Sarah Jones
Executive Leadership Coach & Strategic Leadership Advisor
For organisations navigating growth, change and increasing complexity
Based in Hertfordshire, supporting senior leaders and leadership teams across London, the UK and internationally.
I work with organisations, senior leaders and leadership teams where expertise alone is no longer enough. As organisations grow, leadership expectations change. Decisions carry greater weight, teams become more complex and influence matters as much as technical capability.
Through executive leadership coaching, strategic leadership advisory and leadership team development, I help leaders strengthen their strategic thinking, influence and decision-making so they can lead with greater confidence, clarity and impact.
Leadership Advisory, Coaching and Development
Most leadership initiatives focus on capability, frameworks or behaviours in isolation.
That is rarely where the real issue sits.
My work focuses on judgement, alignment and execution, the points where leadership decisions either move growth forward or slow results down.
I also work with senior leaders who are highly capable in their field but need to step into broader strategic leadership, greater influence and bigger organisational impact.
I typically work with individual leaders and leadership teams where:
- Leadership accountability has increased, but decision authority has not.
- Decisions default to a few people because it feels quicker, creating silos and confusion.
- Senior leaders deliver expertly but are not being fully used to set direction.
- High-performing leaders are trusted for delivery but need broader influence, visibility and strategic impact.
- Progress relies on escalation rather than clear ownership.
- Leadership teams are expected to reassure employees, customers, investors and stakeholders while internal decision-making is under strain.
My work closes the gap between:
Functional Expert → Strategic Leader
Shifting from delivery excellence to visible authority in enterprise-level decisions.
Technical Silos → Results-Driven Leadership Performance
Aligning strong individuals into a leadership team that moves together under pressure.
Founder-Led Momentum → Scalable Leadership Infrastructure
Creating decision clarity, ownership, and leadership growth that doesn’t bottleneck at the top.
Discover What's Holding You Back
Executive Operating Diagnostic
Pinpoint the habits, behaviours and leadership patterns that may be limiting your impact. Receive an instant personalised dashboard and practical next steps.
Who I Partner With
I work with individual leaders to grow their confidence, influence, and visibility at senior levels, and with organisations, to strengthen leadership teams so decisions land, alignment improves, and performance follows. This is advisory work, focused on real-world leadership challenges.
Individual Senior Leaders
For Executives, Directors, Senior Directors, Vice Presidents and Functional Leads whose accountability has grown faster than their influence.
You may be:
- Trusted to deliver outcomes but not fully included in strategic direction, or growth opportunities.
- Pulled into issues because you’re reliable, not because it’s the right use of your time.
- Carrying risk without equivalent authority.
- Leading through effort and escalation rather than strategy, influence, clarity, or aligned teams.
This is for you if you recognise that leadership growth maturity is now your most valuable asset.
Organisations & Teams
As organisations grow, leadership pressure doesn’t disappear, but it concentrates.
I work with CEOs, senior leaders, and founders who notice that:
- You have technically brilliant leaders, but they’re not yet operating as a cohesive leadership team at a point where internal confidence and external credibility matter most.
- Decisions stall unless you are personally involved.
- Leaders still escalate unnecessarily.
- Alignment looks fine structurally, but fractures or siloes under speed or pressure, and problems are not surfaced.
- The organisation runs but doesn’t scale or grow because leadership hasn’t caught up with growth.
Our work builds leadership infrastructure that allows ownership, judgement, and decision-making to scale beyond the founder or CEO, without loss of control.
HR & L&D Directors
I support HR & L&D teams, designing and supporting leadership frameworks and development programmes to provide targeted advisory in moments where training and programmes alone won’t move behaviour.
This includes:
- High-risk leadership transitions.
- Politically sensitive promotions.
- Senior leaders who need authority shifts, not skills training.
- Teams that need cohesion and direction.
- Change and transformation.
Industry Experience
My experience is in life sciences, pharma, and biotech – sectors where regulation, ethics, scrutiny, and pace collide. Decisions here carry clinical, financial, and reputational weight, with high leadership visibility.
The common threads are decision density, sustained pressure, and senior leadership exposure. Authority must be credible, composed, and durable – able to hold in complex stakeholder landscapes, under regulatory constraint, and when stakes are high.
- Stay informed with up-to-date market data
- I use proven strategies to secure the best
- Whether you’re buying your first property
I regularly work across:
Biotech, MedTech, Pharma and Clinical Operations.
Tech, FinTech & high-growth organisations scaling at pace.
Founder-led and investor-backed organisations.
Professional services in regulated, high-risk contexts.
I also work across other sectors, including accountancy, finance, family businesses, logistics, industry associations, and PR & communications.
About Me
I’m a former board-level operator with 25 years’ experience working alongside executive teams, investor relations, and boards in PLC environments, including mergers, acquisitions, and periods of significant change. My senior background in corporate and government affairs means I’m comfortable operating in complexity, pressure, and ambiguity, where leadership decisions carry real weight.
For over 10 years, I’ve worked as a leadership advisor and coach, supporting senior leaders and organisations to build influence, judgement, and visible leadership. I’ve always believed that progress comes from being both credible and seen, and that belief underpins my work today. I’m also an experienced speaker, delivering keynotes and workshops at international conferences and leadership events.
A Few Words From My Clients
Sarah Jones Leadership Coaching Testimonials
See what senior leaders say about the clarity, confidence, and strategic authority they’ve gained.
How Leadership Behaviour Shifts Under Pressure
My work is informed by behavioural insight, including DISC, to understand how leadership behaviour shifts under pressure. In complex environments, the risk isn’t personality – it’s how decision-making, communication, and authority derail when pressure increases.
I use DISC and other tools selectively to surface blind spots, strengthen judgement, and improve how leaders and leadership teams operate together in real conditions.
I have specific DISC reports covering your specific profile and emotional quotient, productive conflict, time mastery, and work of leaders which benchmarks leadership behaviour under pressure against high-performing leadership teams.
I also use 360 feedback and diagnostic tools, including Spidergap. This gives us a clear, evidence-based view of behaviours.
Leadership Coaching that works.
Take it from them
These are just some of the organisations I have worked with, in support of their goals:
