Oona has designed and delivered a highly effective programme in Asia for 80 of our elite performers from 10 countries. Having worked with us for many years Oona has a thorough understanding of our culture and the business results we expect. She facilitates with a combination of commercial pragmatism and emotional intelligence that motivates people to change. One of the key benefits of the Asia Pacific programme was the alignment of global teams in generating business and developing long term relationships with clients and colleagues. Oona’s international experience enables her to understand different cultures and how this influences communication. She spent considerable time tailoring the programme for our specific target audience. Our teams appreciated this and it enabled them to fully embrace our business objectives.

Oona was instrumental in helping me to transition from a UK VP role to a Global SVP promotion. She has an incredible knack for reading people and for highlighting small changes to your posture and language to help you better communicate with key stakeholders. A pragmatic, and insightful coach, Oona was a joy to work with and I look forward to retaining her services for my own leadership team.

My new role is accountable for all aspects of the Australian and New Zealand businesses including P/L reporting to the Chairman. Given that my boss is based on the East Coast of the USA and I only see him face to face about once a year the role of the coach is particularly important to me.

Oona has helped me to be clear about my longer term goals and to hold me to account in achieving them. In addition she has allowed me to talk through situations as and when they have arisen at work. By allowing me to talk it through she helped me to find the answer in myself rather than give me the answer. She has helped to reenergise me when things have not been going so well and I could not see a way through. She has not shirked from giving me tough love when I needed it but I always felt I had a sympathetic hearing.” As the coaching has been done by phone over many time zones her excellent time management has been much appreciated.”

Through your help Hay Group Pacific has grown its revenue by 70% in 3 years when previously it had been static or declining. The team around me has grown in competence whilst its composition has changed over time. I personally have gained confidence in becoming an effective MD and I am now ready to take on a bigger challenge in the near future.

I started working with Oona following my promotion to the British Land Executive Committee, initially as Interim CFO and then as COO.

Oona has experience of the property industry which helped to frame our discussions and make them focused and effective. Added to this, she draws on a detailed knowledge of a range of coaching techniques and leadership frameworks to facilitate her approach, prompt and challenge. Oona was quickly able to identify how we could best work together to get the most out of our sessions – recognising that I’d benefit from both “big” theoretical advice and ideas, but also some more focused, practical everyday techniques directly relevant to the situations I was facing in my new roles. She really challenged me to identify my own leadership style, strengths and areas to improve, something that didn’t come naturally but which Oona supported me to do.

What I’ve found most beneficial are the ways Oona combines theoretical techniques with her own experience and expert analysis of the practical “real life” situations I was facing to help me reflect and develop.

Oona has helped me recognise my leadership style, core strengths and how I can build on them. She is a great listener who took the time to fully understand me, my role and my ambitions, but is also open and honest and has given me support and advice that has directly resulted in positive business and personal outcomes.

My experience of working with Oona has been incredibly positive and has provided me with a much better understanding of the things I should focus on, as well as a range of tools and techniques, to further develop my own brand of leadership.

Coaching is a valuable tool in accelerating development of high potentials, we identified a group of emerging leaders who we believed would benefit from the outside perspective and support a professional coach could bring.

From our first meeting Oona impressed us by demonstrating her understanding of our business with the questions she was asking. Her style combined the high level of credibility we were looking for with an appreciation of the more personal drivers of individuals.

Our experience has been 100% positive. Oona went over and above our agreed approach to ensure each individual met their individual goals.

Our emerging leaders now have a clear plan as to how they will move their careers, teams and clients forward in line with our overall strategy. They have also developed a number of tools they can use in the future.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Oona as a coach and we plan to work with her again very soon.

My new manager and leader of my business unit got enormous value from having a coach in his career and shared that with my team. So, as I stepped into a new team leadership role, I was eager to have a coach who could help me improvement my management ability and think through new scenarios I needed to face.

I chose to work with Oona in part for her deep experience working with leaders across borders and her experience working with managers in the property industry. Perhaps more importantly, I sensed Oona was a superb listener, who could help me build my own emotional intelligence. And I thought she would be an ideal coach because she would be able to constructively challenge me, with a different perspective on some situations from mine – which suggested to be that I could learn more from working with her. It has been a pleasure to work with Oona, with an ideal mix of structure in our conversations and flexibility to make sure I could get her feedback on the topics at the top of my mind.

