How Strategic Communications and Leadership Drive Impactful Change – Interview with Sarah Roberts

Sarah is one of two managing partners at Vane Percy & Roberts, with 25+ years in global comms, strategy, public affairs, and stakeholder relations. Known for her clear thinking, sharp wit, and approachable style, she delivers tailored solutions that drive impactful change. Her mission is to lead with authenticity, foster collaboration, and ensure every team member feels heard and valued. Recognised for her bold, inventive approach, Sarah is a gifted networker and convenor of creative talent, always ready to make strategic choices that drive success.

Sarah Roberts, Global Strategy and Communications Leader

Who is Sarah Roberts?

I work as a strategic advisor to boards, senior leaders, and businesses, supporting organisations and brands as they navigate complexity, scrutiny, and change, across communications, external relations, and public affairs.

At the heart of my work is a belief that leadership is as much about humanity as it is about authority. I sit in the space where governance, reputation, and people intersect, helping leaders make confident, sometimes difficult decisions, while staying grounded in empathy, ethics, and long-term impact.

I’m particularly interested in reframing communications not as words or messaging, but as a leadership philosophy, one that shapes behaviour, judgement, and how organisations show up internally and externally when it matters most.

Alongside my professional work, I am studying for a counselling qualification, volunteer with Age UK, and have coached children through sport. I’m increasingly interested in the role of intuition, mental wellbeing, and self-care in leadership and how the quieter, internal work shapes how we show up in positions of responsibility.

I’m also in the process of writing a book that reflects on a personal journey through challenge and growth, and what that has taught me about resilience, perspective, and finding your voice.

What inspired you to start Vane Percy & Roberts and focus on communications strategy?

I joined an agency while I was still at university because I wanted to learn the craft properly - not just the tactics, but how communications really influences leadership, behaviour, and outcomes.

Over time, working alongside my business partner, we began to see a gap in how many agencies operate. The model is often pyramidal, senior leaders sell the work, and then disappear into the background. Or there’s a tendency to tell executives what they want to hear rather than what their organisation actually needs.

We also noticed how often communications was treated as a kind of dark art, hidden behind layers of creative language or cleverness, when in reality, the most effective work is far more human. It’s about clarity, empathy, and helping people recognise themselves in what’s being said.

We wanted to build something different. Vane Percy & Roberts was created as an executive-led consultancy. One that stays close to decision-makers, understands the business and governance context, and isn’t afraid to challenge when something doesn’t feel right for the organisation, its people, or its stakeholders.

How would you describe your core approach to strategic communications in one sentence?

I see communications as a leadership discipline, not a set of tactics, where trust, behaviour, and impact matter more than visibility.

What makes your consultancy different from others in the communications and outreach space?

We don’t do communications for communications’ sake. We take a holistic view of reputation, culture, governance, and stakeholder trust and then shape an approach that fits the reality of the situation, rather than forcing a predetermined solution.

A core part of our work is helping leaders surface the ethical, emotional, and human dimensions of the decisions they’re making, not to soften them, but to strengthen them. Communications isn’t just about what an organisation says, it’s about what it stands for, what it’s prepared to defend, and what it’s willing to be accountable for.

One of our non-negotiables is alignment between what an organisation says and how it behaves. If those two things don’t match, no amount of storytelling will fix it.

There have been moments where that’s meant walking away. In one healthcare engagement, a non-medical doctor was positioned as the public face of a dermatology product in a way that could easily have been misinterpreted by consumers as medical endorsement. When the client chose not to change course, I chose not to stay.

Ultimately, it’s about helping leaders see the bigger picture, communications isn’t just the right words. It’s an organisation’s voice, personality, and intent and it needs to be embodied consistently across leadership behaviour, culture, and every point of contact with the world.

Trust, both with the public and with ourselves, matters more than any contract.

What are the most common challenges you help clients overcome?

One of the biggest is a narrow view of what communications is actually for. In some organisations, communications becomes a supporting function, something that’s brought in to “do social” or “get coverage”, rather than a leadership capability that shapes how the organisation is experienced.

A pattern I see often is organisations focusing on what they want to say, rather than what people actually need to understand.

Explaining the issue first, the context, the stakes, the human impact, and then positioning your product, service, or decision as a response to that is almost always more powerful than leading with a commercial message.

At its core, the challenge is helping leaders move from persuasion to clarity. When people understand the situation they’re in, and why it matters, trust follows more naturally, and decisions are far more likely to land with credibility.

Can you share an example of a client success story where your strategy made a measurable impact?

Some of the most meaningful work for me isn’t about headlines but about outcomes. I’ve worked with sceptical clients who initially resisted a more patient, stakeholder-led approach, particularly in policy and healthcare spaces. In more than one case, that shift in strategy contributed to real-world change including policy decisions that improved access to care.

