Aodan Enright, Founder of Smarter Egg
Aodan Enright is an executive coach and facilitator based in Cork, Ireland. He's also the founder of Smarter Egg, a community of high-performing professionals bonded through thousands of hours of facilitated conversations, peer circles and offsite days.
He's a popular speaker at conferences and events on the topics of performance and working smarter, while also delivering workshops and programmes on these themes within organisations of all kinds. Aodan's coaching work is mostly done in the great outdoors, bringing clients for invigorating and enlightening walks away from the office environment.
Aodan is perhaps best known for his regular Sunday morning newsletter, which provides provocative coaching insights to a growing global audience. Sign up is available at Smarter Egg.com.
What drives or motivates you each day?
Two values stand out here for me: curiosity and service. In my line of work (coaching and facilitating professionals to perform at their best) there's no apparent limit to what we can learn about the workings of the human being. So, it helps to be fascinated by how people think, feel and function. And of course, all of that curiosity about how we are as homo sapiens helps me along in my own life too.
I've grown into the idea of service, i.e. is this useful/helpful here? For years I would have said I was motivated by service, but in fact, it was more about impressing people and gaining plaudits and acclaim from clients and employers. One of the advantages of getting a little older, and working in this particular field is that you gain a clearer understanding of motivation.
And there's a more significant point here about 'drive'. It's not that useful to be dependent on being motivated to act in the way that's required. Our nature is to be moody, so we can't expect motivation to be constant. We function better when we cultivate habits and processes that ensure we do what's required, even if the motivation is lower than usual.
Do you have a mentor or do you mentor anyone?
Many of my clients refer to me as their mentor; they see me as someone who is walking with the in a supportive way, along their professional path. Some folks in the coaching profession get excited about the specific differences between mentoring and coaching, and also counselling and consulting for that matter. But most of us don't care what the label is as long as we're getting help to work more effectively and with greater ease.
That said, I wouldn't classify myself as a mentor, with the exception of working with people who are earlier in their career in the world of coaching. Mentoring, as I see it, suggests sharing experience from having walked a similar path and being further ahead in the journey.
I don't have a single mentor for myself. Still, over the years, I've assembled a bunch of people who understand me very well, and they provide invaluable guidance, when required, from a range of different perspectives. I actually recommend this approach regularly in my client work as our success is a direct function of the support we have available to us. Some are afraid to ask for help in this fashion. However, in my experience, the vast majority of people are honoured to be asked and delighted to assist.
How did you get into this line of work and What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same line of work?
I never had a documented plan to do what I'm doing now. I fell into the work arising from my fascination with the area and having been in the fortunate position to avail of opportunities to progress in the field. When you reflect and look back, you often see that the work chooses you as much as you choose the work. I've been coaching and facilitating in various guises for over fifteen years and along the way have had a range of different corporate roles and entrepreneurial adventures.
My advice to someone interested in the field would be, don't give up the day job! Use every opportunity you have within your existing working domain to gain coaching experience and develop a sense of confidence in yourself and the value you can offer. I see a lot of people launch themselves into the world of coaching as a vehicle for personal development, but the laws of economics apply no matter how enlightened you may be feeling!
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
This is an interesting question as most people would not embark on an entrepreneurial journey or significant career shift if they knew all of the unforeseen challenges that were to come. Sometimes naivety is useful. That sense of possibility is vital to give us the initial momentum to push through the inevitable hard times. So maybe the answer to the question is nothing!
Maybe a more useful question to ask ourselves here is how do you wish to be as you start out? Are you doing this for valid reasons that are likely to benefit others? Have you the assuredness to back yourself when required? Have you the awareness necessary to ensure you not harm others? These are questions worth asking.
What's the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
For most of us, it's when our self-belief runs out. Seth Godin wrote beautifully about this in his book "The Dip".
Of course, there are many circumstantial and technical reasons why projects and businesses go wrong, but often it's our relationship with the setbacks that determines the eventual outcome. And we still can't discount the varying fortune of time and place. I'm disappointed that twenty years into this century, I still see evidence of discrimination in the stories of some of my clients, whether it's gender, race, appearance, accent or whatever. People who look and speak like me are more likely to succeed for reasons that are uncomfortable to acknowledge.
What are you most proud of in your life?
I don't have any specific Olympic podium moments to share, but the greatest pride comes when success arises from persistence and honouring my values in the work I'm doing. Compromise and safety and hiding are all available options when the going gets tough but seeing something through in the way you want is gratifying.
How do you define success?
I think it's something to do with the freedom to choose your response and liberty, to be the person you want to be, in the way you want to be. Material wealth is devalued without a sense of contentment, and inner peace doesn't pay the bills, so maybe it's more aligned to freedom than we might think.
What do you think are your unique skill(s) is that has helped you become successful?
I'm not sure that any skill I have is unique, but what might be relatively unusual is the combination of a bunch of things that add up in a useful way. I've been fortunate to have had access to a lot of opportunities along the way, with invaluable experience in different work domains. All of which allowed me to develop my ability to communicate and grow a sense of comfort in a professional environment. Over the years as well, my own personal life challenges gave me the gift of empathy and humility, which adds up in being better, able to listen and understand those I work with. And I do think my fascination with the work gives me that longer-term perspective.
Which words do you overuse?
There are a few words and phrases that I find myself using a fair bit in coaching sessions and workshops. I'm a great man for "checking in" and I rarely finish a session without exploring "your relationship" with something or other! Thousands of people have heard me quote "All models are wrong, some are useful", which is a line from the late statistician George Box. I've heard others use this line, quoting me as the source, so now I take the extra step of ensuring George's picture is visible while I'm talking about it!
When are you happiest?
There's nothing to compare to quality time with my family. And the ultimate joy is to hear my kids laughing.