The specific benefits from having Oona as a coach have been

• Upping my game in chairing meetings effectively
• Asking the right questions to enhance the value of my 1:1 meetings
• Holding me to the commitments we discussed in our meetings
• Giving me perspective and advice on challenging situations I was dealing with in a new role

Oona is an outstanding coach who can help hold a mirror to yourself as a professional and whole person. Her coaching made a substantial contribution to my success in tackling a new role, new team, in a new country.

I arrived from Hong Kong having worked there for 30 years. I encountered numerous challenges working in the UK as it is a very different working environment from the one I was used to and succeeded in. I chose Oona because of her calm, objective, structured, soft approach and last but not least her commercial awareness. Coaching has been an eye opener: Oona helped me understand other working behaviours, people’s perception of myself (positive and negative).

She gave me a frame work in which I could not only understand the stumbling blocks but also to structure my responses and solutions to different type of situations with different type of people. She gave me lots of useful tips to tackle some delicate issues.

The benefits of coaching with Oona has helped me to:
– Adapt myself to the new working environment and mentality.
– Mentor and to develop my team.
– Work towards a strong team with cohesion and enthusiasm for what we are trying to build together.
– Assert myself as a leader.

I would say to somebody who was considering coaching to definitely do it as it will help get on with the job at hand with a different and very constructive approach. I take this opportunity Oona to thank you for your amazing guidance.

‘The Vision Intensive Day gave me a valuable and vital opportunity to step back from the intensity of the day job and think about my bigger picture – both personal and professional – focussing on long-term goals and short-term actions and digging deep into the values and strengths that define and motivate me.  I can’t recommend the experience highly enough.’

Working with Oona has been a revelation. She has a unique approach. Like any good coach she will give pragmatic, challenging, common sense guidance to handling the day-to-day challenges of modern corporate life. Where Oona stands apart, however, is how she manages to combine this with something far deeper. She helps you go way beyond the day-to-day to really get to grips with your real motivations and true beliefs. Whilst this creates a much more profound platform to deal with those work questions, it goes much further than that. It prepares you for any of life’s challenges. And that is very powerful.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have you as my coach, especially I thank my MD & CEO Abdulla Kalban for recommending you. You carried excellent references when I joined you and I had a lot of expectations from our engagement. I am glad that you came up to the expectations and some more.

You are an excellent listener.  I admire you for investing your time beyond the coaching time with me, by following up on my comments with my superiors and colleagues. That has certainly helped me a lot in understanding others’ perspective – and that is so important in life as it is easy to get boxed-in own narrative.

I have seen quantum improvements in my relationship with most of my colleagues – I now pause before I speak.

Thank you for being a change agent for me, and I will strongly recommend you to others who need a good friend and honest coach.

Senior Executive – Finance

For many years my career was a catalogue of one successful promotion after another.  None sought but due to a proven track record, a great reputation and support from numerous managers, sponsors and mentors, they just seemed to come my way. I’d dive into each new appointment with relish and through hard work, tenacity and great team work always managed to get the job done, routinely exceeding expectations in the process.

In late 2018 I was asked to take on a new, more senior role. The business area was troubled; there’d been huge investment without ROI and consequently it’d become subject to close and constant scrutiny of the CEO and his executive team. The stakes were high, so too were expectations and getting it wrong was simply not an option. I was flattered and applied myself with usual gusto but quickly realized the winning tactics from old weren’t working.  The new resources I’d been promised never materialized and successful execution was, in part, dependent on my ability to influence a range of senior managers to support the business plan I was crafting, when the cost of doing so would deplete the funding available for their own.

I had an increasing sense of bewilderment and terror. I felt overwhelmed; I was working all hours and at weekends and started to feel a failure. Paranoia set in. My confidence was at an all-time low. It started to affect my personal life and relationships. I couldn’t disclose how I felt to my new manager for fear of being ousted (classic imposter syndrome) and my long-term partner, family and friends felt ignored. I wasn’t making anyone happy, least of all myself.  Then I chanced upon a random online article extolling the benefits of executive coaching. At first, I dismissed it – why add more work when I was already over-burdened? But I soon realized that something had to give and it couldn’t be me so I swallowed my pride, took a leap of faith and persuaded my manager to invest in me.

Introductory meetings were quickly lined-up with a selection of coaches to confirm the chemistry was right. I only met with Oona. We immediately gelled so I didn’t expend further valuable time and effort seeking alternatives. The sessions began. With almost narcissistic fascination I started gain more insight into my own behaviors, how I appeared to others – the sessions held a mirror to my professional and personal lives and I didn’t like what I saw.

