CLIENT FEEDBACK
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I am delighted to write a recommendation for Sophie, a highly skilled consultant who has made a significant impact on my previous NFP organisation over the last 10 years. Sophie's expertise in facilitating strategic planning sessions with our Executive team was invaluable to our success. Sophie consistently demonstrated her exceptional abilities in helping our ambitious and purpose-driven team navigate through a myriad of options and challenges, resulting in the creation of clear and actionable plans. Her extensive knowledge of external markets provided us with valuable insights and perspectives, enabling us to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the curve.
One of Sophie's outstanding qualities is her calm nature, which creates a positive and conducive environment for open discussions and collaboration. She has a remarkable ability to keep a group focused and on track, even in the midst of complex discussions or diverging opinions. This skill was instrumental in ensuring that our strategic planning sessions yielded meaningful and productive outcomes.
Additionally, Sophie's sense of humour proved to be a great asset in building rapport and fostering a relaxed and enjoyable working atmosphere. She has an uncanny ability to lighten the mood when needed, which not only contributes to team morale but also enhances creativity and innovation during the planning process.
Throughout our engagement with Sophie, she consistently demonstrated professionalism, integrity, and a genuine commitment to our organisation’s mission.
I wholeheartedly recommend Sophie to any organisation seeking a highly skilled and knowledgeable consultant who can facilitate strategic planning sessions with excellence. Her expertise, calm demeanour, sense of humour, and remarkable ability to keep a group on track will undoubtedly contribute to the success of any team or organisation fortunate enough to work with her.
Tanya Large, Head of People and Culture, Ausmed
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2020 brought with it a number of extreme challenges for me professionally. The onset of COVID and a new reporting line presented some new, unique and frustrating changes that needed to be navigated. With Sophies help and guidance, I was able to focus on the things that I could influence or control, and not worry about the things that I couldn’t. As such, I have emerged from 2020 as a better leader. I am more patient, more calm and more confident in my own abilities, and have been able to give my team more autonomy to do their job, and do it well. Sophie has helped me see things from different perspectives, challenged me on my though process and helped me see the leader inside that I couldn’t see. This year Sophie has been the physiotherapy for my brain that I needed, and has helped me realise that you don’t need to be across every detail, but trust in yourself and the people around you to do a good job. I believe Sophie has helped prepare me for the next step in my career and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to take the next step in their leadership career.
Daniel Head, Head of Operations, Transdev
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Sophie has assisted my Board over the last 2 years, and we are engaging with her for a 3rd occasion. My experience of working with her has included induction and team-building for new appointees to the Board and a strategy review that included forward-thinking. She possesses a natural ability to quickly develop a meaningful rapport with people within the group. She has a knack that enables her to swiftly and accurately read people and the interpersonal dynamics of a small group or room. She has strong analytical skills and can grasp complex concepts and assist in explaining them in an accessible manner for a broad audience. She projects a strong sense of confidence and empathy in her verbal communications with clients.
Murray Thomas, Chair, Dental Board of Australia
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I am very happy to recommend Sophie and The Adapt Group. I have had the pleasure of working with Sophie on an Executive Development Roadmap after I had just commenced at Orygen and throughout the pandemic. From initial engagement to delivery of a 3 day program and subsequent 360 Executive development, the entire program was undertaken on line. Sophie was able to create an interesting and engaging program within a dynamic evolving environment. Sophie is a very welcoming consultant and has a wonderful sunny personality and is very client oriented. Sophie has the ability to understand quite quickly the key components of what is required and then develop solutions to be delivered. I look forward to working with her and The Adapt Group in the future.
Pam White, Director People & Culture, Orygen
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I have engaged Sophie over a period of 10 years in three different organisations and have found her support, knowledge and program delivery to be invaluable.
Sophie has helped me with leadership development programs for my teams, executive development and coaching, strategy planning and execution, culture and organisational development, structural change career decision, team building and in the development of high performing team programs.
She has enormous breadth and depth of knowledge and is a pleasure to work with. Sophie really cares about the people she works with and truly partners with them to get the best results for both the individual and the organisation. Her support has helped me with the decision making and execution as a leader, to improve organisational people management, culture and performance.
I would highly recommend Sophie to work with any level of leaders, to take your organisation or individual development to the next level.
