Sarah Thomas and Associates are a team of independent 'Training Consultants' and 'Coaches'. We work with both: companies - to identify learning and development needs; design programmes to meet those needs; and deliver bespoke courses to fulfil identified learning objectives. individuals - to inspire them to set and achieve stretching and fulfilling goals. Our Services in Training & Development We prefer to work on a purely bespoke basis, tailoring our service to meet the specific and unique requirements of our clients. In order to give you an indication as to the kinds of skill areas that we cover, please click here Training & Development. Our Services in Coaching Most people are familiar with the term coaching, particularly in the context of sports coaching. Yet, although the technology of coaching is exploding into organisations and into our personal lives, many of us remain unclear about what coaching is and what the coaching process entails. So, what is coaching? Apart from sports coaching, coaching today can be divided into three main areas: business coaching, executive coaching and life coaching. Business coaching can be applied to all types of businesses. It ranges from individual and executive team coaching in large organisations to coaching owners and managers of small- to medium-sized businesses. More and more business owners/managers and organisations are taking on business coaches to help them develop, promote and grow their business, their employees, and themselves. Increasingly business owners and managers find that they are so consumed by the day-to-day running of the business that they have no time to look at 'the big picture', develop their employees, increase value to customers and, importantly, balance their personal and working lives. Furthermore, most business owners do not have the time for formal management training and may lack the personal and communication skills required to deal effectively with their employees. Executive coaching is a collaborative, individualised relationship between an executive and a coach, the aims of which are to bring about sustained behavioural change and to transform the quality of the executive's working and personal life. Although executive coaching always focuses on the individual's working life, coaching sessions frequently centre on interpersonal development, personal change and transformation. Executive coaches work with individuals or teams within large organisations. Some areas of individual executive coaching include: leadership development; interpersonal and communication skills; career coaching to enhance personal satisfaction and career opportunities; specific skills coaching; developing 'highflyers'; and executive strategic planning as well as problem solving. Executive coaching can also focus on building a top performing team, working with individuals to become more effective team players and coaching executives/managers to be coaches. Life Coaching issues frequently impact on business and executive coaching areas and it is sometimes difficult to separate these. To many, 'life coaching' is both a term and a concept that is relatively new. That said, the concept of life coaching was developed in New York in the 1960s and therefore preceded that of business and executive coaching. It is a concept that has taken off in Australia and the States, and is starting to really break ground in the UK and Europe too - both in business, and on an individual level. It is increasingly becoming part of our everyday vocabulary. In essence, it is an individual relationship between a coach and a coachee to bring about life transforming experiences. Life coaching is about clarifying values and visions, and setting goals and new actions so that an individual may lead a more satisfying, successful and fulfilling life. Such a broad definition suggests that life coaching has almost infinite applications. In a sense, this is true. A coach can work with an individual to develop and improve virtually any aspect of that individual's life. Some examples of life coaching include: partnership/relationship coaching, health and fitness coaching, career coaching, financial coaching, transition coaching, confidence and wellbeing coaching and quality of life coaching such as balancing life and work. Contact: Tel: 01825 890 312 Email: info@sarahthomasassociates.com