My 1-1’s with Oona quickly became some of the most important items in my diary. My values and aspirations became clearer – funny that I’d never consciously pondered them before. The reflections started to morph into something I was eminently happier to see. Much of the change was within me – I’d always had the tooling to effect the transformation but it took Oona’s support for me to recognize it and take the necessary actions.

Ten months on and many aspects of my life have been transformed. I am happier, have a better work-life balance, the business is turning around and I feel far more in control and enjoy what I do. I will be forever grateful to Oona for helping to empower me; she was a lifeline at the time I needed it most. I won’t disclose her secret sauce – that’s for you to discover yourself – but the coaching experience for me was liberating and I can’t recommend it – or Oona – more highly.

Since starting the company, I felt I had lost direction and the growth of the company had been purely organic with no real strategy or business plan.

I was recommended Oona by another professional in the industry and I noted that Oona had coached many people in the property industry. I was a little concerned that there may be some pre-conceived perceptions regarding the industry, however as soon as I met Oona she understood exactly where I was coming from and what drove me. We planned the business growth and strategy around that and not around what others had done in the past.

Oona has been a sounding board for a number of business decisions, she has helped me pull together and retain an effective team and has helped me look objectively at the business outcomes as well as plan for the future. We have put together an effective business development plan and there have been a number of “light bulb moments” which have given me the direction that I was looking for.

If you are considering coaching – don’t hesitate. It has been of the best decisions I have made and when running a small company (in terms of people employed) and being the only Director, it really pays to have a knowledgeable and experienced sounding board.

I recognised that I needed to build a new 10 year plan in a moment of big change and having worked with Oona on and off for 10 years wanted her to help me make the time to plan for the future.  We started with her highly personalised Vision Day which energised me and filled me with the enthusiasm to get this all started – it was a brilliant result and it felt like a new beginning.

We spent much time preparing for working with my team in Italy – some of whom were very sceptical about a team event. All of them got a great deal from the 2 days together that will last a long time.

Oona never tells anyone how to run their business, but by the end of the coaching you have worked it out for yourself.  She brings a need for order to the business, a need for clarity, for calm decent behaviour and leadership.   With her gentle guidance, you provide it, she doesn’t – so you move on understanding that she has helped you add rigour to your life.

Time with Oona is not an easy fix to put the business straight.  Oona has high standards for her own level of input into the collaboration and will expect the same of you.  The more you are prepared to put in and the more you are prepared to allow every action to be questioned, the more you will get out of it.  Be warned, your business will never be the same again!

Oona is a genius. She combines traditional leadership coaching with a modern, holistic approach. The Vision Intensive day allows you to escape to a peaceful location, away from the everyday, to focus on a better you. Oona guides you through a wonderful day to get your goals on track and build a plan to achieve them and be successful

I and my Manager agreed that it would be valuable to have some external support to assist me as I grow my team and service line within the business; progress towards a leadership / board position; and perform at my best in my existing trustee and board roles.

Coaching has been a really positive experience that made me feel that I can achieve what I am aiming for in my career. It gave me perspective on what is holding me back from performing at my best and practical tools to enable me to be more confident and authoritative on a daily basis.

It was helpful to work on a flexible basis e.g. in-person sessions in different locations, variety of length of sessions and calls to help manage specific and immediate challenges.

For me the main benefits have been:

• Understanding myself and becoming aware of my saboteurs to enable me to perform confidently, in challenging situations and with senior leadership and people in the industry.
• Knowing how to prepare myself for challenging conversations
• Strategies to effectively lead and manage my team, so we work better together on a day-to-day basis including managing one to ones to improve the performance of team members.
• Navigating through a very challenging period of my career when I needed resilience and to step up, take on more responsibility, lead and manage my team and grow the business.
• Becoming more effective and present in meetings

Oona is a coach that genuinely cares about helping you to achieve your goals and career aspirations. She will assist you to gain a real awareness of your strengths and what is preventing you from performing at your best and provide you with strategies and resources that can help you achieve the levels of performance that will take you to the next level in your career.

As a leader of EGA’s group recognising the critical roles and the success of the company,  sponsorship was provided to the EGA leaders to help grow as both leaders and as  individuals. For this reason, EGA provided leaders access to their own Executive Coach whom we could draw on for personal and professional development. It was also intended to provide the opportunity for EGA’s leaders to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, and to strengthen the connection between their personal aspirations and EGA.

I selected Oona  for her 22 plus years of experience in developing Board level executives, her deep understanding of the challenges of motivating teams, and facilitating international programmes to influence leadership and business growth.  And during the initial interview I felt that I could trust Oona the most (in terms of sharing personal information) among other shortlisted coaches.  I realised the quality of top executive coaching, and her professionalism and guiding approach to seeing the challenges in real life and the encouragement in tackling them in a professional manner.

