Sabrine Makkes – One of the Top Executive Coaches in Dubai

Hear from a qualified lawyer with diverse experiences about living purposefully and investing in self-development. Sabrine Makkes is ICF accredited Executive coach, a Board member at MEACA. She has been rated Top Coach 2023 by Stylfemina for being a visionary who has been making a difference for years. She has been enlisted Top Coach 2023.

About Sabrine and her Career:

My name is Sabrine Makkes, I am a Tunisian qualified lawyer with over 16 years of experience in private practice and senior leadership positions in Fortune 500 tech companies across the MENA region. I am also an ICF accredited Executive coach, a Board member at MEACA, the first Middle East and Africa Compliance Association based in Dubai and a Legal

Tech entrepreneur. It might be unusual for a lawyer to be wearing these different hats; however, I think that all these diverse experiences have helped me shape my personal journey and professional career.

The inception of my coaching business started from my very own coaching journey and the different challenges I have faced throughout the way. From gender biases to being described as a ‘strong character’ in a less complimenting way, and finally, hitting the glass ceiling in my last role, I wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect on myself … what does “success” mean to me, and how I would like my future- self to be.

Coaching opened up a whole new world to me, it equipped me with the right tools to ask the right questions, to manage my emotions, to strengthen my skills and to embrace my vulnerabilities.

We are fortunate today to witness that mental health is becoming a key pillar of corporate cultures. In my view, coaching goes hand in hand with these values of self-care, self-development and personal growth. With that in mind, my coaching business started first with coaching my peers from the legal and compliance industries, before expanding to other professionals from different industries. Lawyers are, unfortunately, well known for being overworked, to the limit of burnt out. It is fascinating to see how coaching can transform, and even enable the client to take his future in his/her hands. I have seen many clients take the bold, yet, very awaited for, decision to leave toxic professional environments, start their own businesses or even move countries. What was most gratifying is the sense of empowerment that coaching gave them and the growth journey they embarked upon.

Sabrine’s way of Empowering Business Leaders:

Quoting Bill Gates “Leaders will be those who empower others”, a US study also shows that Millennials seek more than a paycheck, they are looking for organizations that uphold moral and ethical positions. As a coach, I empower leaders to drive positive change by following my “4Cs” brand:

a. curiosity,

b. compassion,

c. courage

d. connection.

As a coach, I offer a safe space to business leaders to share and effectively communicate their fears and challenges. I am curious to understand where they are coming from and what they want to achieve. This compassion stems from my own experiences, I recognize their fears and challenges and I help them to have the courage to say their truth.

Connecting with them by building rapport and actively listening to them is key to empowering them.

Your motto is ” Envision your future self”. How can you help your clients discover their strengths through coaching ?

A coach unlike a mentor, does not offer any response to the questions that a client may have. The beauty of coaching lies in the powerful questions that a coach asks.

In this self-exploratory journey, I usually ask my clients powerful questions. however, a purposeful coaching that is client centric cannot be scripted. When I coach, i am in the “now” and I am fully focused on my client, my questions follow his/her own flow. I almost sail with him and he/she is the captain of the ship. To discover his/her strengths, I would ask him about times he/she felt at his/her best and what lies underneath his/her success. I am often curious and ask my clients how are they seen by others, how do they find the Best in the Worst: What gifts are underneath those tough times? And finally, I let my clients touch upon the Unusual and Unexplored: a typical question would be: When have you been criticized for something that is really a strength? (think a parent criticizing you for “too much energy/enthusiasm”, teachers criticizing you for your “curiosity”). It is fascinating what one can discover in those childhood memories!

Sabrine’s Priorities and where does she envision herself in the future?

Coaching for me is a vision, it is how we envision our future perfect. I have named my company “Envizion” because, for me, we are always work in progress. We are constantly evolving and I wanted my business to reflect these values. I offer a broad spectrum of services, from executive coaching to delivering trainings and consulting services. I believe that self-development is multi-faceted. I am currently offering 1-1 coaching sessions and I will be soon expanding to group coaching. Given my multi-lingual skills, I am also able to offer more tailored support since effective communication is key.

For me, the future of coaching is bright, with more organizations willing to offer coaching to their employees, I believe that coaching is moving from being “nice to have” to becoming a “must have”, and again, coaching the leaders here is key to set the tone at the top.

On a more personal level, I am embarking into another exciting legal tech project that promises to transform the legal industry, details to come soon, exclusively to Stylfemina readers!

What does it take to set up something from scratch and building upwards? How has been your own experience as a leadership coach?

Building a business from scratch requires some basic elements: people with complementary skills and a common vision and desire to solve a problem that affects a large part of society.

As a solopreneur, it takes a lot of courage, confidence and self-determination to start a business and to earn clients’ trust. For those of us who were in a corporate environment, starting a business means also being aware that you are letting go of your comfort zone: your financial stability. Many would focus on the roadblocks, rather than the bigger picture, and by “many”, it can be those who mean the most to us: our family and friends. We need to have the mental strength to move ahead with our dreams and also be accountable to ourselves, move from a “failure” to a “learning” mindset.

Sabrine’s message to our readers:

To the lovely readers and especially our female readers:

Believe in yourselves and love yourselves first, because those who don’t find love from within, cannot give it back.

Find your why and reflect on your gifts: reflect on why you are doing what you are doing and what you are about.

Look inward, that’s the foundation of everything that you can build upon, otherwise, all you can do is chase other people’s dreams.

Build your network and your tribe that will always cheer up for you and be your sponsor.

Find your path to growth, and I am happy to support you become your authentic-self.

Reach out to Sabrine:

Besides my regular services, I offer pro-bono sessions, as part of my pledge to give back to the community. Do not hesitate to drop me an email for a free and confidential chat: s.makkes@envizionconsulting.ae