About David
I’m an executive and leadership coach, team facilitator, and founder of David O’Grady Coaching Ltd.
My work is with HR, Talent and L&D leaders — building behavioural capability inside organisations, and strengthening leadership development, team communication and trust along the way.
Most of that is grounded in two behavioural tools I spent years working with as a corporate HR practitioner, before becoming the partner who delivers them in Ireland.
The short version sits above. The story behind it starts somewhere else.
Before I was a partner, I was the buyer
For twenty years, I worked in corporate HR — at companies like 3M and HubSpot, building leadership development and talent programmes from the inside.
At 3M, I built Insights Discovery® into an enterprise capability — establishing the licence, designing the facilitation model, and integrating it into how leaders and teams developed across the business.
At HubSpot, I did the same with Everything DiSC® — setting up the enterprise licence and facilitation model, and embedding it inside leadership and talent development as part of how the company grew its people.
In both cases, I wasn’t a partner. I was the buyer — the person who held the enterprise licence, built the facilitation model, and made these tools part of how the business actually ran.
After I moved on from each role, both partnerships eventually went to competitors. That happens.
When I set up this practice, I took both back.
Today I’m Ireland’s only dual Everything DiSC® and Insights Discovery® Authorised Partner.
That isn’t a positioning play — it’s the practitioner sequence in reverse. I ran these tools at enterprise scale — as the internal owner, not the vendor — before I became the person delivering them to other organisations.
Which means when a client asks me which tool is right for them, I can answer without commercial bias toward either. I’ve lived with both — first as the buyer who ran them inside the business, now as the partner who delivers them — under real conditions, with no vendor’s commission riding on the answer.
What that became
What started inside corporate HR became this practice.
The work today sits in three layers — each mirroring how the corporate version of me used to commission them:
Facilitation
Leadership team off-sites, behavioural workshops, the in-the-room work where shared language gets built.
See offsites and team work →Certification
DiSC certification and Insights accreditation for HR and L&D professionals who want to run the work themselves.
See certification programmes →Integration
Embedding behavioural tools into how an organisation develops its leaders and teams over time, not as a one-off event.
See integration work →My signature focus is leadership and team forming — helping new, evolving and under-pressure teams build the shared language and behavioural clarity that strong collaboration depends on.
The corporate years shape all of it. I know how these tools land inside real organisations because I’ve been on the buying side of the table — and I know what HR and L&D leaders actually need from a partner, because for twenty years, that was me.
What it’s built on
The corporate years are the spine. What sits underneath them is the academic and institutional grounding that keeps the work rigorous.
I hold an MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour from the University of Limerick, where I received the Outstanding Scholar Award. That training is why I treat behavioural tools as instruments inside an organisational system, not as standalone interventions.
I’m an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, a Chartered Member of the CIPD, and I serve on the ICF Ireland Board as Director of Learning. I’ve also lectured on the CIPD coaching and mentoring programme, which keeps me close to the HR and L&D community I work with day to day.
Beyond DiSC and Insights, I’m an Authorised Partner for The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team®, a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach for CliftonStrengths, and Hogan Certified for executive assessment. These sit inside the practice as supporting craft — not the headline tools, but ones I bring in where the work calls for them.
- Wiley Everything DiSC® Authorised Partner
- Insights Discovery® Authorised Partner
- ICF Associate Certified Coach
- Chartered Member, CIPD
- MSc, University of Limerick
- Five Behaviours® Authorised Partner
- Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach
- Hogan Certified
Working with me
My style is calm, practical, and quietly direct.
That’s built on the belief that most teams already have what they need to perform — they just need a shared language to use it well. My work is to help leaders and HR partners find that language, embed it, and use it long after the workshop ends.
What that looks like in practice: I listen before I diagnose. I push back where it serves the work, not where it serves me. And I’d rather a quiet, useful session than a louder one that leaves nothing behind.
Most of my work is delivered in person across Ireland and virtually across Irish and US time zones. I’m based in Athlone, between Galway and Dublin.
Questions I get a lot
What do you specialise in? +
Leadership and team forming — helping new, evolving and under-pressure teams build the shared language and behavioural clarity that strong collaboration depends on.
My work blends executive coaching, team facilitation, and behavioural assessment. The primary tools are Everything DiSC® and Insights Discovery®. I bring in Five Behaviours, CliftonStrengths, and Hogan where the work calls for them.
Why does dual-partner status matter to a buyer? +
Because no other Irish provider can recommend the right tool without commercial bias toward either.
Most providers in Ireland are partnered with one tool — either Everything DiSC® or Insights Discovery®. Their incentive is to recommend the tool they sell. Holding both partnerships means I can match the tool to the team, the buyer, and the use case — and explain the trade-offs honestly. That’s the practical benefit, and it’s the single biggest reason clients choose this practice over single-partner alternatives.
Do you work outside Ireland? +
Yes. Ireland and the US are the two main markets.
Most engagements are with Irish-headquartered organisations, the Irish operations of multinationals, or US teams — often through relationships built over twenty years in corporate HR. Workshops, coaching and certification all run virtually across Irish and US time zones. For leadership team off-sites and full-day work, in-person delivery across Ireland is the default.
What’s the typical engagement shape? +
Most engagements fall into one of three layers. Facilitation is typically a one-day or half-day leadership team off-site, often built around DiSC or Insights as the behavioural anchor. Certification is DiSC certification or Insights Discovery accreditation for HR and L&D professionals who want to deliver the work themselves. Integration is longer-term work embedding behavioural tools into how an organisation develops its leaders and teams over time.
A 20-minute scoping call is the usual starting point.
Why “behavioural capability” rather than “coaching” or “training”? +
Because the goal isn’t an event — it’s an organisational capability that holds after the session ends.
Coaching is one input. Training is another. Behavioural capability is what actually changes when leaders, teams, and HR partners build a shared language for how they work and develop people. That requires more than a workshop. It requires the right tool, embedded properly, with HR or L&D positioned to keep it alive. That’s the work I do.
What credentials do you hold? +
An MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour from the University of Limerick (Outstanding Scholar Award), the ICF Associate Certified Coach designation, and Chartered Membership of the CIPD.
I’m an Authorised Partner for Everything DiSC®, Insights Discovery®, and The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team®, a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach for CliftonStrengths, and Hogan Certified for executive assessment. I serve on the ICF Ireland Board as Director of Learning.
If this fits
If something here resonates, the next step is a conversation.
A 20-minute scoping call is the usual starting point. No prep needed — just a chance for both of us to understand what you’re trying to do and whether this practice fits.
Book a 20-min scoping call →Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviours® are registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Insights Discovery® and the Insights colour energies are the intellectual property of The Insights Group Ltd. CliftonStrengths® is a registered trademark of Gallup, Inc.