Testimonials — Jean McElvaney

Jean is an inspiration to me! Her attentiveness, kindness and honesty make her an excellent coach and someone I trust will challenge me, while also providing the tools to master such challenges. I met her for the first time in 2016, when she provided a 4-day workshop in Siemens, called “Coaching skills for Managers”.

In this short time frame, she managed to redefine the way I looked at my role in the corporate world and tore down many of my assumptions of what is and isn’t possible in a business environment. As this unlocked so many new opportunities for me in a professional context, I started seeing her for coaching sessions to also bring these qualities into my personal life.

In the last 4 years Jean has been a tremendous enabler by helping me adjust to motherhood and by encouraging me to explore my personal and professional goals further. Highly recommended – Thank you Jean!

Katrin Heger, Senior Commercial Manager, Siemens Ireland

Jean’s course was one of the best courses I ever did. I have done several courses which left me unchanged but this one has made a huge change to my life and I am still using the vast repertoire of skills we learned. Jean is life-affirming and kind but she really knows how to get people to realise their goals.

C. McGuinness - Teacher

Jean’s work as an Executive Coach has been inspirational for clients, students, staff teams and individual staff members of Dublin South City Partnership. During 2020, Jean offered a number of Life Coaching courses to some of our clients.

For a number of years, Jean has been working with students in our local second level schools to engage students in interactive learning with a focus on resilience building, acquiring tools for dealing with adversity and change, goal setting and action plans for the future.

Our Leadership Team undertook training with Jean around coaching and it was so successful, we agreed to adopt a coaching culture in the organisation and extended it to all our staff who were dealing with clients in a one to one setting.

A number of staff (including myself) have met with Jean individually for coaching sessions and have found them extremely effective and transformative. Jean is extremely skilful providing a safe space to discuss issues, set goals and empower staff to overcome the challenges we experience in work. I couldn’t recommend Jean highly enough.

Úna Lowry, Chief Executive Officer,
Dublin South City Partnership

Jean helped me to determine various options available to me, most of which I had never realised. She helped me to regain my confidence and I am now in a job that I really enjoy. Talking to Jean not only gave me the courage to find a new job but also to progress my favourite hobby – crafts.

After talking to Jean I felt more motivated than ever to keep going with my hobby. I now run my own crafting business on the side and I couldn’t be happier with the level of detail I have achieved in such a short space of time. I am extremely glad that I met Jean; I would not be where I am now if it wasn’t for Jean.

Louise Martin, HR Coordinator at BWG

In this short time frame, she managed to redefine the way I looked at my role in the corporate world and tore down many of my assumptions of what is and isn’t possible in
a business environment. As this unlocked so many new opportunities for me in a professional context, I started seeing her for coaching sessions to also bring these qualities into my personal life.

Katrin Heger, Senior Commercial Manager,
Siemens Ireland

I met with Jean for three coaching sessions and I am still coming to terms with how effective and transformational those sessions were. Jean is extremely skilful in the art of facilitating dialogue and has a very charming and peaceful presence. The outcomes are empowering.

Agnieszka Leschik - Pembroke Community Partnership

Jean and a colleague introduced Coaching to our organisation. Through a series of interactive, engaging training sessions they brought the management teams through an understanding of the benefits of coaching, the use of listening skills and how to be present for employees.

The engagement was enlightening and has positively changed the way management engage with staff and each other. We now listen, are intentionally present and seek to understand through asking challenging questions empowering staff to resolve issues. In effect, we now treat each other as adults.

The secondary measure of success of Jean's engagement is that 40% of that management team have gone on to further trained and become qualified coaches. Jean set the bar and provided a role model for us.

I had the good fortune to work with Jean for nearly a year on my own personal development. As a qualified coach myself, I sought a compassionate, empathetic, challenging listener who wasn't afraid to hold me accountable for my actions, or inactions.

An excellent listener, Jean and I quickly established a strong rapport and I felt comfortable sharing and exploring sensitive topics, some of which had been ignored for a long time. Always mindful of future actions, Jean enabled me to free myself to embrace the challenges of the future in a compassionate and supportive manner.

Kevin Moloney, Business Manager and
Head of Sales at Siemens Ireland

Jean was instrumental in supporting me to achieve my goals. I attended two of her personal development courses. These two courses along with her 1 to 1 individual coaching sessions completely changed my thinking and my approach to problem solving. When I first started working with Jean I had separated from my ten year relationship, 5 of those years I was married and 2 children later my life had fallen apart. I was in a job I hated suffering from anxiety and dealing with a child with special needs. Jean encouraged me, helped me rebuild my self-esteem and supported me to realise my potential and set goals.