Caroline Mulcahy RN, NICU, Msc, GAICD, CEO Skin & Cancer Foundation Inc
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Over the years it became clear that as a team we needed some specific support to get the most from our staff. But we are a unique business and we couldn’t just get anyone. We needed someone that was adaptable and engaging. Someone that the team would like and respond to. When we met Sophie from The Adapt Group and both Beth (my co-Director) and I knew we had the right person. She was practical and funny and genuinely interested in our work and making the business successful. She started out tailoring a 360 degree review process for all our staff that would help provide insights into areas of strength and areas for growth. Sophie supported each team member to develop a professional development plan and followed up with practical tips and suggestions. The team has responded really well for a couple of reasons: firstly they recognised that we (HAG and Sophie) were interested in their personal and professional development and that made staff feel valued; and secondly, we have seen changes in the way staff engage and react in certain circumstances. I hear examples of different tools that staff use that have been recommended by Sophie. For me as a leader I have had a sounding board and support that has never been available to me before. I don’t have to spend so much time agonising over team issues because I can just chat them through and figure out a plan.
Kate Sutton, Director, Humanitarian Advisory Group
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I have had the great fortune of undertaking coaching sessions with Sophie Graves which have been immeasurably beneficial to my professional and personal life. Amazingly, I felt my understanding of myself, my motivators and barriers and my ‘personal power’ had significantly increased even after just one session. Sophie’s approach is supportive, pragmatic and insightful, and Sophie has a knack for striking the right balance of challenging you to step outside your comfort zone while also being your cheer squad (or, more importantly encouraging you to become your own cheer squad!). As part of coaching, Sophie provides practical ‘homework’ to complement the discussions undertaken during the sessions. This means that the benefit of learning goes beyond the confines of the session – and allows you to apply the learning in real time. Sophie is an enthusiastic and effective champion for women reaching their full potential and owning their strengths and expertise and my short time with Sophie has taken me from feeling very nervous about speaking up at high level meetings to presenting on stage to approx. 500 people! Engaging Sophie has, by far, been the best investment I could make in my career.
Sarah McPherson, Manager - Program Performance & Impact
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I have worked with Sophie in her capacity as a facilitator and a coach over the past few years. As a facilitator of leadership workshops, I have always found her style to be open, calm, clear and engaging. She is always well prepared and although not forceful with the group, has an amazing ability to 'round up the troops' to achieve some definitive actions and agreed next steps before the end of the session! As a coach, I have valued Sophie's advice and capacity to understand my needs and areas of focus and then work with me to clarify key goals and priority actions to achieve these. She is always very responsive, meets face to face and provides me with relevant literature or tools that relate to the area that I am working to improve. I really enjoy and respond to Sophie's clear, calm and authentic style and through my experience. would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a facilitator or a coach.
Kellie-Ann Jolly, CEO Victoria, The Heart Foundation
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I can’t recommend Sophie Graves’ program highly enough. When I first contacted Sophie, I was feeling very isolated, overwhelmed and unsure of my skills as the Director of my small business. Having never studied business prior to becoming a business owner, I always felt as though I knew very little about how to be a “proper” manager of my staff. During our initial sessions, she spent a considerable amount of time finding out about my business so that she could tailor our sessions to my specific needs. After we had identified my unique goals, we worked together to find workable solutions to my problems. One area that I was finding most challenging was feedback sessions with staff. Sophie helped me learn some simple strategies to put in place to ensure that I was well-prepared but that the meeting was a respectful and supportive one between both parties. This has made an enormous difference to the way that I now engage with all my staff and I am no longer under-confident about conducting these types of meetings. Through my monthly individual sessions, I’ve learned, first and foremost, that I know far more than I think I do! However, Sophie has taught me highly useful techniques to help fine tune my knowledge. I have found her style to be approachable, consultative and supportive. The sessions were highly practical and I was instantly able to put her recommendations into practice. She has helped me to feel more confident and self-assured as a Director. I feel as though I have a coach in my corner and I know that I will continue to seek out her support as I need it. Her business mentoring/coaching services have been invaluable. Thank-you Sophie!
Olivia Connelly, Director, Gameplan
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You provided advice and guidance on how to approach a team to create a strategy. The team were wary of consultants and felt that we should just get on with getting work done. Your approach was consultative and encouraging...we got results in a collaborative manner that was previously difficult to obtain. The group enjoyed the experience and we felt attached to the strategy, which made the delivery genuine.
Your relaxed and friendly manner calms the room, which encourages participation. What I valued most was your ability to provoke thinking and challenge individuals. It felt like we were in it together. You read the room and kept us on track. At the same time, you were open to change or suggestions and broke up the agenda to keep things interesting. You preserved the focus of the group, were results oriented, brought about collaboration and delivered to a tight deadline.
James Bowe, Managing Director, Olympus Australia
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In the strategic development project you were able to assist us to a point of agreement on the important focus items very quickly. Your follow up work after the meeting and outputs were exactly what we were looking for.
