The Challenge
The leadership team in Met Eireann is a team of qualified and experienced meteorologists who share responsibility for leading the national weather forecasting service for Ireland. An employee satisfaction survey in 2024 threw up gaps of the leadership style of the managers and what the organisation required.
The Human Resources team brought in Natalie to help.
Their goals from the engagement were to foster greater collaboration and trust in the leadership team and improve self-awareness of how each leader was impacting their direct reports.
The Solution
Met Eireann had specific needs that would not be resolved with a pre-packaged ‘canned solution’ that other service providers offered. The customisation was very important. Natalie listened to their challenges and developed a bespoke solution that supported their individual and team needs. The comprehensive programme she put in place would enable them to develop their individual leadership skills and improve how they lead the broader organisation.
The Method
The programme had a restricted budget – for the individual work the coaching programme consisted of four executive coaching sessions and a 360-degree psychometric assessment with the leadership circle. A core part of the programme was team coaching.
Natalie partnered with Aileen Gleeson to deliver a series of workshops to improve collaboration. Over a series of half day workshops, the workshops surfaced difficult issues, encouraged frank and constructive conversations around those issues and created a shared vision for how the leaders could collaborate more fully together.
1.
These sessions were marked by ‘difference’: Natalie and AIleen used a variety of exercises to create trust and allow the team to experiment – taking them out of their normal patterns of behavior. This was at times uncomfortable but the coaches created a sense of safety and holding throughout.
2.
While the workshops were prepared and planned, Natalie and Aileen adapted their approach throughout the sessions in response to what was happening in the room. This was important to pick up on the dynamic within the team and make leaders aware of it in real time.
The Result
Natalie and Aileen enabled us to surface difficult issues, have frank and constructive conversations around how to deal with them, and create a shared vision for how we could collaborate more fully together. The leadership team has rolled out many of the new ways of working to their own teams – and this is having a multiplier effect in the organisation, allowing the leadership team members to create better collaboration within their own teams.
Natalie developed a bespoke solution for our team. The programme enabled us to develop our leadership of the broader organisation.
Testimonials
“I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to improve the performance of their senior leadership team. Since working with them, the leadership team has taken many of the new ways of working out to their own teams – and this is having a multiplier effect in the organisation, allowing the leadership team members to create better collaboration within their own teams”