Those moments matter to me because they reinforce something I believe deeply, if communications doesn’t create impact, it’s just noise. The “why” always has to come before the “what.”

Why is effective stakeholder engagement essential for organisations today?

Because trust has become one of the most valuable, and fragile, assets an organisation holds. Stakeholders today aren’t passive audiences. They’re informed, connected, and often influential in shaping perception, policy, and reputation.

Too often, organisations approach stakeholder engagement the same way they approach communications, by focusing on what they want to say, rather than what others actually need to hear.

Real engagement is a two-way relationship. It’s not just about sharing information or positioning expertise. It’s about listening, understanding different perspectives, and asking more meaningful questions, what matters to this group? What do they need from us? And what can we genuinely build together?

When stakeholders are treated as partners rather than an afterthought, relationships tend to be more resilient, more honest, and better able to withstand moments of change or challenge. Over time, that consistency is what turns engagement into trust, not as a message, but as a lived experience.

How do you help leaders and organisations build and protect their reputation?

By helping them understand that reputation is built internally first. What leaders tolerate, reward, or ignore inside their organisation will eventually show up on the outside. Culture always travels.

I work closely with senior teams to develop a clear leadership voice and presence. One that feels authentic, considered, and consistent across different contexts, boardrooms, employees, regulators, media, and the public.

In moments of pressure, that voice shouldn’t be improvised. It should feel familiar because it’s been practised.

You’ve described communications as a leadership discipline rather than a tactical function. In moments of pressure or scrutiny, what do you believe separates strong leadership judgement from reactive decision-making?

Strong leadership judgement is rooted in clarity, not speed. Reactive decisions are often driven by fear, fear of scrutiny, loss of control, or being seen to hesitate. Good judgement comes from understanding what truly matters in the moment, who will be affected, and what the long-term consequences might be.

Leaders who can pause, even briefly, tend to make decisions that hold up over time, rather than ones they later have to explain away.

What role does thought leadership play in your clients’ growth and visibility?

At its best, thought leadership isn’t about being seen as clever. It’s about being seen as useful. The strongest leaders I work with use it to clarify what they stand for, how they think, and what kind of contribution they want to make to their industry or society.

When it’s done well, visibility becomes a byproduct of credibility, not the other way around.

How has your decades of senior experience shaped the way you advise clients?

It’s taught me that most challenges aren’t really about communications. They’re about judgement. Experience gives you pattern recognition. The ability to sense when something is going to escalate, land badly, or quietly undermine trust long before it becomes obvious.

It’s also taught me the value of stillness. Not every situation needs an immediate response. Sometimes the most strategic move is to pause, understand what’s really happening, and then act with intent rather than urgency.

What is one piece of advice you would give to businesses struggling to communicate their value?

Start by explaining the problem you exist to solve. If people don’t recognise themselves in the issue, they won’t care about the solution, no matter how good it is.

Clarity builds connection. Connection builds trust. And trust is what ultimately creates value.

What should potential clients expect when they work with you and your team?

They should expect challenge as well as support. We work best with leaders who want a thinking partner, not a “yes” team. People who are willing to share information, invite perspective, and sit with uncomfortable questions if that’s what the situation requires.

What they gain is not just an external advisor, but an extension of their leadership team. We become deeply invested in what our clients are building, because our role is to help shape how it is understood, experienced, and trusted, internally and externally.

We also connect communications directly to business objectives, whether that’s driving growth, supporting a sale or exit, influencing policy, or strengthening long-term reputation.

If your website speaks a different language to your onboarding, something is misaligned. If your media and social presence doesn’t reflect how your people actually experience the company, it won’t land.

Our role is to help bring those pieces into coherence. So what an organisation says, does, and believes feels like part of the same story.

Your work increasingly explores the quieter, internal side of leadership. Why do you think this inner work is still undervalued in senior leadership conversations, and what does it change when leaders take it seriously?

Because it’s invisible, and it doesn’t come with a neat framework or metric. But leadership is always felt before it’s measured. When leaders invest in their internal work, understanding their triggers, values, and blind spots, they lead with greater consistency and humanity.

It changes how they listen, how they make decisions, and how safe others feel bringing the truth into the room. It also shapes who they invite in around them. Leaders who trust their own judgement are more open to challenge, more willing to seek support, and more likely to value perspectives that strengthen, rather than simply affirm, their own.

Final question: What guides your work, personally?

Intuition is a compass if we allow ourselves to be still enough to listen. In leadership, in communication, and in life, the quiet signals often tell you more than the loud ones. The work is learning to trust them.

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