In this blog post, Mark Herbert, a Fellow (Class of 2003) and Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching, shares his journey of joining forces with his best friend, Jon Bircher, to equip leaders with better decision-making skills based on true Christian values.
I’m Mark Herbert, a Fellow (Class of 2003) and Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching. Our company helps leaders and leadership teams make better decisions.
I benefited from Rank’s School Leadership Award during my time at Monkton and have spent the last 20 years in education and not-for-profit leadership, including 10 years in church leadership. Each of these different contexts was rich with opportunities to develop my leadership skills and help release the leadership in others. I learned more about effective communication, managing conflict and motivating teams.
I published a book, “I’m Not a Leader”, in 2021, and began an entrepreneurial journey into leadership coaching. In 2023, I co-founded Salt & Light Coaching Ltd with my friend Jon Bircher, and we work in various sectors, equipping leaders to make better decisions. As we worked with leaders, we realised that navigating the dynamics around decision-making was a common challenge. Our world needs better leaders, and quality decision-making is one of the marks of outstanding leadership. For us, this is rooted in leaders doing better thinking and asking better questions. We strive to create organisational ecosystems that support a thinking environment, empowering leaders to make better decisions.
Our world is volatile, and leadership is complex, especially when the stakes are high. Decisions matter because our leadership is visible in our choices and how we make them, demonstrating who we are, how we think, and what we value. We are convinced that every decision has a ripple effect and that our life story unfolds one decision at a time.
Choosing to step away from a familiar career in my mid-thirties and embark on uncharted territory was daunting. The journey involved a steep learning curve, asking hundreds of questions and building a network. I made mistakes and had to dig deep into reserves of resilience, especially with the additional pressures of supporting a young family while starting a new company from scratch. Looking back, the leadership foundations I have drawn upon daily were founded during my time at school. The opportunities that Rank gave me to develop my leadership as a teenager started the ripples that continue to spread today.
People often ask us – “Where does the name Salt & Light come from?” Salt and Light are Biblical metaphors. We work with leaders from multiple faiths or none, but as Christians, Jon and I are committed to being Salt and Light as Jesus encourages his followers. For us, this means adding flavour and value to our coaching conversations, spotlighting the genius in others, and shining a light on a clear path ahead.
At Salt & Light, one of our core values is to walk alongside our clients, nurturing lasting relationships and offering a mix of challenge and support.
Mark Herbert
Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching