1 on 1 Executive Coaching

I’ve never had any formal executive leadership coaching. However, when Sara contacted me, I was ready to give it a shot. It turned out to be a great decision. The best thing about Sara is that she works hard to understand who you are as a human being, not just as a leader. What started out for me as a professional experiment turned into a personal journey of self discovery which has been helpful across all aspects of my life. As a result, Sara has honed a toolbox of skills within me to help deal with a vast array of leadership challenges. I’ve made tangible changes to how I approach various aspects of my role including coaching direct reports to maximize their potential, changing the way I approach decision making and problem solving as a leader, diversifying my thinking and the team, and understanding the difference between useful and useless anxiety. I’ve been so impressed with Sara that she is now coaching other key people within my studio and already they are seeing tangible results too. I would recommend Sara without hesitation to anyone who is looking to coach either themselves or members of their organization. She will not disappoint!

We were a young but quickly growing business. Having grown organically, we had naturally developed a strong culture and sense of purpose, but had never framed it, put it into words a developed a Vision, Purpose and Mission Statement. Having worked in business transformation for years I knew the importance of clearly defining your vision - particularly as you’re navigating your team though big changes and growth. I needed someone external to bounce off. Someone who I hadn’t worked with before, with a fresh pair of eyes and not from our industry. Sara really helped me focus on and get the important stuff done! Having a time in the diary every other week where we’d go through my actions forced me to spend time working on the business instead of in the business. She’d hold me to account - and being the type of person I am (a starter, but certainly not a finisher), I needed that most. In my previous roles, working for larger companies and reliving large scale change, I was optimistic, confident and bullish. I learnt this wasn’t necessarily the case as a business owner. I was behaving much more cautiously than I thought I was.  This cautious behaviour was limiting our potential. The feelings haven’t gone away, but I now recognise them and have a process to snap out of it. Working with Sara has definitely contributed to our growth. In figures - since we started our engagement, our run-rate revenue has doubled, our adviser headcount has doubled, and we’ve moved into a new office onsite with IBM. Over a 6 month period, we developed a clear vision, purpose and mission statement, found the confidence to grow faster (hiring more staff and investing in growth) - this was all happening, throughout the uncertainty caused by COVID. We can now see where we’re going, and we’re all working hard to get there. I’m now finding myself daring to dream more. I can’t stress enough how important it is as a small business leader to have an ‘outsider' who will challenge your thinking and push you. Of course I know best practice, but you’d be amazed how much of that critical thinking goes out the window when you’re in the thick of it, working frantically in the business - you lose sight of the bigger picture and quickly become a busy fool. I would definitely recommend Sara!

I wanted to hire a coach to improve my communication and leadership skills. Working with Sara, I have learned more about my strengths and weaknesss in my leadership style, and got more clarity on areas for improvement needed to create a strong personal brand. For example, I learned that my highly competitive nature had created a strong sales track record and a great deal of success in my life, but my lack of self-awareness and of those around me was damaging relationships and impacting outcomes, and holding me back. Through coaching, I was able to come to grips with myself and my leadership style which needed to progress beyond the journey that got me to this point, in order to reach the next level. My past highly energetic and aggressive self-focused person was not creating trust and inspiring others cohesively and consistently. I needed to put aside my ego and find other personal drivers. Great sales people often have “Grit” that is sourced deep from their childhood. They often have something to prove. Contrastingly, I realised the power of the "collective win". Great leaders think of others winning, and moving to “we” vs just the “me.” They walk a fine balance between ultimate commitment and focus and understanding others and finding what drives them. I now believe I have what it takes to be a great leader. Changing in my communication style is a major uplift. I am listening pro-actively and understanding better. Thus, my confidence has improved. Being more aware has also enabled me to connect better with others and judge each situation with more clarity, in order to take the best course of action. And to top it off, I have been offered Board Advisory opportunities and consulting work as well. I would highly recommend Sara to anyone wanting to develop their leadership potential and become a highly effective and influential leader!