My experience of being coached by Oona has been a professional and relaxed coaching environment, learning through experience and practice, encouragement to focus on the key development areas, positive approach in facing and resolving challenges, her professional coaching style and encouragement in terms of outside the box thinking, how to be a good coach and mentor for my subordinates, sharing and focusing on 360 feedback and areas of improvements.

The benefits have been being more influential in getting buy-in from the Exco team and forceful in putting ideas and options on the table; building and developing the young and enthusiastic people in my department, more confidence and increased personal profile and enhanced visibility among EGA’s executive and senior management.

Executive coaching is offered by your company once in life time and selecting the right coach is the most important step in ensuring the best value achieved for one’s development. Oona is the best and like myself you will enjoy every moment of her coaching and will realise the tangible benefits in the same way your leadership will add value to your organisation. I am certainly a different person from my leadership perspective and have learned a lot from her. You just have to believe in yourself and follow her step by step coaching and you will see yourself so much developed that other colleagues will envy your leadership style.

I reached a point of my career where pure technical knowledge (leadership and expertise in my field) were not enough to secure my next move upwards. In conversation with our CEO it became clear that developing my emotional intelligence was a critical path for my professional growth.

I have never had formal coaching, but with the CEO’s own personal experience with coaching he suggested that would be the best way forward to my development.

Selecting the right Coach: finding the right experience and focus area were critical in my choice of coach. I had a diverse set of coaches presented as options, ranging from technical leadership skills to performance management. Oona’s profile stood out from others with her vast experience in coaching for effectiveness through what some refer as “soft skills”. In reality, this is one of the most important set of skills an effective executive needs to have. Oona was the ideal choice for my need.

If I was describing the coaching programme with Oona in one word I would say effective, very effective if in two words. With a clear structure set at the beginning of the programme with well-defined goals, the sessions to follow addressed all points in a natural fashion without ever seeming formulaic or impersonal.

Our coaching programme was affected by lockdown restrictions half-way through it, and moving it to phone sessions as opposed to face to face had very little impact. Oona gets to know you really well during the programme, which makes her feedback and coaching very effective.

I went in with a clear objective and can clearly say that we achieved it in every possible way. This is the real benefit of coaching, particularly with Oona, as the tailored content and approach maximises your ability to absorb the content – regardless of what your objectives are.

In my specific case, I became noticeably more effective in our Executive Committee by simply and naturally being more empathetic to my peers. As simple as it may sound, it was only through understanding all the reasoning behind this change that my rational brain could internalise the change.

If you are thinking of starting a coaching programme, I strongly recommend Oona as a coach. Her vast experience with senior leaders provides a wide range of options in your development. If, like me, you need to work on your ability to read the room, influence without trying to influence and overall to improve your effectiveness as a leader, she will certainly help you get there. Oona has a unique way of letting you clearly know your areas of development without making you feel self-conscious. This prepares you for the learning to come and makes it really easy to highlight the areas you effectively developed. Huge thanks to Oona for contributing to my development!

We asked Oona to give us some assistance in redefining the unique selling points of our brand so that all staff could clearly communicate why we offer more to our clients. We wanted to create a new team culture in our constantly changing business and market allowing us to join together in one voice to promote our brand in the UK and rapidly gain market share. The days training was the most well received I have ever experienced, with all the team singing its praises and the coaching Oona provided. The initial benefit to us is that it has created a springboard for us to redefine our unique selling points and put that into practise through all we say,do and show. The training also gave us the opportunity to meet off site and share ideas in a team environment with an expert guide. Our business is already stronger, our understanding of our unique brand clearer and our team more focussed than ever before. I am quite sure that we will realise the benefits of this training as a business for years to come. I, and I am sure my colleagues would have no hesitation in recommending Oona Collins to any business. Her preparation and research was first class and in my opinion her delivery and management of the day unbeatable. We will be calling on her services again in the next few months and we are all very much looking forward to it.

After 6 years of growing our business we were so busy ‘doing’, we didn’t sit back to review what had been achieved or properly consider our future in a rigorous structured way.  We needed to refocus, unify and establish a plan for our future. By using Prophet profile, Oona has helped us reassess our roles within the business, ensure we play to our key strengths and more importantly allow us to excel at the roles we enjoy most and delegate the tasks and responsibilities we are not motivated by. This has already led to a more structured environment, with a bold vision and exciting plans for our future.

