Lead Offscript
premium 1:1 coaching
You may be leading a team, holding a function or carrying responsibility that goes well beyond your job description. From the outside, things look successful. From where you are standing, the way you are working is asking too much.
Lead OffScript is a three-month private coaching partnership to help you trust your judgement, get clearer about what is yours to hold and change how you work and lead.
You can be good at what you do and want to do it differently.
One-to-one coaching for experienced people doing work that matters.
You notice what needs doing. You see the gap before someone else names it. When a project is slipping or a colleague needs help, you usually find a way.
- Perhaps you are making decisions all day, then questioning them all evening. You know a request is unreasonable, but agreeing feels easier than managing somebody’s disappointment. You have become so used to being useful that it is difficult to tell what you actually want.
- You may have tried resting, getting more organised or setting firmer boundaries. Those things can help. But they do not always reach the expectation underneath: that doing the work well means finding a way to hold whatever it asks of you.
Coaching gives you somewhere to examine that expectation, alongside the reality of the organisation and life you are working within. We look at what needs to change, then work on making that change possible.
Being capable should not mean carrying everything.
Sometimes there is a personal pattern to examine. You might step in before anyone has asked, avoid a necessary conversation or treat another person’s unhappiness as evidence that you have made the wrong decision.
Sometimes the workload is unreasonable. The role has grown without the resources to match it. The organisation has come to rely on your willingness to fill gaps it needs to address.
Not every difficulty belongs to you.
Often, both are true.
I will not assume that a structural problem can be resolved by changing your mindset. Nor will we stop at naming the organisation’s problems if there are choices you can make within them.
We work out what belongs to you, what needs to be shared or challenged and where your influence actually sits. That distinction helps you decide where to put your effort, rather than using all of it trying to become better at carrying too much.
Our conversations might focus on:
- making a decision you keep reopening, even after you have thought it through
- leading a team without becoming responsible for everybody’s work and reactions
- setting a boundary you can hold when someone pushes against it
- using your professional judgement without waiting for permission
- working out whether you want the next role, or feel you should want it
- changing how you use your time when everything keeps arriving as urgent
- finding a way to stay in meaningful work without giving it every part of your life
Bring the question you keep coming back to.
You do not need to arrive with a neatly defined coaching goal. You may simply know that you do not want to keep working this way.
You may decide to step into a bigger role, reshape the one you have or explore a different direction. You may stay exactly where you are and lead differently within it.
We do not begin with a destination already chosen for you.
Notice the rules. Recover your judgement. Put it into practice. Lead OffScript is shaped by The Unscripted Path, my three-part method: Unlearn, Reclaim, Redesign. It gives the work a structure while leaving room for your circumstances, priorities and pace.
The Unscripted Path
®
Unlearn
See the expectations shaping your decisions.
A good leader is always available. Disappointing someone means you gave them a reason. By now, you should be able to handle it.
Rules like these become so familiar we stop noticing them. We look at where they came from, how they shape your working life, and whether they still deserve to guide you.
When you're always responding to others, your own view gets hard to hear. We return to your values, experience, needs and ambitions.
The aim is to strengthen your judgement so you can trust it beyond our conversations.
Reclaim
Hear your own judgement more clearly.
We turn what you notice into action. That might mean changing a priority, delegating differently, having a hard conversation or deciding on your next role. You try the change, see what happens and bring it back into the work.
We draw it together in a Personal Redesign Plan so you can keep going.
Redesign
Make choices that can hold up in your actual life.
Three months of space to think, with support to act.
We meet for six 60-minute sessions, usually fortnightly. There is room to explore what sits underneath a recurring pattern, alongside the decisions and conversations happening in your working life now.
Six private coaching sessions
I bring relevant OffScript exercises, frameworks and supporting resources into the work when they give you a useful way to think or act. You will have enough structure to keep moving, without a large workbook becoming another responsibility.
Tools where they help
Light-touch messaging support gives you somewhere to share a reflection or raise a question as you put the work into practice.
Support between sessions
Before we begin, you complete a reflection about what is happening and what you want to bring to the work. We then have a 30-minute Starting Point conversation to agree what would make the next three months useful. From there, we set a personal 90-day focus.
A Personal Starting Point
Towards the end, we bring together what you have learned, what you have changed and what still needs your attention. Your plan reflects the decisions you have made and how you want to carry them forward.
