About Sarah Ben-Tovim

Why I do this work

I know what it is to carry significant responsibility while privately questioning yourself.

Across more than 20 years in leadership, I worked in complex, high-pressure and values-driven environments. I led teams and major projects, managed upwards and downwards, built partnerships and navigated the relationships, expectations and organisational realities that shape whether good work can happen.

I also know how different that experience can feel when there is thoughtful support alongside you. Not somebody telling you what to do or judging your performance, but somebody helping you think, notice what you bring, challenge the stories you are telling yourself and make sense of what the situation requires.

That experience is part of why I became a coach.

The coach I aim to be

I want clients to feel seen, understood and appropriately challenged.

I create a confidential, non-judgemental space where you can speak openly, slow the thinking down and explore both the immediate issue and anything beneath it that may genuinely help.

I will not assume that greater self-belief is always the answer. Sometimes you need to trust your experience. Sometimes you need to test an assumption, learn something new, change a boundary or recognise the effect of the environment around you.

The work is about developing the awareness and discernment to tell the difference, then turning that understanding into practical choice.

Experience

  • ICF Professional Certified Coach

  • More than 1,000 coaching hours

  • Over 20 years of leadership experience

  • Leadership roles in the NGO, cultural and creative sectors

  • Experience at Amnesty International and the Almeida Theatre

  • Current work with Civil Service directors and senior leaders, Amnesty International leaders, founders and executives in scaling organisations

  • Leadership development work involving profile, visibility, influence and strategic partnerships

  • Foundation training in psychotherapy and counselling

Beyond work

Leadership does not happen separately from the rest of life, and neither does coaching.

Outside my practice, what matters to me includes family and friendship, cold-water swimming, strength training, singing, theatre, travel, food, long conversations and understanding what makes people tick.

I want work to be an important part of a full life, not the whole of it. That belief shapes the practice I am building and the way I work with clients.