You may be the person everyone relies on because you are capable and you care.
You may lead the team, hold the function or be the one who notices what will fall apart if you do not pick it up.
That can work for a long time, until it does not.
Perhaps every decision feels heavier than it should. You keep telling yourself things will settle after the next campaign, funding deadline or team change, but there is always another one. You want to keep doing meaningful work, and you also know the way you are doing it now cannot be the only option.
Coaching gives you space to step outside the immediate demands and hear your own thinking again. We look at the beliefs and expectations shaping how you work, the responsibilities you have taken on and what a more sustainable way of leading could look like in practice.
The Unscripted Path® is the framework underneath my coaching. It is a way to notice the rules you have been following, return to your own judgement and redesign how work fits into your life.
Unlearn
Notice the scripts shaping how you work and lead. These might sound like, "A good leader should always be available", "If I can do it, I should" or "Caring about the cause means giving it everything".
We look at where those rules came from and whether they still deserve to make your decisions.
Reclaim
Come back to your own values, strengths and judgement. Work out what you want, what you need and what matters now, without filtering every answer through what would be most useful to everybody else.
Redesign
Turn that clarity into choices and structures that can hold up in real life. That may change how you lead the team, what you agree to own, how you use your time or what you decide to do next.
The Unscripted Path
®
Ways to work with me
A self-paced introduction to the Work by Design method for people who want to understand the patterns shaping their relationship with work and begin changing them in their own time.
Through guided lessons and practical reflection, you will identify the rules you have absorbed, reconnect with your own voice and begin designing a way of working that fits the person you are now.
Work by Design
Start with how you work.
Personal coaching for leaders and experienced professionals who want a trusted place to think, make clearer decisions and change the patterns that keep leaving them over-responsible or depleted.
The work is shaped around you. We may explore how you lead a team, respond to pressure, handle conflict, decide what belongs to you or work out whether the role still fits. You will not be handed a generic model of leadership to copy. We will develop a way of working and leading that uses your strengths and respects the rest of your life.
Spots are limited, as I only take on a couple of new clients each month to ensure I can provide focused, personalized support.
Lead OffScript
One-to-one coaching for how you work and lead.
A cohort-based programme for people doing strategic work inside charities and purpose-led organisations, especially those who have become the person expected to know, fix and carry everything.
The programme will combine professional development with coaching, helping participants strengthen their judgement, lead their function more confidently and work with the real organisational pressures around them.
Upstream
Small-group professional development for fundraising and communications professionals.
I run occasional group coaching and learning experiences around the needs I see emerging in my work. When a programme is open, you will find the details here.
Groups and programmes
Stay in Touch
Who coaching is for
You do not need to be at breaking point, planning a career change or certain what the answer is. You may be:
- leading a charity or purpose-led organisation and needing somewhere to think honestly
- responsible for marketing, communications or fundraising in a team with more ambition than capacity
- highly capable, but tired of capability becoming the reason you are given more to carry
- questioning how much of your identity and self-worth has become tied to work
- ready to make a change in how you lead, even if you are not yet sure what that change needs to be
This is coaching for the person doing the work, not a consultancy session about your organisation's communications strategy. If the organisation itself needs strategic or delivery support, explore consulting or ask about combining the two.
""Sarah has helped me to get back in touch with the real me. This work is genuinely life-changing."
Maddie
"She went above and beyond what I ever expected from a coach."
Catie
"I learned to listen to myself, and make a life-changing leap I might never have taken alone."
Vittoria
Is coaching therapy?
No. I am not a therapist, and coaching is not a substitute for therapy when that is the support you need. Coaching is a structured space to think about how you work, lead and make decisions, then put that insight into practice.
Do I need to work for a charity?
No. Much of my experience is in the charity and NGO sector, and many clients are doing purpose-led work, but the coaching is open to people beyond it. What matters is that the questions and approach feel relevant to you.
Is coaching open to both women and men?
Yes. One-to-one coaching and Work by Design are open to people of all genders. Some future groups, communities or retreats may be women-only, and this will always be clear before you join.
Can my organisation pay?
Yes. One-to-one coaching and professional development programmes can often be funded through an employer. I can provide the information or proposal you need to raise it internally.
Do I need to know what I want before I enquire?
No. You need enough of a sense that something in how you work or lead needs attention. Working out what needs to change can be part of the coaching.
