Coaching the Future: How Inclusive Leadership is Reshaping UAE Organizations with Lynn Kleinsmith

Lynn Kleinsmith discusses leveraging coaching to build inclusive, high-performing organizations aligned with the UAE's national vision and diverse workforce

The business landscape of the UAE, a vibrant hub for over 200 nationalities, presents a unique challenge: how can organizations transform their inherent diversity into a sustainable competitive advantage? The answer could not lies in standalone initiatives, but in weaving inclusive leadership and a robust coaching culture directly into the organizational DNA.

Lynn Kleinsmith and elev8 Global Consulting operate at the very intersection of this transformation. Through a practice focused on coaching, cultural intelligence, and behavioral change, they guide organizations in shifting from directive to inclusive leadership. This is vital in a region where traditional hierarchies meet a globally diverse talent pool.

Their work, particularly in developing female leaders and supporting Emiratisation goals, provides a practical blueprint for building workplaces where diversity is not just present but is a powered engine for performance. In this interview, Lynn Kleinsmith shares how coaching is the key to engineering this cultural shift.

Interview with Lynn Kleinsmith

How are organizations in the UAE leveraging coaching to enhance leadership effectiveness and employee engagement?

Across the UAE, coaching is becoming a strategic investment, this is not only for leadership development, but for aligning teams with the country’s transformation agenda. Sectors such as aviation, oil and gas, financial services, hospitality, and government entities rely heavily on coaching to improve collaboration among multicultural teams.

Leading UAE banks use coaching to develop purpose-led leaders who manage diverse teams while achieving Emiratisation and digital transformation goals, particularly important as the UAE has many mulinational organisations with regional offices in the region. Government entities embed coaching into leadership academies to strengthen agility, innovation, and emotional intelligence. Hospitality and retail groups leverage coaching to enhance team engagement and service excellence across large multicultural teams.

elev8 Global amplifies these efforts by helping leaders shift from directive to inclusive, coaching-based leadership which is crucial for leading teams of multiple nationalities with varied expectations. Coaching whether team or peer-to-peer has proven to be very successful. Learning and showing vulerability at all levels in the organisation has proven to increase talent self awareness of working better together towards common goals resulting in shared goals, vision and achievement of Key Performance Indicators and business goals.

What challenges do organizations face in creating a sustainable coaching culture within the UAE’s diverse workforce?

UAE organizations face unique challenges such as balancing diversity with hierarchical leadership traditions. Employees come from cultures and countries with different expectations of authority and empowerment, creating complexity in leadership approaches and team development.

High turnover in some industries in the region, varying communication styles, and differing levels of English proficiency also affect coaching sustainability. To overcome this, coaching must be embedded into Key Performance Indicators/KPIs, leadership behaviours, and performance management feedback systems.

elev8 Global supports organizations by integrating coaching into organizational processes, ensuring coaching and lifelong learning becomes part of everyday leadership and talent development.

How does an organization’s DNA; its core values, purpose, and culture, influence talent development and inclusion in the UAE?

An organisation’s DNA acts as its behavioural blueprint and in the UAE, one of the world’s most diverse talent markets, this blueprint becomes even more influential, shaping how employees experience leadership, belonging, growth, and opportunities.

With more than 200 nationalities working across the UAE, organisational DNA is not just an internal framework, it is a survival strategy for performance, alignment, and innovation.

Values drive how diversity is managed not just celebrated. This means that organisations that intentionally articulate inclusive values such as respect, collaboration, cultural intelligence, or service excellence naturally create environments where multicultural and gender-diverse employees thrive. For example; In the UAE’s aviation and hospitality sectors, vlaues like “service excellence: and “global mindset” are embedded into hiring, training and development and performance frameworks. In government entiities, national values such as tolerance, empowerment, and future readiness shape leadership behaviour expectations. Values therefore determine whether diversity becomes and advantage or a barrier.

Pupose creates alignment across multicultural teams and in the UAE context requires purpose to be more than a slogan. It must be the unifying force for teams who may not share cultural backgrounds, however, a well defined purpose helps employees understand why the organisation exists, how their work contributes to something meaningful and how different talents fit into a single vision. For example; A UAE-based tech company with the purpose of “accelerating the region’s digital economy” attracts both Emirati graduates pasionate about national transformation and expatriate specialists seeking innovation-driven environments. Purpose becomes the anchor for belonging.

