About Tess

Tess Elsen has extensive experience in Coaching and Leadership development. Her leadership career has spanned over 30 years and 3 continents working in Europe, Middle East and Africa.  Tess achieved her first management position in the UK at age 25 and went on to become National Sales Manager and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for several organizations in South Africa.


During this time Tess has worked with the FranklinCovey organisation in the UK, Africa and the Middle East since 2000 in both Business Development and Delivery roles. She is a Master Facilitator for the 7 Habits suite of programmes and has been privileged to train and coach in-house facilitators for many FranklinCovey clients. She has been honoured to personally work with Dr Stephen Covey on several occasions in both the UK and South Africa. She currently works internationally with the FranklinCovey Global Team in a consulting capacity.


Tess is also an accredited Insights Facilitator and Coach (Read More). To maintain her accreditation she attends a renewal workshop every 2 years and various ‘back to school” seminars to stay current in the fast-paced learning environment. She has been accredited since 2010.

Since attending the Life Coaching Academy in the UK in 2001 to become an Executive Life Coach, Tess has successfully conducted over 10,000 hours of both individual and team coaching. See what some of her clients have said about her. (Read testimonials)

Her consulting focus in the last few years has been in Business and Executive Coaching, Leadership Development and improving performance through engagement, collaboration, team development and coaching.  She has a very large tool bag to draw from which allows her to adapt and customise her approach to ensure the best outcome for her clients.

She has lived in South Africa for over 25 years and currently enjoys life in Johannesburg with her partner Adrian and barking mad dog Neo. 

Tess says:

“As a Sales and Marketing Executive for several organisations, I have first-hand experience of managing teams and functions within a corporate environment. I have been through the tough transition from Individual Contributor to Leader of Function in my career. As a consultant, I have worked with many organisations large and small, to increase productivity through improved performance using various tools and models of leadership. I am able to draw on this experience in helping my clients navigate the politics and pitfalls in their own journey and create successful results for themselves, their people and their business. “

If there was only the “right” way to do something, Fosbury would never have flopped
- John Whitmore