From extremely humble beginnings (think box-room office with a toddler on the knee), Sherrington Associates has grown steadily over the past decade into the organisation it is now. Whilst focusing on supporting clients who want to embed sustainability as a core culture, “influencing sustainable leadership” became our purpose.
Over the last decade, we have supported clients across a wide range of sectors such as Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing, Logistics, Shipping, Telecoms, Care, Legal, Marketing, Travel, Business Services, Scientific, Environmental, Financial services and the Third Sector, completing senior-leadership search assignments for positions such as Managing Director, Finance Director, Operations Director, Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer.
Whilst most of our work has been recruiting leaders for clients in the UK, we’ve also supported clients in Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong and France!
We have expanded our team and established our Advisory Board – a handpicked selection of highly experienced, values-aligned leaders, who provide advice on Sherrington’s work across executive search, culture diagnostics and sustainable leadership development.
In November 2021, Joe Onions joined us as an Executive Search Resourcer, and his contribution to the company has been exemplary, earning him a rapid promotion to Executive Search Consultant. Joe now heads up our Future Sustainable Leaders programme and is a future leader in his own right.
Sustainable leadership is our core business, so putting our money where our mouth is, in 2022 we began our journey to become a B Corp, achieving our certification on Christmas Day 2023. Joining this growing, global movement of purposeful B Corp businesses has been one of the highlights of our decade in business, but we have always taken on initiatives to be more sustainable and support our clients and communities, including:
- Donating 100’s of coaching hours to leaders and senior managers finding themselves in career crisis following the global pandemic.
- Offering discounts for recruitment and coaching for charities in need.
- Pledging our long term support to the Cheshire Community Foundation by joining the “Cheshire 100” – a group of supportive businesses who commit and annual donation to fund CCF’s essential work.
- Conceptualising the “Race for the Rainforest” fundraising campaign with Chester Zoo. The brainchild of our MD Rob, Race for the Rainforest began as an ambitious plan to take a team of runners to compete in the Borneo Ultra-Marathon. Although Covid-19 put a stop to the race, we are so proud to see how much has been and continues to be raised by this campaign which is still active.
- We joined the Better Business Act.
- We are a carbon positive organisation, using ecologi to offset our emissions through regular monthly donations.
- We are members of the Institute of Neurodiversity.
It’s always nice to have your hard work recognised, and we are proud to have been shortlisted as finalists in several awards, as well as being winners of two awards in 2023:
- Finalist – Best Newcomer, Mersey Maritime Awards 2016
- Finalist – Micro Business of the Year, High Sheriffs Awards 2018
- Finalist – Micro Business of the Year, Mersey Maritime Awards 2018
- Finalist - Young Business Person of the Year – Joe Onions – High Sheriff’s Enterprise Awards 2023
- Winner - People Centred Leadership Award – Good Small Business Awards 2023
- Winner – Innovation in Learning Award – Green Expo Awards 2023
By far one of our biggest achievements in the last decade is the production of our 4A Model of Sustainable Leadership and our 4A Sustainable Leadership Platform. The platform (which was launched in February this year) assesses the most important leadership qualities for creating a sustainable organisation as defined in our ground-breaking 4A Model, enabling leaders to gain a level of self-awareness that is critical in the development of their sustainable leadership skills. The 4A Model is evidence-based and was created following a research project to identify the most-widely agreed qualities of sustainable leadership from the most credible contemporary theories and published papers on the subject. The 4A Platform allows individuals and teams to assess their competency for sustainable leadership either as part of a leadership recruitment campaign, or as a framework for leadership development. A special thank-you goes to Professor Paul Beers and Hilary Berg for their support developing the model.
To say the last ten years have been easy would be misleading. Building a reputable, boutique executive search firm has taken more effort than we ever imagined, but when we look back on all the incredible leaders we’ve found for our clients, all the leaders we’ve coached through challenging periods of change, and all the glowing endorsements we’ve received for our work, we realise it has all been worthwhile. As we look to the future, we want to say a HUGE thank you to all the clients who’ve put their faith in Sherrington Associates to deliver their leadership recruitment and executive coaching over the years. We look forward to more exciting times ahead…
Rob & Joanne.
