Jennifer Snelling
Jennifer draws on over 20 years of professional experience across four different continents and a lifetime in cross-cultural environments to support individuals from all around the world through coaching and training.
She has coached clients in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, North America and Europe, including various locations around the UK.
The first 10 years of her career she worked in grassroots community development in Kenya; Ethiopia; Boston, USA and London, UK. During this time, she initiated and led social outreach programmes to support people living with HIV, homeless people, immigrants, and at-risk youth.
In the second decade of her career, she worked for Tearfund, a UK-based international relief and development organization, where she had the privilege of supporting local leaders across nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This included coaching and mentoring as well as facilitating regular training events. She also served as an internal coach for Tearfund staff.
These diverse experiences have given her first-hand insight into both field and organisational life in a variety of countries and cultures – all of which she brings to the coaching and training space.
Jennifer trained as a coach in 2015 and holds an MSc in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and a BA in Foreign Affairs and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia, USA.
Jennifer areas of interest include:
Supporting individuals and teams working in cross-cultural settings. She has seen time and time again that cultural differences really do matter and considers it a real privilege to help clients better understand and navigate them productively.
Helping leaders to identify the benefits and applications of a coaching-style approach to leadership. This approach often requires more time and patience than simply telling a direct report what to do and how to do it, but usually leads to more effective results, greater collaboration, and happier employees in the workplace.
“I highly recommend Jennifer as a cross-cultural coach. She is a gifted listener and her vast experience of different nations and cultures, together with her ability to communicate in various languages, sets her apart as a very capable professional. I am constantly impressed by the way she facilitates our coaching sessions, empowering me to find my own solutions and make better decisions. I feel that I have developed considerably and am encouraged by the way I can already see a difference in my personal and professional life. Through thought-provoking questions Jennifer was able to help me organise my thoughts and left me feeling encouraged and prepared for the next step. I am extremely grateful to Jennifer for her dedication.”
“From my culture people are always looking for advice and we do not say things straight to the point. Jennifer was very clear about the topic [a coaching-style approach to leadership]. I used the coaching style approach with my sons and my older son found it very helpful.”
“When I met Jennifer for the first time, I was afraid that she would not understand my language or that I can’t deliver the ideas in the right way, but she was very patient and made it easy. The coaching was helpful for me. She helps me to arrange the steps for all topics that we talked about, and helps me with how to think out of the box. She was a kind person. I’m very happy that I got this opportunity to meet her and talk about many topics.”