Keith Webster was motivated to do UCD’s Building and Leading High Performing Teams in partnership with Leinster Rugby as he is passionate about helping people become the best version of themselves.
A career spanning military service, elite level sport, and commercial roles in the pharma industry led Keith Webster to change track and move into personal development and coaching. “I’ve been developing people and teams throughout my career and am passionate about helping people become the best version of themselves,” he notes. “I’ve always wanted to be a better version of me as well.”
That passion for self-improvement led him to take part in the UCD Smurfit Executive Development Building and Leading High Performing Teams course run in partnership with Leinster Rugby.
The decision to take the course arose indirectly from some work he had done on organisational transformation with a UK university. “UCD came onto my radar after that,” he recalls. “I have an affinity with Dublin as my mother came from there. I heard they were running their inaugural Building and Leading High Performing Teams programme with Leinster Rugby. The added carrot of Leinster Rugby involvement attracted me to that.”
He has been involved in sport all his life and played rugby and represented Great Britain in bobsleigh and road cycling during his military career. “My wife says I was actually a professional athlete,” he says with a smile.
On leaving the military he joined global pharma giant Pfizer where he spent 17 years in commercial roles. That experience served to heighten his interest in personal development and coaching. “There is a lot of personal development in the pharma industry,” he points out.
And then came what he describes as a personal epiphany in the form of a book – First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham. “He is probably the leading writer on people development today. I started to implement lessons from the book in my working life to great success. That’s when I decided on a change in career.”
That saw him become a Gallup Strengths certified coach and become an internal consultant on strengths and engagement with Pfizer in 2014. That saw him initiate and deliver proof of concept for a “Strengths Based Development & Impact” model in Pfizer UK. He also led and supported several organisational development initiatives for the company, including but not limited to employee engagement and strengths-based development.
He left Pfizer in 2018 to establish his own business, KCStrengthsHUB, which has grown steadily and now has five consultants delivering high performance programmes to several corporate customers mainly in the pharma industry.
“We help organisations to maximise the potential of their people,” he explains. “We employ proven methodologies which ensure organisations get a return on their investment. I am blessed. I love what I do. I can’t do enough of it.”
The insights which could be gained from a high performing sports organisation like Leinster Rugby prompted his interest in the Smurfit Executive Development course. “You find high performing teams in military and sports settings and there is a lot of learning to be gained from them,” he points out. “Leinster Rugby added a lot of value to programme. We got to work with Leo Cullen, Leinster’s Head Coach and several of this team including Guy Easterby, Dr. Emma Burrows as well as ex-Leinster players as well.”
Wellbeing at work is a particular area of interest for him. “That’s a lot of what we do in KCStrengthsHUB. If you love what you do, that’s a big part of it. If people feel part of a community, that they belong somewhere, that’s a big part of it. Very often organisations put people in a role because they look like a good fit for it, but it doesn’t fit them. Then they are surprised when they leave.”
He was impressed by the Leinster Rugby approach to wellbeing. “Rugby is a tough, attritional sport and players are under a lot of pressure. One of the big things that struck me was the support system in place to help injured or retiring players with their career transition. It’s very authentic. It sends out the message that this is a club and that even if a player finished 10 to 15 years ago, Leinster is still there for them. That was refreshing to hear. It was also quite an eye-opener. It’s kind of like the British Legion in that respect. You don’t find that in the corporate world.”
The course itself provided affirmation for many things he already knew. “I had done a lot of learning already, but it was very good to refresh it and hear other perspectives. There was about 25 of us on the course and I got to hear what’s happening in their world. And you find that everyone is feeling the same pinch and the same workplace issues.”
The learning on building high performing teams was similarly affirmative. “The focus on daily habits and behaviours was very good. We build that into every single client programme. How do we change those habits and behaviours? If you have the right habits and behaviours the team will perform better. You need to have right skills at the top levels as well. If we do that and do it intentionally, the chances of successful outcomes for ourselves and the business are much greater than if we don’t.”
The programme met all his expectations. “For sure I would recommend the course to others. A lot of modern workplaces are quite flat organisationally and they rely on every individual to be at their best and the programme addresses that. There is a richness of learning for everyone on the course. There’s a lot of fun in it as well. It gives people a different lens to look at high performing teams. Whether you like rugby or not, it opens your eyes to how they go about being successful.”
For more information on the next intake of UCD’s Building & Leading High Performing Teams, which takes place from November 9th to 11th 2022, visit https://www.smurfitschool.ie/executivedevelopment/programmesforindividuals/leinsterrugby/
