 2020 - due to Covid, we never got a chance to meet face to face but this didn’t hinder our progress. I commenced a new role at the height of Covid and can confidently say that Colm guided and supported me through one of the most challenging spells of my career.  
I found the “The extraordinary leader 360 feedback” really useful as it allowed me to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses and together with Colm, I created a development plan. Colm has a fabulous ability to assist with the deconstruction of an issue and encourages a look back on previous experience when considering possible solutions. After each session with him, I felt encouraged and empowered to use the insights to make improvements in my professional life.  I can honestly say that Colm’s coaching has greatly assisted with my recent successful appointment to a senior role within the organisation.
I would highly recommend Colm as an Executive Coach.

Ciara Stack, Head of Customer Services, AIB

I have worked with Colm this year and find him to be an outstanding Coach. I consider Colm to be the real deal in what is becoming an increasingly busy market space. What sets Colm apart for me, is his ability to really understand what personal and business impact the client is seeking to accomplish. He then helps translate this into a purposeful pathway to success. It is through this ability, supported by the process of exploring one’s own self-awareness that enables Colm to deploy the most impactful and appropriate tools to develop and maximise potential. It is not a one cap fits all approach but one that is bespoke to the needs and goals identified. Colm is a transformational coach who acts with the highest levels of integrity, brings an element of fun to the process and whose purpose oriented approach resonates with anyone seeking impactful development on an individual or team basis.

Declan Sheridan, BHR Manager, Abbott

I would highly recommend Colm as a coach. I really benefitted from my coaching sessions with Colm. He helped me identify my strengths and raised my awareness of issues that were getting in my way. He helped me realise that I needed to develop, and have confidence in my own leadership style. I can honestly say that I had a “eureka” moment during each session. While I felt the benefits of the coaching immediately, it was only when the  Covid19 pandemic hit that I really appreciated how much I got from the sessions with Colm. Apart from all that, the sessions were always good fun, the time flew by and I now feel like I have an invisible cheerleader whispering in my ear during any challenging situations I find myself in.

Associate Professor Evelyn Doyle, Head of the School of Biology & Environmental Science, UCD

Running any business poses challenges that require good leadership to overcome. Investing in your own leadership skills is an essential part of building a team’s skillset in a growing organisation. My one-to-one leadership coaching sessions with Colm have played a pivotal role in helping me take a step back and strategically manage the company and the team. Colm has been a huge help to my own personal growth in this space.”

Kevin Moore, Managing Director, Legacy Communications

Colm’s approach to coaching brought me immediate and long-lasting benefits in my role. From our first meeting there was a path identified to improve my performance as an executive. Colm’s use of a wide range of methods produced meaningful information that allowed me to see what actions needed to be taken at the right time. I continue to see the benefits of Colm’s coaching.

Graham Crowley, Head of Claims Analytics & Insights, Allianz Ireland

Colm's coaching allowed me to get an objective view of how I impact a group.  Colm's ability to suggest subtle response changes have made significantly positive impacts on how I engage with my team and my organisation.  Our coaching sessions gave me perspective and skills to allow me to manage my responses positively.  This was achieved in a short number of meetings, through straightforward methods, driving for authentic and lasting results.  I would recommend Colm's coaching to anyone who is open to improving how they engage with others.

Ciara Scully, Pricing Strategy Manager, Britvic

Colm, in his capacity as my coach, helped me identify opportunities I had to develop as a manager.  Colm's casual, personal, provoking and knowledgeable coaching style had a significant influence on how I identified areas of focus and, indeed, how I monitored my achievement of these.  This engagement helped me grow, not only as a manager and a member of a peer group, but I found items that I was clearly able to bring into my personal life.  I continue to use the tools Colm shared with me.

Philip O'Neill, Head of Group Finance, Irish Life

I really appreciated the sessions with Colm.  Starting with a perfect review of my leadership 360 survey, identifying strengths and development areas, up to a perfect action plan to optimize my skill set.  He has the instinct to turn the right screws to bring people to the next level.  Sometimes the good ideas are so crystal clear but someone has to put you on track.

Oliver Graubner, Market Operations Director, Activision

The Rocket Model is an essential toolkit for any manager looking to drive high performance teams.  It provides easy to follow principles that drive high impact when all put together.  Discussing the feedback around team performance was also a great way of building trust within the team and having open conversations with each other.  We also had a lot of fun working with Colm and Melissa, which is equally important.