Oona’s practical, experienced, common sense approach, means we have adopted simple steps to include accountable, achievable goals and targets within a more structured format.  Just 3 weeks on from our 2 days strategy workshop with Oona we feel united, focused and excited again about the future we can create.

We see Oona as a vital member of our team over the next few years and envisage her continued input to help guide us to success.

Oona is a fabulous coach. Her thoughtful and genuinely highly personalised understanding of the needs of those she coaches allows her wards to both go deep and fast. When in the coaching process it is essential to build trust. Oona establishes trust with those she works with and continues to build on that trust throughout the cycle. Her energy and creativity are constantly renewed and shared freely.

Oona Collins is a Non-Executive on the Board of Goldcrest Land PLC and I have been her Chairman for many years. She has been a pro-active Non-Executive and has contributed in full measure to Board debates and strategic discussions. She brings to the Board not only her business experience, particularly in the area of leadership development but also her general knowledge of best practice in developing a successful property business. She well understands the role of a Non-Executive Director and would fully contribute to the success of any company. Oona is also a very warm and delightful person – but not afraid to advance her own views.

The partners of Levy Real Estate were looking to put together a strategic plan for the business and in order to do so, felt it important to have an external specialist to come in to help and coordinate the process.

We selected Oona on the back of her experience with other property advisory businesses and clear commitment to working with us to derive a tangible outcome.

Oona quickly gained an excellent understanding of the skill set of the lead individuals and wider ethos across the firm. Working with the partners, Oona set out the framework for a strategic review and worked through our goals in order to achieve an ambitious but achievable business plan. Oona’s involvement has undoubtedly enabled us to agree a clear way forward much more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. Moreover, the time that we spent with Oona has given rise to a wider energy and motivation across the business resulting in a step change in our financial performance.

Oona has been a catalyst in my career and overall life. Using various coaching techniques and asking piercing questions that result in giving focus and simplifying priorities has been central to this. The personal vision I outlined 3 years ago is already beginning to unfold which is incredibly exciting and rewarding. I would like thank Oona for the positive impact she has had on me through her 1 on 1 coaching.

I decided that it was time to engage a business coach as I had been working by myself for over ten years and felt that I and my business had started to get stuck in a rut. I needed someone to talk my ideas through, brainstorm, sense check, create structure and then help me follow through and implement the plan.

I chose Oona through past experience of working with her. When I was appointed to the board at Hamptons in 2004, as part of this promotion I was asked to work with Oona so she could give me some management training. What I learnt in those sessions has been instrumental in my career and I never forgot much of what I learnt. So when it came to finding a coach, there was only one person I was going to ask first.

It has been excellent to have someone to bounce ideas off and to get thoughts that were spinning around my head out, onto paper, into a plan and actioned. Within that process Oona was able to add in her advice and experience to ensure the plan worked, made me aware and to think about how the members of my team would see this and to bring some good HR and structure to the process and my business as it grew. For me personally I learnt a lot, I gained confidence in myself and my business, how to grow the business and my ability to grow it to the next level.

The experience in terms of results has been outstanding, from when I started to now, as part of the plan I have successfully targeted and recruited three new members of the team and our revenue is running ahead of plan already at approximately 25% more than it was this time last year.

At the beginning I knew I would benefit from coaching, but I was unsure whether the cost would turn into real results and whether this was a good investment. At the end of the process I can see this was the key to unlocking the door and have no doubt about the value of every penny spent.

I found my “Vision Intensive Day” incredibly refreshing and powerful.  It’s very rare to have a day to focus on what’s important, away from all the distractions of life, and be guided through a creative process to arrive at some practical actions. Working with Oona over a full day to dive deep into what I want to achieve, and how, was stimulating, productive and reinforcing. A very nourishing experience that I came away from with focus, an action plan and a clear vision of what I am aiming for now and in the future. I would recommend the Vision Intensive Day to anybody stepping into a new role, at a key junction in life or in need of reconnecting with what drives them.

Oona was a great asset during my transition into this new leadership role. Oona helped me navigate new and uncharted territories for our business, develop and execute organizational changes and navigate many challenging obstacles during the COVID period. Early in the process, she helped me realise that I needed to prioritise making the time to understand what was going to drive the business forward and not get buried or lost in all the details of all the unknowns. The only person getting in my way of making this happening was me. From then on, she had the right mix of asking questions to help me work through situations to providing me with research/tactics on ways to help me explore/learn about new ways of thinking/leading/understanding communications styles.

I truly enjoyed my time with Oona and can’t thank her enough for the support and guidance she provided me during this period.