On a professional level Jean is a genius in coaching and development and she has a way of ensuring you look on the bright side combined with her epic sense of humour! I started working with her as a broken woman, I then became a medical secretary and now I am living an independent life living in a beautiful property and now working as a frontline worker for the HSE, all while constantly upskilling and training against all the odds.

Erika Harris - Supervisor in
Community Mental Health - HSE

I can’t think of a better course and never knew such a course existed. It gave me a new lease of life. Jean was inspirational and the content was deeply significant. Thank you! thank you! thank you!

L. Carroll – Business Owner

Jean McElvaney has a special gift in working with this cohort of people. Course participants have largely been people with mental health challenges who are looking to reengage with training with a view to moving on to further training and employment. She has continuously demonstrated the ability to empower people to reach their potential and achieve results that they themselves thought impossible. Jean has the ability to build positive relationships, both individual and collectively with the participants.

She has been instrumental in developing sustainable support groups for the participants which have survived long after the ‘official’ training is finished.

Austin O’Sullivan, Director of Resources and
Organisation Development, WALK Association

I received a call from Jean introducing me to the coaching topic. From the first meeting I could tell that Jean was the right person to support our organization to change our culture to one of Ownership. The brief was to give our managers the skills to change from a command and control management style to a coaching style and in turn offer our employees the opportunity to change and to take ownership of their own careers and development.

I cannot recommend Jean enough, she was engaging and dynamic in her approach with all levels of the organisation. Jean is adaptable and made the course meaningful for our business. We are continuing to work with her today and I expect we will work with her into the future to make coaching sustainable in our business.

Sonia Brody, Human Resources Director,
Siemens Ireland

A remarkable Coach invested in supporting people to reach their full potential and aspire to what they want to achieve in life. An insightful communicator and respectful challenger. Jean helps transform lives for the better, period.

Brendan Franks, MD at Peak Performance

In 2015 due to a loss of funding a number of positions became redundant. We engaged Jean to work with individual staff and the feedback was excellent.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Jean for coaching in professional development and career transition.

Tara Smith, Chief Executive Officer,
Pembroke Community Partnership

Participating in Jean’s class was one of the best steps of my journey.
It was enjoyable and educational. Jean is motivating, perceptive and encouraging. Jean always goes the extra mile and follows up with each individual giving them invaluable feedback and support.

Michelle Veale, Bilingual Service Desk Analyst at Allstate Northern Ireland

I had a few one-to-one sessions with Jean in 2015, and in 2016. I found the sessions immensely useful and learned a lot that I'm still practicing today (in 2017). The sessions were focused on the issues I brought, where Jean used a lot of insight, and a range of supportive techniques & interventions. She was able to build a strong working relationship with me and her approach was pitched just right. I found Jean a skilled professional in personal development training, and would have no hesitation going back to her, or recommending her.

Cormac O'Toole (BComm, Dip integrative Counselling)

I worked with Jean in 2011 to 2014 when I coordinated the Gateway Mental Health Project in Rathmines. Jean Facilitated our QQI accredited Assertiveness and Personal Development courses annually for a number of years. Jean was a pleasure to work with, extremely professional, knowledge- able and brought a fantastic energy to the group. Jean’s ability to connect fully and genuinely support people in their learning kept participants engaged.

Jean’s coaching style is very empowering, she asks pertinent questions, allows space, makes you believe anything is possible and breaks down goals into achievable steps and has a gentle approach to checking in on how you are progressing. When working with Jean it’s a time I enjoy, like working with a friend who supportively challenges.

Martha Griffin, Expert by Experience, Lecturer in Mental Health and Peer Educator, Dublin City University

I found it interesting, informative and inspirational. It was delivered with such enthusiasm that I found it infectious.

Workshop participant – AIB Manager

The impact that Jean has had on my life, both business and personal is difficult to put into words. Jean took me on a road trip round my life, supporting me in places I would normally drive by. Together we mapped out the boundaries of my comfort zone, where I was happy to stay, however missing the good stuff and not realizing my potential.

The awareness that the voice in my own head is built from echoes of negative experiences and also of my own making(keeping me safe in my comfort zone) turned me upside down momentarily but it has changed my life. Jean championed my journey with constant insights and challenges. She found my courage for me when I couldn’t, she believed wholeheartedly in my abilities when I didn’t. She also left me with nowhere to hide when it came to taking the next steps. I could not recommend Jean highly enough as a coach.

Niamh Gilmore, Health & Wellbeing Coordinator at Mercury Engineering

Jean’s compassion and enthusiasm for empowering others is infectious. I felt an immediate connection and Jean’s energy has spurred me to focus on the next steps I need to undertake and a very exciting future. I couldn’t recommend Jean highly enough.

N.Sutton-Senior Paediatric Physiotherapist