Ray McKiernan

What our clients  say!

SoundCloud is a high performance, high talent tech organisation. We recruit our people from across the globe to work at our HQ in Berlin. As we are growing quickly and relocate many of people to Berlin, we wanted to build up our employee's personal resilience to help them be effective, healthy and happy at work. We are a highly technical bunch of people who relate well to technical information.

Ray helped us to design a bespoke programme which addressed our culturally diverse audience in a way which engaged them in the topic and instilled the importance of personal resilience. Ray has been delivering group and 1:1 offerings to our people for over four months and has shown that his approach can be adapted extremely well depending on the situation and the needs of the group or individual.

Our people have described their sessions with Ray as insightful, empowering and extremely useful for tackling the demands that a high-tech high-performance environment can bring. Our people managers are now more aware of the topic of personal resilience and technical language relating to how our bodies react to stress has become part of the day-to-day parlance at SoundCloud. We are more aware of ourselves and our own personal health because of Ray's input and happier and more productive for it.'

Caoimhe Keogan

VP HR SoundCloud Ltd. Berlin

Ray and his team have supported both Individuals and groups in KPMG to build resilience, enabling them to maximise their personal and professional potential. Over the years I have consistently found Ray’s approach to be highly energised, professional and proactive.  He is exceptionally knowledgeable in this field provides practical inputs in all sorts of challenging situations. I would highly recommend Ray and his team.

Elaine McGleenan | Head of Learning & Organisational Development | KPMG Ireland

Ray McKiernan was a true joy to work with: He delivered a fun-packed and deeply insightful lecture on Resilient Leadership to our full-time MBA cohort that was well-received and well-appreciated by all. Ray has the rare combination of being a genuine expert in his field as well as an ability to think on his feet and connect with his audience in an authentic, emotionally intelligent, and down-to-earth manner. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Ray to any organisation.

Dr Jutta Tobias    PhD MA MSc Maîtrise Internationale BA (hons) Dipl.-Übers. (FH)

Lecturer in Performance Management

School of Business

Cranfield University

"At AdRoll, we work in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment - an environment where, like most companies, people can be at risk of burnout. We recognised the need to equip our employees from a junior level to Director level, with techniques to manage stress and build resilience, which in turn drives performance for the business. We worked with Ray McKiernan on a series of trainings in our company - with one program, being a cohosted Leadership program. Some of the participant feedback speaks for itself:

"Best training session I've ever had so hard to improve on that. It was so authentic, relatable and practical at both a work and personal level. I've taken a lot from it.

"Really enjoyable - I really had a lot of epiphanies during the training."

"Ray was really engaging (and entertaining) to spend a half day with. I've left the session determined to make a few small changes to include Ray's techniques in my daily life. Absolutely loved the training.”

The impact of these programs was outstanding. Ray's passion for his subject matter is contagious, and his knowledge, exceptional. As a facilitator, he is so engaging. Working with Ray has been a pleasure, and I would sincerely recommend Ray to any organisation."

Rebecca Dyer

Senior Training Manager AdRoll

Ray has worked with the AdRoll Leadership and Management development programs over the past number of years. Ray’s Resilient Leadership program has been instrumental in setting our teams up to successfully navigate change and overcome obstacles. It helps that Ray is a pleasure to work with.

Rebecca Dyer

Head of Enablement

AdRoll

We worked with the Stress Management Institute, in particular Ray McKiernan, on a Resilience Programme for members, called Who is Blue. Ray's input was excellent, very practical, helpful and focused. The feedback from the series of programmes we held was overwhelmingly positive regarding the sessions delivered by Ray and the usefulness of all he covered.

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Jenny Hayes

IBEC

Head of Management Training

Ray has provided one to one coaching for our Women in Leadership program as well as on an ad hoc basis. His ability to really listen, combined with high integrity and drive throughout the program has had a hugely positive impact on the growth of our organisation’s future leaders.

Eileen Gregory

Head of International People at AdRoll

Following an Employee Engagement Survey, the Senior Management Team in Siemens realised that the concept of Stress and Stress Management were registering as a concern amongst our employee population. I accepted as part of our Employee Well Being Program to investigate what other organisations were doing in this space and how they addressed the problem. I attended a program in IBEC (Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation) where I met Ray McKiernan and Resilience International

Ray’s presentation immediately resonated with me as he approached the subject in a very positive way (i.e. building resilience in people to prevent stress) but also demonstrated how resilience could be used to boost performance. I recommended Ray McKiernan to the senior management team at Siemens and we soon scheduled for all staff to attend a full day workshop on “Better Performance through Resilience”.

I am very happy to recommend the services of Ray McKiernan and the Stress Management Institute. He is professional, proactive and highly engaging. The feedback from our staff has only been very positive. They said he took time to listen and understand what their needs were as we went through a very difficult time in our business.

Gary O’Callaghan. Head of Energy Siemens Ltd.

“As part of ESB’s Health & Wellbeing strategy, we have engaged the services of Resilience International to partner with us in providing senior and front-line managers across the company with support in building personal resilience of self and those reporting to them.  The learning solution designed by Ray McKiernan acknowledges the many challenges of the modern workplace such as

·         Life & working life generally is accepted to be more stressful than previously. 

·         Managers can be under pressure themselves and need to manage that.

In addition, managers need to be aware & sensitive to the pressure that their staff and team can be facing.

Resilience International continuously ensures that the learning solution we designed provides our managers guidance on recognising their own pressure points and are introduced to the tools to manage those pressures.  As an outcome, managers are able to recognise when others in their team are under pressure and now know how to respond to that situation.  The programme has become a key element of the suite of health and well-being initiatives that have been introduced to improve the performance of both individuals and the organisation.  In essence, ESB with Resilience International’s expertise, now provides its managers with the necessary support infrastructure to work effectively in a 21stcentury workplace.”

David Hughes

Programme Manager Performance & Development ESB

“I invited Ray to deliver a session on managing yourself as part of a CPD programme entitled “The Engineer’s Guide to Effective Management” designed for engineers working in managerial roles for organisations in both the public and private sectors and in a wide range of industries. Having seen Ray in action I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed and I wasn’t, nor were the delegates on the course. Ray delivered a session that was perfectly customised to their needs in an enlightening, informative and enjoyable way. The feedback from delegates was universally positive.

Ray is an excellent individual to work with. He took time to listen and understand what we were looking for, who the audience would be and what were their needs. He then delivered a session that more than exceeded what we had agreed. I would highly recommend Ray to any organisation either as a trainer or consultant – the outcome will always be positive.”

Aidan O'Flaherty

CPD Training Executive

Engineers Ireland

It is my pleasure to recommend the services of Ray and his team at the Stress Management Institute.  Ray has been at all times professional, proactive and highly engaging. The tailored resilience programmes in particular have become a beneficial tool within our business and feedback from our clients has been wholly positive

Ray has continually provided an excellent service for our clients, with tangible benefits in terms of engagement using evidence based practical solutions for management and staff

I would not hesitate to recommend Ray to any organisation thinking of implementing such services. 

Chris Gilmore

Head of Business Operations

EAP Consultants

Ray McKiernan has been engaged by Concern Worldwide to deliver trainings and workshops with our internationally and Irish based staff for the last 2 years. His expert knowledge and inclusive presentation style has ensured positive feedback from those attending. His session on ‘Key Competencies for Managing Pressure and Building Resilience’ delivered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was particularly well received by our senior managers working in difficult and complex environments overseas. 

I recommend Ray and look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.  

Honor Marr| Learning and Development Manager | Concern Worldwide