I am developing and transitioning into a people leader and this led my organisation to provide additional support during this period. It was important for this to be an independent coach so that I was able to confidentially challenge my thoughts/actions and use my coaching sessions to really develop.

Oona was a coach who focussed holistically and took interest in me as an individual. Oona takes her responsibility as a coach extremely seriously and this commitment allows those being coached to have trust in Oona.

Since coaching I have seen myself grow in multiple areas but more specifically being able to handle myself in challenging situations and navigate them with relative ease. This coaching gave me the confidence to approach conflict.

Coaching is something that has allowed me to grow and provides the platform for individuals to challenge themselves critically. I would recommend that if you want to develop then Oona is a great coach.

We asked Oona for coaching ahead of a pitch for a large and unusual project involving acquisition of rights over land. Four of us spent an intense afternoon and changed our approach to the bid particularly finding key points which our potential clients will find pivotal when deciding on advisors. The effect has been to ensure we are in tune with client’s needs and to underscore that we understand their business. Her coaching assisted us on winning another major pitch a few years ago.

If asked about Oona’s coaching sessions we would say they will challenge you and will alter your approach to business generation. Our clients have been impressed by our enthusiasm for their business and this has been greatly assisted through Oona’s coaching.

Oona helped me frame and structure my very busy work and home life in a way that enabled me to prioritise and focus on the areas that really mean something to me.  The day felt self-indulgent initially but looking back I can now see that it has given me the confidence to do what is right for me, and as a result I have accelerated and focused my plans in a way that has been fantastic for me, my family and my business.

As an individual that works on 10 items at once in my international  business I welcomed the thought of getting some clear direction of where I am going and why.   I have to be honest I suffer with keeping my attention on one thing very difficult and the thought of spending the day one to one with Oona was slightly daunting, I did actually think to myself how the hell will I get through this day.

Wow what a day, from the time we met it was engaging, made me think, made me feel excited about the future, we discussed things I have never discussed, I can say that I have a clear action plan for the future, it’s challenging, it’s engaging and I’m excited about what I can achieve.

Worth every moment!

After 10 years in business, we decided we needed to do a thorough review and realignment of our roles. Oona came highly recommended and we knew immediately that we were in safe, experienced and talented hands.

The experience of being coached by Oona has been incredibly impactful. You naturally assume that your business and your practises are so unique it is not possible for someone to be able to understand it, and additionally then optimise your performance.

Our experience has not only invigorated both of us; it has made us more effective, productive and most importantly enjoy what we do more.

If you are serious about taking your personal and business performance to the next level, or if you feel you have reached an impasse you simply must spend time with Oona.

I’ve found your coaching style invaluable in helping me progress with my goals and it has allowed me to reframe certain challenges and given me the direction I needed to push on.

Potential Plus’ coaching programme has been immensely valuable to me as I have thought about how I can do my job better and how I can meet my ambitions. Oona is insightful, smart, amusing and, importantly, holds me to account in a way that is very effective in reinforcing behaviours that are essential for success. The Vision Intensive Day was excellent and allowed me the space and time to reflect and to clarify my direction for the future – everyone should attend one of these days.

I feel my personal growth and career success has been accelerated by the coaching course. I’m quite sure this acceleration would not have been as quick without it.

The Vision Intensive was a full day at tranquil Warren House that takes you away from the chaos of everyday work and life and allows you space for focused and strategic thinking. The morning allowed for understanding of the issues that block development and the afternoon brought some challenging thoughts and hard won clarity. I learnt so much in a short space of time and came away with a clear plan. A successful day in which I did not expect to enjoy myself but Oona made it easy – even when she challenged my status quo….This needs to be an annual event for me.

Many thanks for availing yourself to fly so many miles to this part of the world to equip our leaders. You are very talented and passionate with what you do. I applaud you. You are very diplomatic and tactful in the way you present your view and I appreciate your frankness. There is lots to learn from you.

Danny Yeo, Managing Director – Singapore 

It takes a lot to hold the attention of so many candidates in a day, but Oona’s methodology of training was so captivating, that it really motivated us and helped us understand the path for the way forward. The use of examples from our colleagues across the world was very useful in understanding how we could improve ourselves. Her friendly nature has given each one of us an opportunity to have such a wonderful mentor like Oona. I would look forward to attending Oona’s sessions in any part of the world.

