Why your interest in productivity?
We all have a unique gift and when we develop and harness it, we maximize our impact and also experience a profound sense of wellbeing.
It’s not about doing more or being better or acquiring new skills. It’s about slowing down and capitalizing on what we’ve already got.
When we act intentionally and in harmony with the people and the world around us, we amplify our own strengths and the strengths of others and mitigate our individual and collective blind spots.
When we can do this, we unlock our individual and collective potential and the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.
My approach is holistic and focuses on both the client’s internal state and external circumstances.
For some clients, the vision is for their internal state, to be more calm, more confident, to have more energy. For others it is an external goal around career progression or lifestyle. Usually it is some combination of the two.
The pendulum has swung to both extremes at different stages of my life.
In my twenties and early thirties, when I worked in the hedge fund business, the pendulum swung to one extreme and my primary focus was work. In my late thirties and forties, the pendulum swung to the other extreme and my primary focus was my relationship with myself and others, primarily my family.
As I enter my fifties, I can see that both were sub-optimal and that what I really needed was balance and boundaries, and that balance and boundaries would have made me a better analyst and portfolio manager and a better mother, wife, daughter etc.
Today I try to be guided by balance, balance of internal and external, self and others, personal life and professional life, and the integration of being and doing.
“We’re all unique, which is why I offer a bespoke approach for each and every client.”
I would start my wellbeing journey much earlier, seeing it as an investment in my productivity. I really didn’t appreciate the significance of exercise, diet, sleep and meditation until I was in my early 30s and living in New York.
I would be much more proactive in seeking out feedback from direct reports, peers and bosses. Other people have a perspective on us that we don’t have on ourselves and possibly see things that we can’t see. So I’d be much more curious about how other people perceived me and my contribution, and receive it as a data point, holding it much more lightly than I did when I was younger.
I work with a wide range of people and the common link is that I accompany them through a significant transition in their lives, whether that relates to a promotion, to increased responsibilities on the home front, to returning to work after illness or recovering from burnout, or simply wanting to have more joy in their lives.
I help clients to find their equilibrium by supporting their efforts to be happy and healthy and to thrive in both their personal and professional lives.
In this next phase of my career, I’m interested in working with clients over longer time frames, ideally 12 months. I’ve come to appreciate that shifting perspectives is the easy part of transformation. Embedding new perspectives, building and strengthening new neural pathways and establishing new habits of thinking and behaving, is the real work of transformation and takes time.
I’d also like to do more work inside organizations. So often coaching happens in a bubble, with the client’s perspective of themself and their situation being the primary input. Being able to observe the client in situ brings more data and greatly speeds up the transformation process.
Grainne’s support made a remarkable difference to my
wellbeing. She helped me manage burnout during a crisis and provided
tools to make me feel resourced and supported.
Grainne has been instrumental in helping me balance my work
and home life more effectively. She gave me frameworks, offered thoughtful
questions, and relevant resources that helped me feel grounded while managing
competing priorities, making this balance not just achievable but sustainable.
‘Beyond Brainstorming: Unleashing Collaborative Innovation’ was a real game-changer for our team! Grainne McAnallen and Andrea Langlois created a space that went far beyond conventional ideation, guiding us through powerful techniques that shifted our perspectives and unlocked new levels of creativity towards a shared challenge.
Their unique approach, blending group dynamics with deep, purpose-driven exploration, helped us connect not just to ideas but to each other in a deeply transformative way.
We left the session feeling re-energized, together stronger, and equipped to tackle a challenge, and future challenges with fresh insight and innovative thinking.
This experience is a must for any team ready to take their collaboration to new heights.
My coach Grainne guides and nurtures all of me, as a leader and as a human being.
I am the co-lead of a team of 89 FTEs in Europe, going through an internal change process in Europe and I highly appreciate Grainne’s professional background. She knows what I am talking about when I tell her about the challenges in my leadership role.
Her powerful coaching enables me to look at my challenges from different angles. I love the unique mix of tools and methods Grainne brings to our sessions – always showing up with her heart and mind. She lives her values and her teachings. We structure my organigram, we put major topics or colleagues into constellations so that I can see more clearly where I stand thus being able to act in a more thought through way. Grainne guides me through Yoga Nidra sessions that empower me on stressful days. I particularly enjoy it when Grainne takes me on a visualization journey that enables me to go so much deeper and discover hidden solutions.
While the value of our work goes far beyond finances, the increased clarity, confidence, and effectiveness in my role have positively influenced my professional growth and long-term earning potential.
I communicate more clearly, manage challenges more calmly, and approach complex situations with a solutions-focused mindset. I understand people more and speak to them in terms they understand.
I feel less overwhelmed, more grounded, and better able to manage stress. Grainne’s approach helped me build resilience rather than simply pushing through pressure.
I highly recommend Grainne to anyone looking to develop
professionally while maintaining balance and wellbeing.
Grainne and Mark [Harrod]’s work with our senior leadership team at The Young Foundation created a genuinely safe and productive space for us to work on some of the key issues relating to culture and ways of working, both within the leadership team and more widely.
I can wholeheartedly recommend their approach, their professionalism, wisdom and empathy in this work.
Grainne skilfully helps individuals and teams tap into a hidden energy, resource, wisdom and power to reach new levels of productivity and performance.
She brings a wealth of her own knowledge, wisdom and techniques to resource the people she supports and does so with a calmness and energy that is always welcomed.
Grainne has a super style, she is an individual who puts individuals at ease whilst also being able to ask the questions which will open up both the individual and team thinking.
She also has an innate curiosity and therefore researched all the key information which would enable us to consider some key questions and get some key answers!
She is a skillful influencer as not everyone on the team was originally supportive of our approach but now recognise the value of the work we have done.
I think the proof is in our results, we have surpassed our wide ranging goals.
Personally I am truly grateful to Grainne for her support as initially I was the person driving this change, the great thing is that it is now owned by the team which speaks for itself.
