Testimonials
Change and strategyboard advisoryteam building
“Whilst CEO, I engaged Sarah David and Thrive to work with the senior management team to develop a range of initiatives to support the business in accelerating its plans to drive continued and sustainable revenue and profit growth.
Sarah worked with us for an initial six-month period, the work involving members of the operating board and senior management of the business, a total of approximately 60 individuals. The work undertaken by Sarah was an integral part of a positive change programme, aimed at building more effective communication, improved collaboration across all teams and enhanced financial performance.
Sarah’s work was well received by all who worked with her and most importantly, the outcomes were extremely positive, delivering significantly improved financial results and a senior management team more aligned to achieving success than ever before.
Prior to establishing Thrive, Sarah had a highly successful early career as a lawyer and later in a series of executive positions within internationally based, people-centric businesses. This experience is a key differentiator in my opinion from others operating in the consulting space and together with Sarah’s sharp intellect, commercial experience and communication style, she is a leader in her field.
After the initial project period concluded, Sarah was invited back to work with a broader group, largely from the less experienced management group. This was equally successful.
I would heartily recommend Sarah and Thrive as a consultant and company able to help drive genuine and sustainable change. If you are looking for someone to help you achieve your ambitious growth plans, contact Thrive.”
Andrew M, CEO, PE backed professional services firm
Exec Coaching 1:1 & Team
“I worked with Sarah David for the better part of a year after joining the Singapore office in a regional leadership role. With over 30 years in private practice myself, I have worked with professional service firm coaches before but none were as good as Sarah. One of her key strengths, I found, was in her cutting through the waffle and identifying very practical steps and processes to help me do my job better, with tangible outcomes and far less stress. Her unique background is what I think helped me get more out of our interactions than from other professional coaches or mentors. She simply gets it. And I am happy to recommend her to anyone looking for leadership support or other coaching in the context of delivering professional services to clients.”
James C, 20 year partner, Global Head, international law firm
Exec Coaching 1:1 & Team
“Working with Sarah has quite simply made my life better – my work life and my personal life. She gave me practical tools to encourage me to grow my communication skills and to take steps to better place. Thank you Sarah.”
Christine W, five year partner, international law firm
Board advisoryStrategy and change
“Sarah is a trusted adviser. She brings a breadth of perspective to my thinking and to the firm as a whole. She challenges at both a strategic and operational level and brings fresh ideas. I am very comfortable putting her in front of any audience in the firm – the partners or the whole firm either with or without me there, knowing that through a combination of her presentation skills, content, experience and energy she will help move the firm forward.”
Nick H, Managing Partner, boutique professional services firm
Exec Coaching 1:1 & Team
“Sarah has the ability to provide you with a safe but challenging space to focus on how you best develop yourself and on what you want to achieve and be. She is thoughtful and gentle combined with relentless in her pursuit to enable you work through the ‘big’ life questions and the constant questions that we face and pose ourselves every day. Her grounded nature and probative approach mean that my sessions with Sarah have been essential to me progressing in my career and importantly to enjoying it! If you want to make your world better – have a session with Sarah and go from there….”
Nicola R, 10 year partner, Global Head, Magic Circle law firm
Exec Coaching 1:1 & Team
“Working with Sarah is inspiring in every way. Sarah has a gift for reading and understanding people and will quickly see through all the noise to get to the real issues at heart. Sarah will guide and nudge, explore alternatives, challenge your thinking and help spark ideas and it is this, combined with her practical approach to setting and achieving goals, that makes her such an incredible support to those she works with”
George T, business owner, SME professional services firm
Transition coaching
“What was helpful:
- Tone of voice – you are excellent at balancing the “it’ll all be ok” personal support element with the message “It will be if you do certain things with discipline and commitment”.
- Positive reaction. We hadn’t spoken – I believe – for at least five years. Despite that you were totally responsive and positive – I know that most people will engage with you on a professional basis but on a personal level I can’t tell you how important that was.
- Input/value: In every interaction be it short or long you gave me something to chew on – read, think about, respond to, people to connect with. One of the challenges of a “furlough” period is lack of stimulation or anything really to respond to – you need material.
- Content: You do actually know what people should do in this situation – both practically but in terms of transitioning their identity, market positioning, overall patterns of thought – you get it on a lot of levels.
- Acknowledgement of state of mind: Looking for work can make the most positive people feel like used car salesman. You are generally either bored of or inured to your actual skills and capabilities and tend to ignore them so you don’t really value yourself. You aren’t in any kind of feedback loop – and being in work is generally a positive loop otherwise it would be miserable. It’s lonely and can be demoralising. Lots of people get depressed. I felt you got that.
- Challenge: Because you are empathetic (see above) you can challenge without breaking your client You aren’t afraid to say things that will or won’t help/play well. But you keep it impersonal – it’s not stuff I was getting wrong or right – it’s stuff that is or isn’t actually helpful right now. We are all delicate flowers in this situation. Somehow you were able to tell me to change my LinkedIn picture without causing an identity crisis.
- Follow up: You consistently checked back in”
Alex T, director, Magic Circle law firm
Transition coaching
“When the door closed on a long held role my head filled with competing emotions – half were ones of excitement and thrill attracted by the opportunity to do something new and half were unsettling ones born of the uncertainty over how to manage and cope with the transition.
Thank god for Sarah ….. the perceptive and wise chaperone for the early stages of my journey.
Turns out that there is a proven process to pursue if you want to maximise your chances of ending up doing what you’ve always wanted to do …. and Sarah is its champion.
As my guide Sarah delivered her messages through a delightful cocktail of empathy, application, wisdom, and punch.
The success of my transition owes much to her for which I am immensely grateful”
Martin L, COO, global professional services firm
Strategy and change; team building
“Sarah has been providing coaching to me and my leadership team since I took on my new role last year. Her insight, challenge, encouragement, enthusiasm, and critically her support, has been invaluable. Working with Sarah has been a key factor in the progress we have made as a team and in our approach together in driving forward the business. It’s also been great fun!”
Allan W, 15 year partner, Regional Head, international law firm
Team building
“I imagine that we will all have been to a number of similar sessions, and some where the external lacked credibility. I thought Sarah was excellent, oozed credibility and had fantastic energy – I’d be very keen for us to continue working with her. Top choice.”
15 year partner, international law firm
Strategy and change
“Sarah is a self-starter and helps teams commit to the smallest action(s) that will have the greatest impact on their agreed objectives. During her time with us, the Group went through enormous change, including the replacement of three senior executives. Throughout that period, Sarah’s support across planning, strategy and communication was invaluable to the Board, and to me personally. I believe it is no coincidence that, despite these changes, we outperformed budgeted EBITDA by 15% and achieved an increase of c£2.5m on the prior year. I truly cannot recommend Sarah highly enough.
A wonderful person and a valuable asset to any organisation”
John S, CFO, PE backed professional services firm
Exec Coaching 1:1 & Team
“Having worked with Sarah for 14 months I have been opened up to more relevant self-reflection to aid development and growth. Her support has been invaluable in learning more about my natural ways of working and leadership style and how they can be improved. I feel better able to get the best out of people and myself which are skills and tips that I find myself using on a daily basis and has allowed me to understand others better as well as myself. On a personal level Sarah is empathic and considerate yet practical and focused, which I found to be the perfect mix to get the most out of my sessions. Huge thanks for the support and advice.”
