C-Suite Executive Coaching

The higher you go, the fewer people you can think out loud with

Senior executives often tell me they have plenty of advisers and very little honest reflection. Your board evaluates you. Your leadership team reports to you. Your peers in other companies may be competitors. Family and friends do not see the full picture and cannot be told it.

Coaching offers a space where you can test a half-formed idea, admit doubt or explore a fear without consequence. I don’t give answers or push an agenda. I ask the questions that help you see what you already know and what you have been avoiding.

Pressures CEOs and CXOs bring into the room

None of these is a sign that you are in the wrong role. They come with the territory, and they are easier to carry when you have somewhere to set them down and look at them clearly.

• ✦Board or shareholder expectations that pull in different directions
• ✦A chair, founder or major family shareholder whose relationship with you needs careful handling
• ✦Decision fatigue: dozens of significant calls a week with no one to share the load (what decision fatigue is and why it matters at this level)
• ✦A senior team that defers to you rather than challenges you
• ✦Leading a transformation, restructuring or succession while running the business
• ✦Your own next chapter, and what you want your leadership to have stood for

Confidentiality is strict, including when the company pays

What you say in sessions stays between us. That applies even when the organisation, the board or a family shareholder is funding the coaching. If there is a sponsor, we agree at the beginning, in writing, what is shared: usually only the broad development goals and attendance, never the content of our conversations.

For more on how that agreement works, see three-way coaching agreements. I follow the ICF Code of Ethics, and confidentiality is the foundation of every coaching relationship I hold. You can read more about whether executive coaching is confidential.

The format bends around a C-suite calendar

Sessions are usually weekly or every two weeks, but I know the top job does not run on a tidy schedule. We can plan sessions around board cycles, results announcements, Ramadan working hours or heavy travel, and switch between meeting in person in Manama and online.

Many executives also find it useful to book a session just before a high-stakes moment, such as a board presentation or a difficult conversation with a shareholder, and another shortly after to reflect.

Your leadership team is part of your coaching, even when they are not in it

A chief executive does not lead alone. How your top team meets, disagrees and decides reflects your leadership, and it also shapes it. My training in systemic coaching and systemic team coaching means we look at you in the context of that system, not in isolation.

If the work points to the team itself, I can also work with the full group through executive team alignment coaching. We would discuss that openly first, because it changes the coaching relationship.

What a first conversation with me looks like

It begins with a free 30-minute discovery call, which is simply a chance to see whether we work well together. If we go ahead, the first full session is about the landscape: the organisation, the board, the team and you. I listen for where your energy goes and where it is being drained.

We finish by naming the two or three questions that matter most to you over the next few months. Those become the backbone of the engagement, and we revisit them regularly.

Why senior executives choose to work with me

I bring more than 26 years in leadership, HR and talent development across financial services, FMCG, entrepreneurship and government, much of it supporting executive teams through growth and transformation. I hold the ICF PCC credential and have completed more than 4,500 coaching hours.

I coach in both Arabic and English, which matters in boardrooms where conversations move between the two.