Business Coach and Consultant, Sarah Coleman, won the Growth Enabler Professional Excellence Award for Business Coaching and the Institute of Consulting’s Award for Outstanding Commitment to Continuous Professional Development whilst studying with Exponential Training.
Background
Programme Director and Business Consultant Sarah Coleman established Business Evolution in 2007 after having taken voluntary redundancy from British Telecom (BT). Sarah’s extensive commercial and technical experience at BT, combined with designing, implementing and managing major change and improvement programmes with their corporate clients stood her in good stead for setting up her own business.
Business Evolution is an independent consultancy, coaching and development business: it helps privately owned businesses, professional services organisations and other PLCs to develop and implement their strategy at both organisational and departmental levels, with the aim of achieving sustainable business improvement in performance.
Challenge
Sarah is extremely passionate about her work and was determined to make a success of her business. She was also very conscious that the consultancy, coaching and development sectors are unregulated and wanted a way to differentiate herself and her company from others in the industry.
Action
As a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), Sarah identified that achieving a professional Coaching & Mentoring qualification would further boost her confidence and increase her credibility as a Coach.
“I wanted to get up to speed with current thought and best practice, ensuring that the support I would be providing to my clients was the best and up to date. I knew I needed to challenge myself, so I enrolled on the CMI Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Business Coaching. Delivered by Exponential Training and awarded by the CMI, I had the opportunity to gain a qualification which would be recognised internationally.
Impact
Sarah was one of the first to successfully complete the Diploma in Strategic Business Coaching in January 2010 and is pleased that she now has confirmation that the support she offers to her clients is quality assured. Since going through the development journey Sarah has changed the way in which she approaches her work.
“I now feel that I have a more structured approach to the way I work and I follow a framework which makes things easier for me and my clients” said Sarah. “The way in which I provide consultancy, coaching and development is much more effective”.
Whilst completing a Coaching & Mentoring qualification with Exponential Training, Sarah was nominated for the Growth Enabler Professional Excellence Award for Business Coaching – an award reserved for a high growth business coach who had participated in the Growth Enabler Programme. Sarah was delighted when it was announced at an Awards Dinner in March 2009 that she had won the award. This was the first time ever that this award had been presented and Sarah appreciated the recognition of her high level of experience and coaching expertise. During her work as a High Growth Coach on the Coaching for High Growth Programme Sarah worked with eight clients, one of which went on to win the High Growth Business of the Year Award in 2010.
Sarah was also awarded the Institute of Consulting’s (IC) Award in the category for Outstanding Commitment to Continuous Professional Development in December 2009.
Sarah’s business goes from strength to strength yet she has maintained her links with Exponential Training by working as an Associate involved in developing the High Growth Coaches of the future.