Scaleup Q&A: Sarah Griffin, Smile Mediation Ltd

Sarah Griffin is head of operations and business development at Smile Mediation, a charity and social enterprise based in Burnley.

Smile Mediation provides a wide range of services to empower people of all ages and from all backgrounds to prevent, manage and resolve conflict.

Sarah, a participant on Two Zero's Women Scaling Up programme, shares her top tips for scaling businesses.

What is the most important quality of a scaleup business leader and why?

I believe that the most important qualities are resilience, the ability to listen to and 'soak up' critical feedback and the willingness to regularly remove yourself from your comfort zone.

Scaleup business leaders will face knockbacks, disappointments and unexpected events that impact on them and the business. The ability to bounce back, absorb the feedback and use it to improve is essential.

How have you grown and developed as a scaleup leader?

Having been homelessness services lead for a local charity for over 16 years I began to crave new challenges and progression. I wanted to make a positive and significant impact on a small charity.

In November 2022, I started my current role at Smile Mediation. This was massively outside my comfort zone. Since then, I’ve done so many other new things such as sales, public speaking (although this is still a work in progress), mediation and conflict coaching.

How do you inspire and empower your people?

I make no secret of the fact that I’m outside of my comfort zone when I am. It’s important that my team see that and are inspired to do the same.

I try to involve them in as many opportunities and decisions as possible. I listen to their thoughts and ideas and use them to improve our service and they do the same in return.

I have the best little team who all want the best for Smile and our customers. I’m very lucky!

What is the best piece of business advice you have received and why?

Use visioning. Picture yourself where you want to be in the future. What does it look like? How does it feel? What do you need to do to get there? What steps will you take to get there?

This was advice given to me in the recent Women Scaling Up programme…. It’s such a powerful tool and has inspired me to push forward, especially in relation to public speaking/training delivery.

What is the biggest lesson you have learned on your business journey, and how has this impacted you?

The biggest lesson is that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. The impact it’s had on me is that it’s led me to where I am today and I’m confident and excited about my career future.

What scaleup business do you admire the most and why?

I couldn’t possibly choose. Having recently been on the Women Scaling Up programme, I’ve met many wonderful and amazing scaleup leaders and heard much about their businesses. They are all equally as admirable as each other.

What key metrics do you look at everyday in your business?

Our contracts include many KPIs. The majority are around timescales to contact customers and hold mediation and coaching meetings.

This is important as a speedy response ensures higher engagement levels in our service which of course lead to higher success rates. I focus on engagement levels and ways to maximise them as well as customer satisfaction and improved wellbeing.

What is the legacy you want to create?

I would like to inspire people to do what it takes to achieve that they want to achieve and to believe in themselves. I also want to continue to grow Smile Mediation so that we can empower as many people as possible to prevent, manage and resolve conflict for themselves.