What is the REAL Method?

The REAL Method is a proprietary leadership framework created by Sally Henderson. It stands for Role, Emotions, Acceleration and Leadership, and is designed to help C-suite executives and senior leaders master how they lead — not just what they do. It challenges the assumption that high performers truly understand their roles, leadership qualities and ambitions, and provides a structured approach to high-stakes leadership development.

Who does Sally Henderson work with?

Sally Henderson works exclusively with C-suite executives and senior leadership teams. Her clients include CEOs, CMOs, Chief Strategy Officers and other senior leaders across sectors including media, marketing, professional services and consumer brands. Past clients include NatWest Group, Nestlé, M+C Saatchi, Next15, Iris, VML, RAPP and IPG.

What makes Sally Henderson different from a traditional executive coach?

Sally Henderson positions herself explicitly as a mentor rather than a coach. Her approach is direct, results-focused and grounded in the real-world demands of C-suite life. She uses her background in headhunting, Master NLP Practitioner training, and Motivational Map Profiling to cut through complexity and deliver clarity at pace. She does not offer open-ended reflection — she provides laser-sharp insight and practical tools that leaders can apply immediately.

Does Sally Henderson offer speaking engagements?

Yes. Sally Henderson is an experienced keynote speaker who has spoken at events including the IPA, WACL and OMNIWOMEN. She delivers talks and sessions on high-stakes leadership, the REAL Method, and navigating the demands of senior executive life.

How can I work with Sally Henderson?

You can connect with Sally through the contact page at https://www.sallyhenderson.co.uk/contact. She offers one-to-one executive mentoring, team leadership programmes, keynote speaking and structured learning programmes for senior leaders.

SALLY
HENDERSON

High-Stakes Leadership Mentor

Master HOW you lead in leadership & life

Find out HOW

Trusted by

The best leaders master their HOW
with Sally's REAL Method

Master How You Lead

Why you lead gets all the attention. How you lead gets assumed. Yet it's how you lead that's the difference between success, mediocrity and failure.

High stakes leadership used to be acute, a crisis you moved through and came out the other side. Since 2020 it has become the permanent operating condition, and most leaders are still relying on foundations that were never deliberately built for this level of sustained pressure.

I've spent 25 years in the room with senior leaders when what got them here stops being enough for what's coming. What I've seen is that strength in leadership comes from personal strength. You can't separate the two. A leader who is out of kilter in life will eventually be out of kilter in leadership, and the reverse is just as true. The foundations of both get assumed the higher you climb rather than deliberately strengthened, which is exactly why I built The REAL Method.

I'm not a classic executive coach and you won't go on a journey of facilitated self discovery. Described as a warm hug and a cold shower all at once, I give direction, opinion and advice so you make sharper decisions, build stronger teams and move the business forward faster with less friction.

How The REAL Method works

Sally's 121 work was particularly valuable to me as I went through one of the biggest role transitions of my career.

Sally worked with the new creative agency leadership team at Song, as we went on our rebranding journey. Together we travelled a great distance with Sally, and her brilliant steers were hugely effective and appreciated by the team. Thank you Sally!
Zoe Eagle, CEO, Iris London
Sally is empathetic but talks 'no nonsense' - something it is often hard to hear as a leader but ultimately the most important thing you can find

She has made a huge difference to me over what has been a huge year of evolution both professionally and personally.

I would have no hesitation in recommending her as a mentor. Thank you Sally.
Samuel Knights, CEO, Next15
"Sally is a great mentor - high energy and impact."

“Helped us as a team understand our own and each other's motivations which can only help make our relationships stronger.”
Marg Jobling, Chief Marketing Officer, Natwest Group
"Sally has a way to get individuals and teams talking in ways I have not seen before."

"The results are genuinely impactful"
Paul Hughes, Chief Revenue & Customer Officer, UnderwriteMe
"Sally is much more than a coach or a mentor, she is a personal and professional accelerator!"

“She has a highly tailored approach that syncs with your leadership style and a host of immediately applicable tools and techniques that make a real difference to you, your people and your business. I enjoy every second of our sessions and can immediately see the impact of our work together.”
Jackie Stevenson, Global Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, M+C Saatchi
"Sally has been a pivotal character in our team's story and journey as an evolving Leadership Team."

"She has been our guide, our mentor, and a constant believer in each of us and in what we could achieve together…It’s made us a stronger, more tight-knit team with a clear identity and unity in purpose that would have otherwise been very difficult to develop in day to day"
James Gerchow, Business Executive Officer, CPW UK & Ireland, Nestle & General Mills
"She's got a mind-blowing range of powers at her disposal and she puts them to use in a way that's absolutely tailored to you. "

"I loved working with her - she’s smart, fun and takes no prisoners!"
Clare Hynes, CEO, Mr. President
"Sally takes the time to get to know a team & understand what motivates them as individuals."

“Her programme encourages a high level of honesty and feedback is used as a powerful tool to get to the heart of team challenges. Even in an established and tenured team, Sally created a safe space to enable an honest and authentic discussion, which was really refreshing."
James Holding, Head of HR, Nestlé
"Working with Sally is a breath of fresh air, a cold shower and a warm hug all at once - and brilliant for it."

