Testimonials

We got lucky when we met Gael O’Brien. Gael is an expert in building trust and reputation based on shared values. She brings ethics to life. Her passion for ethics is palpable because it’s genuine. Gael is an excellent facilitator, coach, teacher, and writer. Her workshops have been enriching the lives of our students and we’re honored to feature Gael’s ethics articles on our web site. What sets Gael apart? She has an amazing ability to analyze complex ethical leadership challenges from multiple perspectives at once. She sees the big picture and immediately gets to the heart of the matter, digging beneath the surface to get to the real issues that may be causing a breakdown. Then, with all the kindness in the world, she asks some really tough questions. This is when the healing process begins. Gael’s keen sense of strategy, coupled with a truly compassionate heart, has made her one of our most trusted advisors and champions.

The Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium was privileged to host Gael O’Brien as our guest speaker in January 2014. Her program was insightful and resonated with our participants. Her leading-edge concepts were innovative and practical, providing tools to better equip our business leaders in continuing their endeavors to promote ethical standards in the workplace. We appreciated the depth of knowledge she brought to the table and inspiration she provided. It was truly an enriching experience; we would definitely welcome her back.

We recently had Gael O’Brien speak to us at the Network of Enterprising Women and she gave an outstanding talk on ethics in the workplace and how we might meet it head on. I highly recommend listening to her or inviting her to speak at your venue.

Transparent & authentic, insightful, seasoned with organizational knowledge, purposeful & engaging, Gael O’Brien takes her audiences on a journey of ethical exploration that is thought provoking. She creates the needed disturbance that invites personal and professional growth. Gael carries the noble voice of humanity’s hopefulness.

Gael O’Brien graciously agreed to be the Keynote Speaker at the Second Annual Isenberg Ethics Competition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst presenting “Three Triggers that Invite Ethical Failures and How Leaders Can Avoid Them.” Her talk focused on the challenges of ethical behavior, including a very insightful discussion of self-seal. Gael was both informative and inspiring. She challenged her audience to engage in self-reflection, while also providing the participants with many practical strategies for approaching business decision-making. It was a privilege to have Gael start off our day of ethical exploration and I hope we are able to have Gael come back to continue the conversation.

Our financial executives networking group was fortunate to have Gael share her leadership insights and perspectives on “Presence, and how to maximize our impact when it matters most.”  Gael not only provided our members with incredibly relevant and useful concepts, examples and stories, but delivered it in an engaging, sincere and caring way.  Any group would benefit from Gael’s knowledge and experience and will immediately feel her passion for what she does.

I had the great fortune of working with Gael O’Brien as I prepared to give a Ted Talk.  From our very first meeting, I was struck by Gael’s remarkable ability to naturally allow her clients to have self-reflection, clarity and focus about their goals, work and mission. Her positive reinforcement, combined with gentle redirection, allowed me to bring forth a story that even I didn’t know I could tell.  The lessons she taught me in just a few short months about thoughtful and effective communication will be carried into my career for many years to come.  Importantly, Gael was committed to taking the journey with me to ensure that I put forth my very best self.

Gael O’Brien has worked as a speaker coach for TEDxNatick speakers for the past four years.  She is fantastic!  Over the years, Gael has worked with a mix of our speakers—from highly accomplished professionals to speakers with moving, personal stories with little or no public speaking experience.  In every situation, Gael brings passion, compassion, and expertise as the speakers develop their talk content and delivery.  She helps them find their story and give voice to it.  In every case, the speakers who have the opportunity to work with Gael recognize her professionalism and personal commitment to make their performance shine.  If you have the chance to work with Gael, take it!

Gael O’Brien provided excellent counsel that led Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America and me to take the right steps to improve our workplace integrity during a difficult time in the company’s history. Her values-based approach and ability to ask the right questions enable her to contribute effectively to top management in any industry.

Gael has proven to be a source of thoughtful and actionable advice on issues related to corporate culture and ethics. Her academic knowledge is a useful supplement to her practical experience and tailored advice.

A tsunami of economic events has created a profound loss of trust in our markets, government and organizations. Leading in this still-fragile environment has never been more challenging. Even the best laid plans and strategies will fail if the hearts and minds of all stakeholders don’t trust the brand. Uniting an organization’s culture to a brand promise is essential to success. The greatest asset any organization has is its reputation. Gael O’Brien brings a wealth of experience counseling leaders in building and restoring trust in their organizations.

Gael provided DTS a vision for developing global strategies that maximized our engineering resources, highlighted our industry expertise and focused our strengths as a design engineering and manufacturing company. Utilizing her leadership wisdom and professional experiences, DTS was able to build a network of global offices while maintaining our high level of quality and service that customers know of us.

Gael asks great questions that inspire leaders to connect the dots. She works well with boards and is an effective facilitator. Her focus on values clarification raised the bar and helped our organization, and many members who worked with her, develop business plans that met or exceeded goals.

Gael developed a very effective research-based professional development program using creative real-life scenarios to help business coaches better understand when to recognize potential ethical conflicts. Her program energized and enlightened both new and “seasoned” coaches. The event was recognized as the highlight of the year.

Gael’s coaching and consulting made me aware of three issues that were holding me back from personal and business growth: I reexamined my approach to problem solving, how to attract and develop peak performers in my organization in the right positions, and how to develop my leadership skills to a higher level. As a result of the groundwork that Gael laid in 1994, 1995, and 1996, in 2012, it remains true that we have outsmarted our competition, eliminated turnover via a great business culture, and gained more control over our business destiny.

I’ve worked with Gael on some of her business ethics research, particularly in corporate governance and leadership. She has a unique ability to transform important and complex ideas into real world models for business practices. I’ve profited greatly from our collaboration.