Culture shapes inclusion, psychological safety, and leadership behaviour. Culture is the lived expression of values and purpose and in the UAE, it determines whether talent feels safe, included and empowered. Some UAE specific cultural realities is that leadership expecations differ dramatically across backgrounds, female leadership acceptance varies widely depending on nationaltity and socio-cultural norms. When the organisational culture encourages open communication, respectful debates, and transparent decision-making, it reduces power distance; and essential factor in the UAE workplace where many employees come from high-hierarchy cultures.

elev8 Global helps organizations shape inclusive, human-centered DNA that prioritizes psychological safety, purpose-driven leadership, and inclusive decision-making.

How are UAE-based companies adapting their organizational DNA to align with the country’s national vision and Emiratisation goals?

Companies are supporting Vision 2030 and Emiratisation goals by developing leadership pathways for Emirati women, investing in digital skills, creating mentorship programs pairing Emirati talent with expatriate experts, and embedding national values into their culture.

elev8 Global adds value by helping organizations align leadership behaviours and people strategies with national priorities while maintaining multicultural inclusivity. We offer peer-to-peer coaching for entreprenuers and have a particular focus on female start-up’s to medium sized companie offering them an opportunity to learn and brainstorm through structured coaching whilst building skills to enable business success.

What innovative inclusion initiatives have proven effective in promoting gender balance, cultural diversity, and accessibility in UAE workplaces?

The UAE has become a global benchmark for inlusion, gender balance, and cultural diversity, driven by decisive government initiatives and forward thinking private sector practices. Inclusion is no longer viewed as an HR initiative, in the UAE it is a national priority linked to competitiveness, innovation and social cohesion.

Gender balance initiatives shifts power, opportunity and perception. The UAE has been recognised by the World Economic Forum as a regional leader in gender equity, largely due to its bold and structured approach. Organisations that succeed in gender balance typically invest in women in leadership accelerators. Government entities, banks, and multicultural companies have launched intensive leadership pathwyas specifically for women. These include executive presence coaching, strategic decision-making modules, public speaking and influence training and rotational leadership exposure. This alignes with elev8 Global’s corporate portfolio, helping women strengthen confidence, leadership identity and readiness for the senior roles.

Forward thinking companies now include tools like Lumina Spark to assist in building self-awareness which is the foundation of inclusion and belonging. The training helps avoid stereotyping and instead shows the unique mix of qualities each talent has, supporting psychological safety, especially for people who think, communicate and work differently.

When team members understand these differences, they can communicate more effectively. This reduces misundertandings, conflict and delay in work progress. The tool is powerful in helping teams navigate cultural differences informally, by noticing differences in behaviour, avoiding assumptions, and adapting to a variety of working and thinking styles.

elev8 Global expands this impact through team development coaching as well as individual and leadership focused coaching and empowerment programs.

How can coaching and cultural transformation programs be integrated to strengthen inclusion and belonging across multinational teams in the UAE?

Integration is strongest when coaching is woven into organizational behaviour standards. This includes inclusive leadership coaching, multicultural team coaching, values-based transformation aligned with UAE identity, and cultural intelligence frameworks.

elev8 Global operates at this intersection, helping organizations move from compliance-based diversity to behavioural inclusion driven by coaching, cultural intelligence, and psychological safety.

My experience in corporate has placed me at the forefront of female empowerment and inclusion in both the region and globally. Including:

• The design of a leadership development pathway for female talents

• Mentoring of Emirati women stepping into leadership roles

• Championing unbiased peformance promotion discussions

• Advocating for diverse representation in leadership succession plans

• Supporting women in building confidence, influence and have a seat and voice at the table

• Program designed to promote a cuture of inclusivity benefiting the organisation and business

• Focus on leadership development, inspiring them to lead diverse teams to meet successful KPI’s

This direct hands-on impact is aligned with the UAE’s gender balance vision and is highly valuable in shaping inclusive workplaces across the region.

elev8 Global sits at the intersection of leadership development, cultural intelligence, and transformation. The company helps organisations develop inclusive leaders who understand multicultural dynamics; build women-focused coaching and empowerment programs; create psychologically safe teams; embed inclusion into values, behaviours and KPI’s and support Emiratisation and female leadership pipelines. This holistic approach ensures inclusion is not just an iniative but becomes part of an organisation’s identity.