A Personal Redesign Plan
Lead OffScript is for experienced people whose work involves influence and responsibility.
You might be a CEO, director, head of function or senior manager. You might lead from the middle, be preparing for a bigger role or hold considerable responsibility as a specialist, consultant or founder.
Many clients work in charities, NGOs, foundations, public services, education, healthcare or purpose-led businesses. What matters most is that you care about the work and want a more deliberate way to do it.
Leadership does not always come with the title.
Lead OffScript is open to people of all genders.
You can enjoy your role and question the conditions around it. You do not need to be at breaking point for those questions to deserve attention.
You can be ambitious and want more room for the rest of your life.
I am Sarah Swaroop, a Chartered Marketer and certified coach with nearly two decades of experience across marketing, communications, fundraising, strategy and leadership.
I have led teams and functions inside purpose-led organisations. I now work as both a strategic consultant and coach, so I remain close to the pressures people bring into these conversations.
When you describe a stretched team, competing demands from senior colleagues or another project arriving without anything coming off the list, I understand the organisational reality behind it.
My role is to listen closely, notice the patterns and ask the questions that help you think more clearly. I will challenge an assumption when it seems to be narrowing your choices. I will also take seriously the constraints that cannot be wished away. I am a Certified Holistic Coach and Licensed Firework Career Coach. My approach combines that training with experience of the work, the decisions and the relationships you may be navigating.
“I am no longer chaotic and finally understand how I ended up in the place I was and how I might prevent getting back there in the future.”
Abigail Shakespeare,
CEO, Habitat for Humanity Vancouver Island
Claire C.,
Charity CEO
“Everything was focused on understanding my own style and what works best for me.”
“Sarah’s coaching provided the headspace and guidance that I needed when navigating the transition into my new leadership role. Her tools and firm but friendly direction helped me cut through the overwhelm and see myself as a leader.”
Lisa Stewart,
Director, WeAll Scotland
- your Personal Starting Point reflection and conversation
- six private coaching sessions
- a personal 90-day focus
- relevant tools and resources
- light-touch messaging support
- your Personal Redesign Plan.
The first step is a 30-minute introductory call. We will talk about what is happening, what you want to be different and whether this is the right support.
£2,497 + VAT for three months.
A private coaching partnership shaped around you.
Lead OffScript can be self-funded or paid for through an employer’s coaching, leadership or professional-development budget.
The work may be relevant to a new leadership role, a change in responsibilities, professional judgement, decision-making or how you lead within a demanding organisation.
If you would like to explore funding, I can provide a short document explaining the partnership, its relevance to your role, the format and investment. You can forward it internally or use it to support your own request.
Your organisation may be able to fund the work.
Is this mainly for people who want to change careers?
You need a sense that something in how you work or lead deserves attention. You do not need to know the answer. The Starting Point reflection and conversation help us agree on a useful focus before the six sessions begin.
Is this mainly for people who want to change careers?
Yes, where doing so would genuinely help. The scope will make clear what I am delivering for the organisation and what coaching support is included, so everyone knows how the engagement works.
Do I need to manage a team?
No. You may lead projects, relationships or an area of expertise without formal authority. Experience, influence and responsibility matter more than the title.
Will you tell me what I should do?
I will bring perspective, challenge and useful questions. We may use a framework to examine a decision or prepare for a conversation. The purpose is to help you trust and use your own judgement.
Can we work on a difficult situation happening now?
Yes. The work can respond to a live decision, a relationship, a change in role or a conversation you need to have. We will also look at any wider pattern it brings into view.
Is this therapy?
No. Coaching focuses on how you work, lead and make choices, then helps you put that thinking into practice. If therapeutic support would be more appropriate, I will say so.
How is this different from Work by Design or Upstream?
Work by Design is self-led, for people who want to examine their relationship with work and test a change in their own time.
Upstream is a small-group professional development programme for experienced communications, fundraising and related professionals who want to strengthen their strategic practice.
Lead OffScript is private coaching shaped around your circumstances, with space to explore the personal patterns, decisions and leadership questions that need individual attention.
What happens on the introductory call?
We spend 30 minutes talking about what has brought you here, what support you are looking for and whether we would work well together. You can ask questions about the partnership before deciding whether to begin.