"Having been through a huge amount of corporate change, I worked with Sally to reset my approach to leadership, reconnect with personal growth and get back on the learning edge. Sally's approach was the perfect combination of structured and flexible for me - a well constructed programme packed full of frameworks and tools, but easily diverted and adapted to what was happening for me and the business at that moment in time."
Emma Robertson, CEO, Transform UK | Next15
"Working with Sally has transformed both the way I work and my business."

"Sally's industry experience combined with her tools and strategies make her mentoring programme extremely powerful. I couldn't recommend Sally highly enough."
Steve Wheen, Global CEO, distillery
"Sally offered constructive challenge, supportive feedback and beautifully structured thinking space to take on the leadership role that I'd been resisting"

"I would recommend that any Founder or Leader who is struggling to carve out space to be strategic, works with Sally to help achieve their business and personal goals."
Collette Philip, Founder, Brand by Me
"Sally has had an enormous impact in how I understand the business we run, the team I work with, and the type of leader I am."

"She brings incredible experience to your table, and you will find her to lead by example as an impressive leader in her own right. They say leadership is lonely - but working with Sally, you’ll find quite the opposite."
Tim Spencer, Founder & CEO, Fluency | M&C Saatchi
"Sally has brought together a group that are already working together very well and allowed us to tackle topics of conversation that we wouldn't have gotten to of our own volition."

"Sally has pushed us to have more clarity as a team, to reframe some of our current challenges as positive opportunities & provided much needed space for us outside of the chaos of running a scaling agency."
Katie Streeter Hurle, CEO, SMG | Next15
"Working with Sally makes you reframe and rethink."

"Providing a set of practical tools, Sally teaches you how to apply new ways of approaching leadership, management, and your own health and welfare."
Ed Freed, Global Chief Transformation Officer, RAPP
"Sally spoke to many of our members at the IPA about the controversial idea that we maybe shouldn't bring our whole self to work…"

"So many useful and practical nuggets but also pulled me up short thinking about whether I was letting the boundary between work me and personal me slip alarmingly!"
Gwyneth March, IPA
"Working with Sally has been a game changer."

"Both professionally and personally, positively impacting those around me and the business as a whole. I can’t speak highly enough of my experience so far, it has been a really positive journey."
Nick Walsh, Chief Client Officer, VML MENA
"Sally provided immediate techniques & a framework to access & manage our mental health…""

"…to ensure as leaders we are physically & mentally able to lead our people."
Karen Jackson, OMNIWOMEN
"I started 2023 with a bang… "

"…courtesy of a power leadership coaching session that Sally delivered for a WACL networking event that I attended."
Dawn Paine, WACL
"Sally Henderson is one of the best leadership coaches I have had the pleasure to encounter."

"So good that when I needed advice, Sally is the one I turn to. I can’t recommend her highly enough."
Felix Velarde, Founder & Author, 2Y3X

Meet Sally

I set off solo to travel the world in 1998 (before mobile phones), found myself in a face off with an Orangutan in Sumatra, came home and built an executive search firm specialising in Brand, Design and Innovation leadership across the biggest brands in the world. Despite creating a successful business, I made the decision to leave it behind with our newborn son in my arms because I'd found the thing I was meant to do: working with senior leaders when it matters most.

I didn't learn high stakes in a classroom. I've lived it.

That was fifteen years ago. Since then I've created The REAL Method because the leadership development industry was obsessed with why leaders lead and nobody was addressing how, and I kept seeing it cost brilliant people their performance, their teams and sometimes themselves. I've written my book The HOW of High Performance, launched the podcast and spoken on the TEDx stage. My clients call me the wingwoman every C suite needs.

A proud Northerner, I live in Kent with my husband David, our two boys and Rolo, our Romanian rescue dog.

Member of WACL and The Marketing Society. Volunteer coach on The Marketing Academy Fellowship Programme.

HOW I can help you

Mentoring

Sally will swiftly guide you, with clear actions to make your ambitious goals real.

Master How You Lead

Sally's 121 work was particularly valuable to me as I went through one of the biggest role transitions of my career.

Sally is empathetic but talks 'no nonsense' - something it is often hard to hear as a leader but ultimately the most important thing you can find

"Sally is a great mentor - high energy and impact."

"Sally has a way to get individuals and teams talking in ways I have not seen before."

"Sally is much more than a coach or a mentor, she is a personal and professional accelerator!"

"Sally has been a pivotal character in our team's story and journey as an evolving Leadership Team."

"She's got a mind-blowing range of powers at her disposal and she puts them to use in a way that's absolutely tailored to you. "

"Sally takes the time to get to know a team & understand what motivates them as individuals."

"Working with Sally is a breath of fresh air, a cold shower and a warm hug all at once - and brilliant for it."

"Working with Sally has transformed both the way I work and my business."

"Sally offered constructive challenge, supportive feedback and beautifully structured thinking space to take on the leadership role that I'd been resisting"

"Sally has had an enormous impact in how I understand the business we run, the team I work with, and the type of leader I am."

"Sally has brought together a group that are already working together very well and allowed us to tackle topics of conversation that we wouldn't have gotten to of our own volition."

"Working with Sally makes you reframe and rethink."

"Sally spoke to many of our members at the IPA about the controversial idea that we maybe shouldn't bring our whole self to work…"

"Working with Sally has been a game changer."

"Sally provided immediate techniques & a framework to access & manage our mental health…""

"I started 2023 with a bang… "

"Sally Henderson is one of the best leadership coaches I have had the pleasure to encounter."

Meet Sally

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