Emer O’Donnell is a specialist coach for young people. A Founder of TeenReconnect, and the 7Q Fast Track TeenReconnect Formula. She is also a Founding Director of Quintillion Cognitive Technologies and a creator of the Q Pathfinder, a personalised app that makes navigating the teenage years much easier for young people, in a noisy world that often feels uncertain, and stressful, judgemental, and overwhelming for many. Originally from Ireland, she loves the sea and now lives on the South coast of England with her children.
Emer O'Donnell, Founder TeenReconnect
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
It wasn’t just one pivotal moment, more a series that built over time.
My interest in people started early. I travelled with my mother with her work around Ireland when I was 5 years old. School experiences started when I attended a few days in one school that was local to the hotel we stayed in and then moved to another new one as we moved on. Not sure it would be allowed today!
I learned to read the playground fast as a newcomer. A survival skill because it could feel like the wild west. Meeting new people as we travelled, made walking into a room full of strangers easy. People-watching became a pastime. It sparked a lifelong curiosity about human behaviour and the importance of self-awareness and understanding others' worlds to meaningfully connect with them.
Roll forward to a teenage decision to study psychology at University College Dublin. Then it was getting my MSc Coaching training at Henley Business School while having two more children. I wanted a new career to fit in with them, after working 20+ years in other global businesses.
I then asked several questions at key moments because learning creates success.
One was to a fellow student, Karen Bentley, at Henley about finding a valid psychometric. Many are not fit for purpose. It was for my final year research to test if self-awareness empowered people to change behaviour. She gave me Steve Glowinkowski’s details, the creator of the Global Predispositions Indicator (GPI). I trained to use this scientific measure developed over forty years. I knew it worked after testing it on seventy lawyers. I also knew this setting wasn’t my coaching calling.
I contacted Steve to see if he had an equivalent valid measure for young people. When he said yes, I embarked on a journey of qualitative research with parents and their teenagers. From this, the foundation stones for the app concept and many content topics of the Q Pathfinder were born. Quintillion Cognitive Technologies was formed and with an amazing team, the Q Pathfinder was created.
It covers all the key areas young people said they needed more support with from the 1000s of hours of research done with them. Simply put this was understanding more About Me, Learning, Careers, Stress, Confidence and People. All universal challenges and obvious when you stop to think about them.
I founded TeenReconnect, a coaching and training business where a formula of coaching has been created that addresses what I see as the missing connections in modern young people’s lives that they need to thrive, as many are stuck in a Negative Cycle.
Using an approach that combines five factors, tried and tested science, psychology, quality coaching, the 7Q Fast Track TeenReconnect formula and the personalised Q Pathfinder app, young people get to understand what makes them tick quickly and this inner knowing plays a key role in providing clarity of direction for them so they can start a Positive Cycle of living. It creates a Magic Bridge between the two, which delivers transformational results fast.
What is your work inspired by?
As a teenager, I had no understanding of my natural talents, strengths, or worth. There were hidden beliefs I knew nothing about, that made me think I wasn’t that talented, capable, or powerful enough to be able to have what I wanted in the world. My focus in hindsight was on limited horizons and therefore so was my power to be able to create much beyond this. I made terrible decisions because I didn’t know who I was or what I was capable of. This had painful knock-on relationship consequences in my life.
Retraining as a coach made it obvious to me that quality coaching transforms lives and how important it is. I wished as an adult I had been given access to this learning as a teenager. You don’t get these insights in school. A lot of coaching is not rocket science. It seems crazy when young people are primed for learning and are on a journey of self-discovery that they don’t learn how to manage their relationships, well-being and performance well. They are essential skills for them to master at a vulnerable developmental time in their lives. They can learn to make better decisions, giving significant advantages, if they know who they are and what they want. With technology advances, being able to roll out a personalised offering to empower teenagers, seemed like a no-brainer.
This support is needed now. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report for 2021 predications for young people says pandemials are at risk of becoming the double lost generation of the 21st century. With deterioration in mental health since the start of the pandemic leaving 80% of young people across the globe vulnerable to depression, anxiety, and disillusionment, the room for disengagement whether it be self-harm, suicide or radicalisation is real for them and they need meaningful support.
American research also shows that 43% of young adults reported increases in loneliness since the outbreak of the pandemic. Loneliness is likely to increase the risk of death by 26% (Holt-Lunstad, 2015) and it is worse for us than obesity (Holt-Lunstad, 2010).
These statistics are inspiration enough. It is something that matters to me, so I put my heart into it. The work I do is about removing the fear from young people’s lives and supporting adults not to create them with their fear either. Knowing the approach works and that it can transform well-being and mental fitness quickly is motivational too. I want no young person to feel lost just because they are struggling to connect the dots of living life where personalised support can make all the difference.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
My children. Like many parents, I want the best for them. That means giving them the tools, support, and self-awareness they need to find their thriving zones in life. It is easy for me to look at them and watch their behaviours to know what makes them tick. I want to share this knowledge to support other young people to believe in themselves and have the confidence to grow and develop so this benefit can be felt for generations to come. This will make for a better world in the future when young people can learn to value themselves, feel connected and have the courage to access their heart's calling and talents without fear of failure or judgement.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
I have three wishes.
I want a 24/7 accessible free masterclass I have created for parents of teenagers and for professionals who work with young people out in the world. It lets them access golden nugget tools to deliver less stress, better communication, and more life joy for both parties during these tricky years.
Learning how to be that ‘good adult’ young people need in their lives is shown to be one of the most important factors to support their self-esteem, mental health, and well-being in a world so psychologically hard on them. With more meaningful connections, young lives can be protected from the burden of overstress, anxiety, depression, and the desperation of choosing suicide.
Like young people are given a math book to learn math, I want each to have a personalised Q Pathfinder as part of a coaching programme in secondary school. They can learn who they are and how to better manage their relationships, their emotions, their well-being and their performance. All these factors are linked and are required to build more self-confident, resilient individuals. This is real learning that will serve them throughout their lifetime.
I want businesses to be supportive of this educational initiative. If they want to develop talent for the future, they need to be nurturing it in schools in a way that is meaningful and personal for young people. When I left education, it took me over 4 years to discover my natural talents by trial and error. If I had a Q Pathfinder back then I would have discovered these in 30 minutes! Finally, pre-pandemic research by Deloitte shows young people are the most vulnerable demographic in the workplace with it comes to mental health. It is a significant cost for employers. To develop innovative, creative minds needed for the challenges of the future we need to be investing in developing young healthy minds now.
