on-one training, but people on less senior levels can also benefit from her coaching services in a number of different ways. She runs workshops and seminars, and she is available on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. She also travels internationally quite extensively, so there are many ways for people to contact her. She also published a book in 2007, titled Brandtastic or Brand Terrible?, which is a very practical business guide with strategies to enhance your personal brand.

in current climate is finding the best people and then keeping them. Sarah’s coaching can support organisations in keeping great people and developing the talent within an organisation in a way to make those people want to stay. She helps organisations by giving one-on-one coaching or taking a tailor-made approach for a small group. This can include mentoring to enable people to understand what it is that they want from their career in this organisation, and how can her services help to achieve that.

hiring, there are three important stages in the ways that Sarah works with an organisation. “I will work with graduates, these are people who are just finished studying, usually with university debt, university wardrobe and they are just beginning in their careers. Now they are moving into a big grey building where they have to be corporate and professional, and the reality is that they have never had to do this before. So the first way I can help is by showing graduates how to dress, behave and communicate in a way that is professional, relevant and appropriate for the environment they have just joined,” Sarah explains, “Step two is when graduates have now been in their post for a while, and they might be thinking of moving into the next role within the company. They are typically then looking to sharpen their skills, and we do this by looking at any of a range of skills which could be ‘soft skills’ around communications, motivation, coaching and personal skills; or leadership, critical thinking skills and negotiation.” The third stage is then conducted on a more one-on-one basis because the individual within an organisation might be looking to take the next step in leadership and they are focusing on their leadership presence. Sarah then works with them quite closely individually or in a group setting and coaches them in day-to-day leadership skills.

When organisations employ Sarah’s services, she makes sure that she understands exactly what the organisation’s needs and priorities are so that she can help them to identify ways of supporting these needs and priorities. She also makes very certain that the organisation understands in their own terms how to measure the value of employing a coach. Sarah tells us of her experiences of working

64 Management Today | August 2011 In terms of graduates that organisations are A lot of the issues that organisations are facing

Sarah works with a lot of executives, giving one-

internationally and how business is conducted around the world. The way business is done varies in almost everything – from the communication, the culture, time of day, whether you have business meetings or you do business over lunch or dinner. She says, “The cultural nuances around etiquette behaviour are huge. When I worked on the Continent for example, the afternoon is the time where I need to build in breaks because typically that is when people need a time-out. If I work in North-America, I need to start very early because people are at their desks working from 6h30/7h00 in the morning.” There are also some personal issues to consider, for example, if she does any work in the Middle East, then she needs to be sensitive to cultural considerations behind being a Western woman working with Middle Eastern men. Sarah explains that there is a lot of research that she needs to do to make sure that she does help her clients.

working overseas – having to do her homework so that she doesn’t make a cultural mistake. She also admits that because she is an image coach and people expect her to know what she’s doing, she has to be well-rehearsed in her preparations. Sarah is currently working in Johannesburg on

She finds this part the most challenging when

an organisation’s personal brand and how they can package personal branding as a product that they can sell to their clients. Another project that she is busy with here is helping another organisation with a suite of programmes that includes business- to-business sales, coaching, and strategic account management.

enjoys it immensely. She believes there are “many opportunities for African companies to leverage expertise from other parts of the world, and the beauty to be able to do that is that you can learn not to repeat the mistakes that European companies have made”. You can take the best bits and therefore have a quicker and steeper uphill growth in terms of your business goals.

is that she can focus on the particular issues and challenges in a company by investing time and effort to understand the challenges of the business and therefore support or address. One of her favourite success stories this year is about a gentleman who sits on the board of an £18 billion company in the UK. When Sarah first worked with him three years ago he was a middle manager, and they set out a goal for him to make a board level position within three years and he actually did that within just over two years. “What he has done is move from a sales director position inside the company in the UK, and he has now gone on to a managing director position on a European level - and this gentleman is not even forty yet! It is a real privilege and pleasure to see him evolve to achieve what he wants. It is enormously rewarding.”

The advantages of a tailored approach to coaching With regards to doing business in Africa, Sarah