Nadia had read the lists. The ten books every leader must read, the essential reading for every new manager. She’d read many of the books themselves — she could quote them. And she was still stuck, still unsure of herself as a leader. Then she asked a different question — and the same books began doing something they had never done before. Her story is about why “what are the best books for leaders?” is the wrong question, and about the question beneath it: the one that turns reading into becoming.
Author Archives: Carmel O' Reilly
What Character Traits Could Serve Different Purposes?
What character traits could serve different purposes? In this episode of The WorkLife Question, I sit with Elena and the question — exploring what it means when character traits are already expressing themselves in more than one context. And what becomes possible when you finally see all the places they show up.
The Stories Behind the Stories: Annie
Fifteen feedback forms. Dutifully completed. Filed away unread. Another session delivered on schedule. Within budget. And completely failing to change anything. Annie had the expertise to create something transformational. The system wouldn’t allow her to use it.
In this episode of The Stories Behind the Stories, I go deeper into the character traits at the heart of Annie’s story — systematic thinking, attention to detail and empathy. And what happens when character traits working together as a system are finally given the conditions they need to create their full value.
How Do I Talk About Failure in a Job Interview?
Callum was twenty-seven and six years into his career — good enough that his campaigns were talked about throughout the company. So when the marketing manager role opened up, his director told him to apply. Callum said yes — and privately gave himself two reasons he might not get it. The first was the mistake everyone in the building remembered: a launch email to forty thousand customers, eighteen months ago, with his name on it. The other he never said aloud, to anyone. The panel had lived the first. The question wasn’t whether they’d ask. It was who he had become because of it.
WorkLife Stories from School of WorkLife Issue One
Something new begins this week, more than twenty years in the making: WorkLife Stories, a weekly publication of character-driven stories and resources that help you coach, direct and lead yourself through your working life. This week: Five stories: one about a woman who coached herself to her own answer in ten days; one about a candidate in a final round of five, going looking for what only he could say; one about a woman whose career in three chapters didn’t seem to belong to the same book, until she found the thread; one about the invitations one woman had dismissed, and the pattern she found looking back; and one about a man pushed to move faster, whose methodical approach turned out to be exactly what the moment needed. One WorkLife question — What strengths do others consistently notice about you? Three resources in Professional Self-Coaching — Get the Job, Get the Client, and Get the Seat at the Table.
How to Recognise Community-Building as a Character Trait to Transform Your Professional Impact
The complete lesson follows Anita’s full journey — including the crisis that unfolded when she suppressed her character trait, the challenge that tested her conviction when she reclaimed it, and the moment she understood that the community-building she’d been apologising for had been holding everything together all along — and shows how recognising the strengths that feel most natural to you can unlock deeper impact, stronger leadership, and a more authentic experience of work.
What Is Self-Leadership?
Orla got the role. Then came the harder part: ninety days of carrying it — a restructure that was finally her call, afternoons that kept slipping into her old job, and one Monday morning that took ninety seconds and taught her team what safety is. Her story is about self-leadership: taking ownership of your WorkLife with intention, integrity and responsibility.
Introducing Get the Seat at the Table
Get the Seat at the Table — Professional Self-Coaching for Strategic Influence. Your work is good. Better than good. And yet, when the strategic conversation happens, you’re the person who provides the input rather than the one who shapes the decision. Nothing about your expertise needs fixing — what’s missing is that nobody can see how you think. Get the Seat at the Table takes you from your experience to three prepared professional stories that make your thinking visible, so it shapes the decisions that matter.
Introducing Get the Client
Get the Client — Professional Self-Coaching for Networking and Building Professional Relationships. You know your next client, collaboration or opportunity will come through people. Get the Client takes you, step by step, from your experience to three prepared professional stories — your failure, success and passion stories — built for the spoken moment and connected into one complete picture of how you think, what you’ve learnt and what drives your work. Because when people understand those three things, they don’t just remember you. They know exactly when to call you.
How Do I Answer “Tell Me About Yourself”?
Miranda’s career had three chapters that didn’t obviously belong to the same book: classroom, training room, product team. With a first-round interview five days away, she recorded herself answering the question every interview opens with — and watched a capable woman explain her own career like a route she’d wandered by accident. What she found instead, at a kitchen table with three headings and one honest question, turned sixteen years into one answer.