By engaging your services it meant that all members of the leadership team and Board could be participants in the strategy workshop. It meant that time was not spent by any member of that workshop in the preparation prior and in the facilitation on the day. I think being a facilitator and a participant can become blurred at times and having a neutral independent person really helps.
You are able to read the room and adjust your agenda based on the abilities within the room. Other consultants like to plough ahead sticking to their agenda at all costs. You get a better result by tweaking it on the fly.
I think we achieve better outcomes by having the independent person with the right character/manner/attitude etc. Also you know us well so the examples and scenarios you mention hit the mark. You strike a rapport with each person you come into contact with and people like what you have to say.
Scott Walker, CEO, Carers Victoria
Sophie has helped me identify specific objectives within the key areas of my business and then formulated a timeline and framework to bring them together in such a way that will enable me to achieve both my business and personal goals as a company director. The priorities we have set at this early stage provide much needed clarity and forward motion that I have found difficult to achieve on my own accord.
Annie Abbott, Director, Habbot Shoes
Sophie was engaged as an Executive Coach to assist me in developing my leadership skills and working through my career options. Sophie’s style is warm, empathetic and genuine and she has a great ability to guide the conversation so that you develop your own insights and actions rather than assuming she has all the answers. Sophie really helped me focus on what was important to me as a leader, expanded my thinking around career opportunities and helped me identify opportunities for personal development. I would recommend Sophie as an experienced and excellent coach for anyone seeking career guidance, or wanting to further develop themselves personally and professionally.
Tania Turnbull, Marketing Director, ANZ
From not knowing where to start with a major project I had undertaken to now being able to slowly move through my milestones and establish a clear direction for where I am going, Sophie has been instrumental in the development of my ideas and professional skills. Not only has she helped progress the idea but has provided me with lots of tools and strategies to take beyond the current project into other areas of my work. She has a very positive attitude and after a coaching session, I always feel a lot better about any issues/roadblocks that are standing in my way - It has been a very enjoyable experience working with Sophie.
Tabitha Carr, Marketing Specialist, Mercedes-Benz Truck and Bus
Sophie Graves is a leader in the space of organisational culture and change, utilising her extensive experience in organisational psychology and leadership to deliver an engaging and customer focused approach that shifts thinking and behaviours.
Sophie has a unique skill of understanding the business and issue at hand, adapting a solution that meets the brief and reasonates with the people. Sophie has provided support over many years as a mentor, coach, facilitator and consultant across the space of leadership, culture and team performance. Sophie's expertise and insight has provided both personal and professional development for me personally, as well as adding significant benefit to the organisations she partners with.
Kaylene Jacques, GM People & Culture, Heart Foundation
Sophie came as a consultant to our project team which was in a state of flux. She was able to identify issues and provide feedback in a professional manner. She identified solutions quickly and solutions which were sustainable and cost effective. She worked with purpose and integrity and developed a true understanding of the situation in a very short time frame. Sophie is an effective professional and I highly recommend her to any organisation in dealing with change".
Kaveri Stanley, Program Director, Murdoch Childrens Research Centre
Sophie helped me navigate a challenging time as a senior leader in unfamiliar territory. She taught me different communication methods based on personality types, ensuring I managed expectations and provided information most pertinent to individual needs. Together we assessed next steps and made a plan to move forward.
Sophie is a great listener who was able to quickly pinpoint the issues and make recommendations. Her approach was friendly and empathic whilst remaining objective about what needed to be achieved. I enjoyed working with Sophie and look forward to working with her again in the future.
Kelly Gurr, Program Manager, Amy Gillet Foundation and Migraine Australia
Sophie employs innovative, thoughtful and tested approaches to leadership development, coaching and feedback, and psychometric assessments. Sophie demonstrates empathy, creativity and positivity when working with her clients either facilitating a workshop or working 1:1. I would recommend Sophie and the Adapt Group to my network who want to add value to their organisation and most importantly to their people.
Donna Jones, Associate Partner, ESG & Transport, CapFeather
Sophie has been my Executive Coach over the past two years. Sophie guided me through the hardest time (so far) in my professional life and I came out at the other end feeling more self-aware, resilient and empowered as a leader. Sophie is extremely intelligent and knowledgeable and connects with people in the most compassionate and empathetic way. I enjoyed and treasured every session I had with her. I strongly recommend Sophie to anyone who is looking to advance their leadership capabilities, expand their career opportunities, and/or just want to talk to someone about their professional or personal struggles.
Emma Siqin, Manager, Renewable Energy Policy, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action