Kamakshi Sarkar, India 

I would not hesitate to recommend this workshop to anyone who wishes to make a difference to his or her career. It has been a most enlightening and illuminating experience for me and I am sure others would feel the same. Oona has imparted her wisdom and guidance in an effortless manner because she was able to instill a sense of enthusiasm and eagerness among the trainees to want to improve themselves. There is a Chinese saying “一日之师百日恩” that I would like wrap the programme up with. This means “A single day as my teacher is translated to a hundred days of gratitude for my teacher”.

Ivan Tan, Singapore 

I believe that we learnt more about each other. The relationships built will last much longer and be strong because of this programme.

Nicholas Chung, China 

Thank you for testing, stimulating and motivating the guys, they very much appreciate your insights and the fellowship that this training has presented.

Paul Hart, Hong Kong 

The thoughtful and well organised programme was full of valuable insights.

Paul Henley, Australia 

If you want to accelerate your personal performance and well-being, being true to who you are and what you really want in life – then I would highly recommend working with Oona. An exceptional year of accelerated personal development and performance. At times, very supportive and when needed a bit of tough love.

Oona has made a huge impact at our firm over a relatively short space of time.

She has coached, which seems an inadequate word, our London and Country teams in various disciplines but more importantly there has been structured action plans that we undertake ourselves. So often with training, once it’s complete its goes into a draw but with Oona it’s a living document that evolves over time.

Potential Plus’ programme has given our business a renewed focus and energy but also fresh strategies that are adapted to each group and indeed individual. Oona’s style is light, yet firm and done with great knowledge, understanding and experience. While incredibly professional, Oona brings a personal element which has engaged our very different teams and characters.

As for myself, I feel Oona has helped me make a number of life changing decisions both in my career direction but also in my very busy personal life. I’ve always respected Oona but I’ve come to completely trust her judgement and believe she’s brought out the absolute best in me.

I hope that my firm continues to work with Oona and Potential Plus for many years to come because the benefits have been transformational for many of the staff I’m responsible for but the biggest change delivered is in myself for which I am genuinely very grateful.

Oona you are a wonderful coach and I got a lot out of my experience

The first session you did looking at the different aspects of my life was really interesting.

I find your style very open and you allowed me to focus on the right areas for me.

I am probably not the easiest person to coach as I know my own mind and am pretty clear on where I want to be in life, but I found the experience really useful.

Oona had previously been retained to coach two of my Executive Board peers and so I was familiar with her approach to coaching, including her Vision Intensive Programme. I knew that the programme would enable me to get clarity, and to reflect on my values and my true motivation for wanting to make some significant changes to my working life. I also knew that Oona’s coaching would enable me to unblock some of my limiting beliefs which would enable me to better sequence and navigate the changes I wanted to make.

Oona enabled me to find the right time and space, both mentally and practically, to identify and unblock barriers and, most importantly, my limiting beliefs. She was warm and empathetic but also tough and tenacious with me. This helped me focus, find solutions and ultimately I gradually re-prioritised certain aspects of my life, in order to achieve the changes I wanted to make. Throughout the period of coaching, Oona ensured that I continued to grow and this increased my confidence and determination to successfully make the changes to my life.

The key practical outcome was the seamless transition from a high pressure Corporate HRD role to semi retirement with a new portfolio career and many new opportunities. The benefits go way beyond the practical outcome and include more quality time for my family and friends as well as an opportunity to learn new skills and work on some interesting projects that fit with my values.

Whatever your personal objectives or the changes you want to make, Oona’s coaching will take you on a journey of deep self-reflection in a safe environment. It will help you clarify what you want to achieve and enable you to find creative solutions. I would thoroughly recommend Oona’s Vision Intensive Programme.

We needed to have a plan going forward as we were preparing to expand and restructure. A senior and respected figure within the business, recommended Oona and Potential Plus to us.  Our experience of working with Oona has been fun, thought provoking, insightful and we have gained far better knowledge of ourselves as business men and good business practice as a result.   For us it was all about strategy and direction, taking a step back and looking at the business. We would not hesitate to recommend Potential Plus International, in fact we already have!

Knowing that I wanted to succeed to the next level in management but not being sure what was holding me back, my CEO suggested that selective coaching would give me the much needed confidence to step up to the director level.

Having benefitted from his own coaching experience with Oona Collins several years ago, my CEO could not rate her highly enough. He advised me that Oona would gain insight into all areas of my personal life as well as my work to fully understand what motivates me, causes me stress, where I lack confidence etc., and knowing that this would not phase me, he felt Oona would provide me with the strongest support to get me to the level I need to be to take on the next stage of my career.

