A Warm Welcome
My name is Paul J Barbour. Thank you for taking the time to visit this website.
In Ireland, you will often hear or see Céad Mile Fáilte, which means A Hundred Thousand Welcomes. So, you are warmly welcome, and I trust this website will in some way add value, whether we ever partner with each other or not.
I consider myself privileged to live in beautiful Northern Ireland while working globally as an executive and team coach, researcher, author, and keynote speaker.
In one minute – some things about who I am
“A coaching philosophy underpins everything I do. I believe that once you deeply experience coaching, it can infiltrate positively into the very core of your being and your interactions with everyone and everything around you.”
What I do
Living in Northern Ireland while working globally, I am honoured to do work that I love…
Team Coaching
I feel deeply privileged to be considered a thought leader and global expert in the fastest growing area of coaching.
Executive Coaching
There are few better feelings than witnessing a coachee make a positive shift in their consciousness and discover the truth about their own potential
Speaking
It is my honour to share with others my passion for how humans can collaborate and perform at the highest level.
Publications
I desire to research and write words that evoke awareness and challenge the status quo on how human beings can collaborate better.
Collaborations
I collaborate on delivering global individual and team coaching assignments and other activities.
Five reasons why I may be of service to you, your team, and your organisation
1. My purpose
I am deeply purpose-driven as a father to three young daughters, a member of my local community and in my work globally. My purpose as a coach is “to create better futures through partnering with individuals, teams, and organisations so that they may become more than what they think is possible”.
To me, this means three things
Being the best possible version of ourselves
I am convinced that individuals, teams, and organisations have untapped and innate potential to keep learning, growing, and rewriting our own stories.
Living life to the full
For me, the phrase, life is too short, is more than a saying. I am attracted to work that has significance and meaning. I desire that all of those I encounter feel more fulfilled in some way.
Working better together
The importance of how humans collaborate for me comes from a deep place. As a child of the Northern Ireland troubles, I witnessed what humans can both think and do when at their worst. These experiences have positively shaped how I view human collaboration. I know we can do so much better, and I am determined to build a more collaborative world, one individual, community, team and organisation at a time.
2. Evidence-based practice
I am committed to evidence-based practice. I love learning about the psychology of the human mind. Importantly for me, I practice what I learn on myself – like the time I experimented with neuroplasticity by doing something new every day for 100 days. I use storytelling and humour to inspire action and change. I look for evidence of change in those that I coach.
My desire to always be learning has resulted in four postgraduate qualifications, including two Masters degrees. I was honoured to be an award-winning student on both my Masters (including the Henley MSc in Coaching & Behavioural Change).
Research and writing are also important to me. My research into a post-conflict Northern Ireland resulted in the award of ‘Best Newcomer’ to Personal Construct Psychology at the 14th Biennial European Personal Construct Association Conference. I am the co-author of Building Top-Performing Teams, book chapters in The Coaches’ Handbook and We coach, and have published peer-reviewed articles in my areas of interest, team coaching and conflict resolution.
Currently, it is my privilege to tutor at Henley Business School (University of Reading) on the Henley Professional Certificate in Team, Board and Systemic Coaching.
3. Twenty years leading teams
My interest in human performance and team psychology began during a successful 20-year career as a senior leader in Kerry Group PLC, the worlds leading taste and nutrition company.
During this period, I had the privilege of leading large multi-location teams, playing lead roles in integrating newly purchased businesses, and leading large-scale business transformation projects.
4. Creating a legacy
I care deeply about making a difference, whether working with individuals, teams or organisations. My grandfather Barbour passed away some 40 years ago. However, I still love hearing local people talk about machines he invented and how they helped make work easier.
Upon publishing Building Top-Performing Teams with my co-author Lucy, something profound changed inside me. It was the first time in my professional life that the idea of creating a legacy felt real.
I am determined to keep challenging myself to rise to what the future requires from me to challenge others to do the same. I am convinced that we can each impact way beyond what we think is possible and in ways in which we may never know.
5. My approach
I connect deeply with people and help them feel safe, which I believe allows me to challenge powerfully. Those that work with me describe me as empathic, positive, available, and hardworking. And while I do have a serious side, people also comment on my ability to make people smile and laugh.
I asked my wife and daughters for their thoughts on this section, and they commented that optimism is my best quality – I will not list their issues which they also joyfully shared! On a serious note, I am optimistic about what individuals, teams and organisations can achieve through a better dialogue with themselves and others.
In the last several years, here are some of the companies I have been honoured to work with
"This is a compelling and important contribution to the team coaching literature that is extremely clear and easy to follow."
EMCC Master Practitioner, Executive Coach and Coaching Supervisor
Dr Alison Hodge
If you want to say hello, discuss anything I have written about on this website, or explore how coaching with me and those I partner with, could benefit you, your team(s) or organisation, I would be delighted to hear from you.