Inspiring Coaching

Inspiring Change

About Me

Whether coaching individuals or working with teams to develop their leadership
skills, I combine my understanding of the qualities needed to lead in high-pressured and creative environments with a strong belief in the transformative power of the coaching conversation. An extensive career in BBC News and more recently at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford has heightened my appreciation of the stories we tell ourselves and others. When we understand our stories and where we are heading it becomes easier to plan next steps. My coaching focuses on the significance of your story-telling.

I partner with you, offering an objective eye, space for meaningful reflection and time to understand what matters to you most. Working together and with clear goals, you will find your answers. For my part, I bring a journalist’s instincts to pose incisive questions, while creating a supportive, calm setting for executives leading change, managing crises and professional stress or navigating the complexities of today’s workplace. 

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Services

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Testimonials

“I have no doubt at all about the significant role that our coaching sessions have had in getting me to the right place in terms of confidence to help open up these opportunities and get me over the line (to a new job).”

Lawyer 

“For some years before I met Sara, I was hearing about her, and her excellent reputation for leadership in a large and turbulent global organisation. I have since seen for myself the remarkable impact she can have at an individual level.”

Master Exective Coach 

“Sara is hugely empathetic but always professional, highly articulate and brings a sharp clarity to a process of job transition which can be challenging in all sorts of unexpected ways.  I shall always be grateful for the space she provided for me to navigate my thoughts and take the plunge.  I could not be happier with the outcome of our sessions.”

Partner, Law Firm  

“I was fascinated to see how a lot of issues that I perceived as significant and hard to overcome went to the background and, towards the end of the last sessions, I was able to focus on working towards longer term plans. I also have a much clearer vision of what I don’t want to do.”

Media Consultant

 

“Sara is excellent at drawing you to your own observations and conclusions, this means every session offers self-growth and the opportunity for personal development.  The coaching sessions helped me to develop a self-aware and strategic approach to my work as an Executive. I have seen my working practice improve significantly.”

Performing Arts Executive Producer

“The sessions really helped me to find both the clarity – in terms of what was important to me, what wasn’t working and what I needed/was looking for – and the confidence to get myself there, but in a clear, thoughtful and planned manner.  This included distilling down the myriad thoughts, concerns and aspirations I had into some concise and achievable objectives which we revisited, expanded on and adapted in each session. She was excellent at creating an environment to get the best from me by starting from a position of calm and setting the context for the session and getting me to focus on my motivation.”

Lawyer

“The extraordinary breadth and diversity of Sara’s career carries the risk that she might impose her point of view on people she works with.
But instead, she is the very reverse – a true coach, with yes an almost awe-inspiring hinterland of experience to draw upon, but nevertheless able to be sensitive, kind, and responsive. It makes for a rare combination.”

Anne Scoular, Co-Founder Meyler Campbell

“Sara’s training instilled confidence in our team and provided practical tools to grow our leadership and management skills. With her broad and deep experience, Sara draws from a well of expertise to create a tailored training program for various audiences and around specific needs. Sara was flexible and creative. She built a program that worked for us and adjusted along the way. She was generous with her time, allowing people to contact her outside of the sessions to work through individual challenges.”

Chief Operating Officer 

“The sessions helped me stop and breathe, then reflect. I noticed that I developed stronger communication skills as part of my overall leadership style. I also kind of ‘saw and accepted’ instead of avoiding some important themes and values. Sara is an excellent listener and a capable coach with specific skills which trigger trust and openness from the first session.”

News Editor

“I appreciated Sara’s ability to listen and reflect back my thought process, all beautifully summed up. As she said at the beginning of our time together, the answers are already within me. I fully believe that, but I needed help to bring them out into the light, and then vocalise them. There were other gems which made such a deep impression on me. The session built on positive self-awareness felt really empowering. So often in life, we are aware of what we are lacking or how we don’t measure up. It was an uplifting session – did wonders for my confidence.”

PR Executive 

“The friendly, approachable style combined with clear focus and a soft persistence is a winning combination in Sara’s sessions and worked very well for me.”

Media Executive 

“Sara helped me to step back and focus on what I really want from my career. Through her sensitive, but insightful line of questioning, she identified why I was dissatisfied and the questions I needed to ask myself to improve things. Once we had identified realistic goals, she helped me build strategies to achieve them. I would highly recommend her coaching services.”

News Presenter  

“Working with Sara was brilliant. She enabled me to reflect on what was most important to me in my career and more broadly, specifically by making me address questions around my priorities and how I could identify barriers and then take steps to remove them in order to feel valued, stimulated and fulfilled.”

Partner, Legal 

Proud to volunteer for the Humanitarian Coaching Network

Frequently Asked Questions

First, these are your sessions, and we follow your agenda and the topics you bring to each meeting. I believe that people know better than anyone else what they want and need to do. As coach, my role is to be your thinking partner, facilitating your work and supporting you as ideas develop into goals and goals into actions.
 
Where needed, I will use different techniques to support you and draw out insights. I will listen to you carefully, ask questions without making judgements and we will set goals and agree actions for you to take forward.

Coaching can be a catalyst, a collaborative path that leads to new ideas and different ways of seeing things. In my coaching, I support you through challenges in your work or professional relationships, through periods of change and transition or the delivery of key projects. I also help you to develop your own coaching skills. The content of these sessions is confidential, in line with the EMCC Global Code of Ethics. 

A commitment of your time and attention.

After a free introductory meeting where we can share expectations and goals, we will agree how we will work together and what you want to achieve. This will include the schedule for the first six sessions, options for online or in-person meetings and the associated fees. At the end of these sessions, we will review progress and agree next steps.

You are welcome to contact me via this site to arrange an introductory meeting to discuss how working with me can help you.

Contact Sara

If you would like to find out more or discuss how we might work together, please use the form on this page.