Annica Pender, Director, Tech Industry

"Colm opened a new world for me.  He was my personal leadership coach while I was based in Europe.  During our time together, Colm helped me see my shortcomings and my strengths; he helped me see a higher potential in me.  With Colm's assistance, I was able to prepare for the role and he coached me to be a better leader.  I am very proud of every moment I got to learn from Colm.  If you need a leadership coach, Colm is a great person to go to."

Abbas Meghjee, Regional Director of Sales, Global IT Company

"I have had the pleasure to get Leadership Coaching from Colm over the last year.  He has been highly influential on me and I would like to thank him for his thoughtfulness, broad perspectives, ablity to level set (bringing me to solid grounding), excellent listening skills, great advice and so much more.

I still find it incredible that he retains so much from previous conversations.  Colm has helped me to be tactical with specific situations and strategic with my overall development.  In short, Colm is a great Coach, Consultant and Mentor."

Frank Hattann, Inside Sales Leader, Microsoft

“Dynamic Leadership Development (DLD) provides structured and clear thinking to the many situations we have in Symantec.  They also bring to bear years of relevant and applicable experience.  Follow up and follow through are strong values. Meetings are always run extremely well and the professional with cogent reasoning always apparent. Progress is easy to monitor.

I’d also note that their consultants are always enthusiastic and energetic (even when the management team themselves might be wilting).  Finally, even in these financially challenging times, I feel that the money is being well spent with DLD.”

Tommy McShane, Sr. Director, Symantec

"I found Colm very helpful in clarifying my thinking and challenging me to examine my own strengths and weaknesses, in a non-threatening way, helping me to clarify my career goals."

Mairead O'Carroll, Chief Financial Officer, Irish Life

"Colm has worked with me when at ServiceSource, both as part of the Leadership team and on a one to one basis.

I found his coaching style very suitable for what we needed, and his advice and support was important through times of great pressure and at times of confliciting priorites, which the organisation went through as part of an explosive growth.  I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending Colm and would be delighted to work with him again."

Paolo Bafico, District Manager, ADP

"Colm is a thorough professional and a fantastic coach.  He has a natural ability to build rapport and trust quickly.  Colm's strengths are his ability to adapt, listening and understanding others.  I would have no hesitation in recommending Colm for your business."

Ryan O'Reilly, High Performance Coach/Author., Author

“Colm is very insightful and thought provoking coach who challenges and makes suggestions in a non threatening way. He clearly has an in-depth  knowledge of  methods and techniques, yet always manages to come up with a set of pragmatic actions and ideas.”

Mark Boggia, Director, Global IT software company

“Colm Murphy is an excellent coach.  He has a strong business background and an excellent style which is a unique combination of listening, questioning, confirming and providing advice.  He demonstrates his proficiency in enabling a client to venture down a path of self discovery which leads to the success of his client.  Colm’s style is very comfortable and is extremely effective when working with clients.  I highly recommend Colm as a coach.”

Lyn Karnstedt, Director, in Asia Pacific, A global IT software company

“Colm is one of those rare individuals in the learning and development community who brings high level corporate experience, complements this experience with value added content and credible development tools and then mixes the whole thing with “crazy thinking putty”. A pleasure to work with and looking forward to doing business together in the coming years.”

Aaron Downes, , Optimum Limited

“We worked with Dynamic Leadership Development last year to work on our creating the Success Plan for a global team within Support. The entire planning, execution and follow up from Dynamic Leadership was outstanding. Planning ensured our goals were clear before we even got into the training room. Execution was interactive, enjoyable and productive and the follow up showed genuine interest in the success from our side. I would highly recommend them and will without doubt be using them again in the future.”

Sinead Doherty, Manager, Consumer Support, A global IT company

“Dynamic Leadership Development are currently a preferred supplier of Learning & Development to the firm. Colm Murphy’s positive “can do” attitude coupled with his excellent understand of our business is a great combination. His approach is professional and objective.”

Petrina Wagner, HR, BDO Simpson Xavier

“Working with Colm has greatly expanded my horizons and my self-awareness. It has equipped me with the tools I need to consistently achieve better results by asking the right questions of myself.”

Jeananne Fennelly, HR Manager, ServiceSource

“Being coached by Colm provided me with

1. A space in my busy schedule to reflect and become more aware of my challenges and opportunities
2. A confidential environment where I felt comfortable talking about myself and others
3. A structure so that the sessions always had actions and outcomes to achieve.”

Orla Nugent , MBA Programme Director, UCD Michael Smurfit Business School

“I found Dynamic Leadership Development to be flexible and business focused.  They provide us with training courses that are well tailored to suit our needs and at a very competitive cost.”

Paola Rossi, HR Senior Manager, BDO Simpson Xavier