Growth for leaders, founders and teams in every way.
Build and maintain the momentum to reach your goals.
This is not the ‘soft’ stuff. It’s the difference between succeeding and failing.
Get in touch and let's talk.
What people have said about working with us
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"The ROI has been huge. Since June - very special entered SAM Labs. Sam Knight started coaching our leadership team."
Joachim Horn -CEO Sam Labs (series A)
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"The ROI of the retreat is a no brainer. The feedback from the team has been amazing. Honestly it was brilliant, we’ll work with Sam & Maya again, and if it sounds too good to be true - well, it’s not!"
Co-founder OLIO Saasha (Series B), on the company retreat
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"Honestly has changed my life and perspective. The impact it has had on the leadership team has been change, a rapid and bold approach to change."
COO learnerbly Jonny Day (Series A)
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"Working with Sam has been absolutely brilliant... helping transform not only our leadership team, but the whole company."
Product lead at Contact (Series A)
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"Sam has had a huge impact on the founders, the leadership team, the company and my own mindset. The impact of this is immeasurable. This is the most comfortable recommendation I have ever made."
Frederick Martini (CMO Tailify-Series A)
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"Sam is a phenomenal coach. Sam has changed my life and I'm confident that he will continue to do so."
Chief of Staff Medispot(Series A)-Michael Pallett
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"Sam has had a positive impact on every single one at Tailify. Yes, all 80 of us! The feedback training and workshops have been incredible."
Claudia (HeadofPeople Tailify series A)
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“Sam has run multiple retreats for me and my company and they have over delivered every time. The quality of the facilitation, the coaching and the food is sublime with everything being meticulously thought through and effortlessly executed.”
Guy Hacking (CEO, global organization 4billion+ under management)
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"I cannot overstate the impact Sam has had on our organisation and leadership team. The impact is profound and the ROI is immeasurable. I couldn't recommend Sam enough. "
Segerby (co-founder Tailify) Series A
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“I have never worked with a team that was so open, honest, and committed to work together on solutions, and that is thanks to the work we've been doing with Sam.”
Sandra Rogowska Head of Ops Sam Labs (Series A)
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“MASSIVE MASSIVE congrats to the organizing team for pulling off a one in a million event that will be remembered forever. Perfection from start to finish - a true embodiment of us as a company, and group of people trying to change the world for the better, and have fun whilst doing it! You ROCK :)”
Tessa (CEO co-founder, OLIO series B)
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Sam and Maya organised the most amazing leadership retreat for our team at Learnerbly. Sam & Maya are pros who made it totally easy and ensured that we had a truly memorable experience. The balance between team building activities and 'content' was spot on and he was conscious to ensure energy levels and engagement was high at all times
Raj CEO Learnerbly (series A company)
An organisation is only as strong as its leadership team..
We help leaders, startups and scaleups build and maintain momentum through team coaching, exec coaching, strategy days and our “momentum processes” tools. This means helping founders be their best selves, and leaders build high performing teams.
So what is coaching? Much like coaching for athletes, it’s about improving performance. Elite athletes spend a huge amount of time on mindset, frameworks, tools and their psychology to have the best chance of winning. It’s the same with exec coaching, it’s about being the best leader and team you can possibly be.
We do:
- C-suite coaching
- Management team coaching
- OKRs
- Integrating values
- Elon Musk "5 step plan" workshop
- Feedback training
- Manager training
- The science of happiness workshop
- ACC accredited.
My belief in the healthy organisation
I do believe an organisation does need the right strategy, marketing, finance and technology BUT! I do not think this is enough. The founders I meet are usually able to figure that stuff out.
To be truly successful you need a healthy organisation. And that means:
Minimal Politics
Minimal Confusion
High Moral
High Productivity
Low turnover
And this is only achieved through teamwork, team building, leadership and reflection. It is the healthy organisations that can achieve the missions they were set up for.
This is not the ‘soft’ stuff. It’s the difference between succeeding and failing in your goals.
As your business grows, it’s the softer challenges that are the hardest
The more I learned about being a leader, and building new businesses (both other people’s and my own) the more I realised one truth. It's all about the people. This of course is not ground-breaking, and a point many business leaders have made before. Ben Horowitz in his book “hard things about hard things” explains:
“Take care of the people,
The products
The profits... in that order!"
The vision, the right goals, the right prioritisation, the right focus, these are all people centric topics. They are also often the difference between the business that survives and the business that runs out of energy.
Become the founder you want to be.
You can only achieve this through self-exploration, finding new perspective and holding yourself accountable. Whether its about co-founder dynamics, managing your board, being a better leader and manager, managing stress, or inspiring your team, time investigating and reflecting is transformational. When I was CEO, I worked with an exec coach who basically changed my life. It made me a better person, leader, and CEO. Its the best thing I ever did.
Build a high performing team.
Read about the two teams below. Where do you stand as a team right now?
The first is a team where members are open with one another.
Passionately debate important issues, and commit to clear decisions even if they initially disagree.
They are clear on their goals and their roles and want the best people in the best positions regardless of ego.
They call each other out when their behaviours or performance needs correction.
They focus their attention on the collective good of the organisation.
The second is team where people are guarded and less than honest with one another.
They hold back during difficult conversations.
They feign true commitment and are not truly aligned.
Hesitate to call one another on unproductive behaviours.
They have unclear goals and their roles are opaque making for regular confusions & frustrations.
They bottle up feelings and thoughts, discussing it in small groups or lashing out.
Often they pursue their own agendas rather than those of the greater organisation.
Which of the above organisations do you want to be?
This is a question from Patrick Lencioni book “The advantage”. It’s the difference between a healthy and productive organisation that can achieve its goals and one which will not.
What would becoming the first type of organisation really mean?
What tools do I need to support the first kind of organisation?
TO TAKE YOU TEAM SELF ASSESSMENT TEST NOW GET IN TOUCH.
This is based on Patrick Lencioni’s 5 dysfunctions of a team:
About Sam
Sam is an entrepreneur, exited -CEO of Pollen8 (company acquired by PwC), workshop facilitator, and executive and team coach. He ran Pollen8 as CEO for 5 years before stepping down as CEO and joining the board and then selling the company to PwC. He’s designed innovation programs and ran workshops for the C'suite at some of the worlds biggest corporates (Oracle, Vodafone, Grant Thornton, the Red Cross...) and has now worked with over 50 founders and 25 startups management teams. He is also passionate about surfing and climate change so we can leave this beautiful better for future generations.