My experience of being coached by Oona has definitely been a positive and constructive one. She has helped me to learn more about myself and to fully appreciate the inner strengths that I have. In turn, her coaching skills have enabled me to communicate better with my team, to take the stress out of finding solutions by getting others to think things through and come up with their own ideas and solutions before seeking approval from me. In fact, Oona has shown me that I was already working at the required ‘director’ level and I just needed to believe that I was!

The benefits have been self-confidence, belief, inner-strength, improved communication skills with all colleagues, new sense of direction and an increased drive to succeed. Most of all, I am a strong independent confident business woman who can achieve anything once I put my mind to it.

If you really want to improve your focus, skills or confidence; whether it is on a business or personal level, Oona is the most supportive person I have ever met. You need to be ready to be honest with yourself as she gets right to the heart of each situation with you and helps you find solutions. By taking on board and applying the knowledge that Oona has, you will very quickly start to see subtle changes in how you handle situations and how people react differently to you; in a positive way. I have had to face some serious personal issues this year but with Oona by my side, I have accomplished such a lot. Give it a go and make it work for you.

Fisher German engaged Potential Plus for a variety of programmes from management coaching to carefully targeted, property specific courses. Each time Oona and her team created carefully conceived programmes, perfectly tailored to our needs. I have witnessed some remarkable behavioural changes from all participants which have had significant benefits for our business.

Oona Collins is a fantastic, inspiring coach. She combines unflinching challenge, great wisdom and creativity with tough, clear thinking and analytical questioning. The huge sense of humour and generosity of spirit which infuse her work helps to ‘soften the blow’ in realisations of how much I create my own ‘difficulties’. She has had a huge impact on me professionally and I would recommend her without reservation.

The Directors of Aspect Property Management Ltd, decided that having grown “organically” since the establishment of the company in 2005, we could see that growing the size and revenue of the company was going to need structure.  This meant that it was time to seek help and guidance from a third party consultant.

We chose Oona Collins of Potential Plus International because we are relatively well connected in the surveying world and so spoke to various contacts, and friends, seeking out recommendations for the right company/person to fulfil the review brief.  We did not want to go to a large corporate type consultancy – we wanted a recommendation for an individual. This is exactly what we got.

The work we have done together has been specific and targeted. This is only possible if there is an understanding of the sector that a company operates in and the staff involved. Oona set aside the time early on, to meet the staff, understand the business and ascertain the Directors goals.

The benefits have been on a number of levels. They include a better understanding for us, the managers, of our staff, and their outlook which has meant that we can better coach and encourage them.  As a consequence we have made changes. We now have a rolling calendar of One to one meetings allowing us to better monitor progress. We have better defined long term targets. We have benefitted in the advice Oona has given us based on her experience of others that have reached the point we have reached.

To someone considering using Oona we would say “speak to her and/or meet her. See if you both walk the same walk. Take the plunge and enter it with 110% commitment, to get the most out of the relationship”

Your recent leadership coaching programme with my Management Team has exceeded my expectations. I have never seen a team so motivated and driven after a programme. Not only did this serve as a highly effective team building process, their increased energy and belief has resulted in a direct impact on productivity and revenue levels. As a result of this it is my intention to make this an annual programme. Thank you.

My thanks to you for the impact your coaching has had – it has been no less than life-changing. I have gained energy and motivation and am much happier and more effective at work.

The Business Generation Programme was the best programme that Knight Frank has run in 25 years. Thank you Oona.

For me, the Vision Day was a unique, powerful, enjoyable, pragmatic and life-changing experience. It not only gave me the breakthroughs I’d been searching for to pursue my professional ambition, but has had a considerable impact on other parts of my life.

I knew the change of professional direction I wanted to make and had been plugging away for two years, but had reached a block. Oona’s incredible ability to analyse, empathise, challenge and motivate enabled me to see things differently, gave me very practical ways to move forwards and triggered the change in mindset I’d been looking for.

Three months on, as a direct result of the day, I have completed the major professional milestone that I’d been struggling with. The relief and excitement is extraordinary. I still have many miles to go but I can see that my vision is within reach.

Yet to say this doesn’t fully convey the extraordinary experience that is the Vision Day. Oona’s attention to detail, warmth, humour, tough love and genuine interest in each client are unique. What I also loved is that Oona works with who you are – the strategies I came up with were totally natural to me, nothing was forced, and I know that’s why I have applied the outcomes every single day since my Vision Day.

Oona is more than a coach – she has a gift. She has helped me become true to who I am and find the power within me to make my vision happen.

Potential Plus International helped me to recognise how to make business more profitable by improving client relationships.

Oona’s coaching was insightful and memorable. I cannot imagine there is anyone better in her field of expertise.