Oonagh Gaff
BA (Hons), MSc, PGCert (Exec Coaching)
Overview
Oonagh has worked in the field of leadership and organisation development for over 20 years. Her aim and motivation is to help leaders and organisations get better – get better as human beings and leaders; better in relationship with others in groups and teams; and better at creating effective, humane organisations. With a background in organisational psychology, she has always been interested in, and worked with, how people and organisations actually work.
Experience
Oonagh has particular strengths in designing and facilitating leadership development for groups and teams. She continuously develops her thinking and practice in this area, working with a range of organisations and different colleagues to do so. She also has significant experience and capability in developing strategic influencing skills and facilitation skills as well as developing functional experts to build high impact business partner relationships. She is a coach who brings her knowledge and experience together to support clients in their particular development areas.
Oonagh works with clients in both the public and private sector, designing and facilitating leading edge team and leadership development. Recent projects include: global development with a financial institution as facilitator for the Mastering Leadership and Management programme; Diageo plc Leadership Coach delivering leadership team development, design and content and the organisation’s women’s leadership programme; the NHS Leadership Academy faculty member for the directors and Nye Bevan programmes; the Higher Education Institution’s Developing Collaborative Leadership programme; the Scottish Government developing collaborative leadership in health and social care partnerships; and ACCA developing the global HRBP team.
Work history and qualifications
Oonagh started her working life as a recruitment psychologist with Caledonian Paper, running assessment centres to recruit 450 operators, shift managers and technical managers to a new build mill. She moved to the role of Employee Relations Officer and from there started work in Scottish Power in HR. Oonagh progressed to management and leadership development roles, completing her time there as Management Development Director, looking after leadership development for the top 250 leaders. The second half of her career started as she moved into organisational consulting with Sheppard Moscow where she became a director and senior partner in the business. Oonagh holds a degree in Psychology. She has an MSc in People and Organisation Development and a postgraduate certificate in business and executive coaching.