From Merry-Go-Round to Meaningful Building a Coaching Practice in the Middle East

In Parts 1, I shared how I stepped off what I called the ‘corporate merry-go-round’ and discovered coaching while living in Qatar. After travelling to Australia to train as a professional coach, it opened a possibility I had not imagined before: create a coaching ‘school’ in Doha. In Part 2, that idea became real through relationships, unexpected invitations and, eventually, my partnership with Marie Quigley and the creation of Empower World. In 2015, the work had also taken me into another community that would also become very dear to my heart. Rachel Petero, a Māori leader who had completed our training in Doha, invited me to partner with her on her programme Rise2025.

Her vision was to positively impact 100,000 Indigenous women and their families by 2025 through coaching and leadership development. International coaching skills would be brought together with Indigenous values and ways of being to support women to lead in their families, communities and organisations.

I could not have known how much I would learn from that invitation or the changes ahead, or how often I would have to return to the question that had started this journey: what matters most for me to keep choosing it?

Learning what it means to belong

Empower World has been my major focus and devotion since becoming established in 2012. Marie and I were training remarkable people from around the world in Qatar, and also supporting coaches through coaching, mentoring, facilitating gatherings, and later, coaching supervision. We were also regularly working with corporate organisations and we each had our own private coaching practice too.

Alongside that work, from 2015, Rachel and I delivered two or three coach training and mentoring programmes a year for women, and over time, men began asking to participate too. They could see, hear and feel the impact the training was having on the incredible women around them. Working with those men brought another opportunity to learn from leaders committed to their communities.

I will never forget the traditional Māori practices that I was so incredibly grateful to experience: the traditional Māori welcoming for each new cohort (Te Karanga - which is a like chant and a calling to exchange greetings, acknowledge ancestors and guide visitors into the learning space), the opening and closing Karakia (like an intention setting, clearing the energy for collective purpose and gathering), the songs and dance, the traditions at the Marae (a public meeting place to support Māori culture and community), the Hongi (a powerful greeting to bring in the life force of one another) and much, much more. (This was how the Maori traditions were explained to me so I may made some errors in my explanations).

Belonging was not something I could assume. I remember our first training where many women welcomed me warmly; a few stood back, understandably, wanting to know who I was and whether they could trust me in their space. At one point, concerns from one or two participants about how Rachel and I were presenting the course brought significant upset into the room. This was Rachel’s first cohort she had delivered to – so was learning from what I was sharing. I could completely understand how some were guarded about what we were both sharing and presenting in hindsight.

That was a difficult moment. It asked us to practice the skills we were teaching: listening, staying present with discomfort and making room for concerns to be expressed and understood. We worked through the challenge together and returned to trust and rapport with all group members. The experience reminded me that a course can teach communication, but the deeper learning happens when we need to use it ourselves.

On the final day, I was in tears of gratitude for the love and warmth of those women. I remain in contact with a number of them today. Their spirit, resilience and determination have stayed with me, along with a deep appreciation for being welcomed into work that was theirs to shape and lead.

Not soon after this, my husband decided he was ready to move on after 8 years of living in the Middle East. We planned to go for two years only - a story we heard many people share. We made a decision to move to Australia - to a beach place, somewhere relatively close to Melbourne back in 2015.

My husband didn’t know what he wanted to do at this point so I decided to keep traveling back to Qatar so Marie and I could continue our work and partnership. That worked well as I wasn’t ready to leave Qatar back in 2015, and this way I could get the best of both worlds – together with some time in New Zealand. It was a wonderful world!

The world development that changed our way of working

In February 2020, I boarded a flight from Qatar to return home to Melbourne. A few passengers were wearing masks. More than I had noticed before.

I was not particularly worried at the time about the impact of this infectious disease – Covid 19 – but I did find myself wondering - for a moment - whether I would be able to return to Qatar in March.

As it turned out - I could not.

Melbourne entered a prolonged period of lockdowns. Marie was still in Qatar, and our business had been built around bringing people together in a room. Suddenly, the journey I had been making for years was no longer possible.

Not long after lockdowns began around the world, Marie decided to return home to the UK. We were now running a Qatar-based business from opposite sides of the world.

We decided to offer our training online, including our advanced coaching skills programme. We had already delivered some corporate coach training and our mentoring online, so we knew it could work well. Even so, it felt like a significant step.

Would people join and love the experience like our face-to-face training?

The answer, through the people who joined us, was a resounding yes.

The training continued to be profound, and the relationships people formed were real. It surprised us, and in another way it did not: we had already experienced what was possible when people were listened to and supported online.

For roughly two years, while corporate work diminished, our coach training programmes grew. The numbers suited the way we wanted to work: enough people to create a rich learning community, with space for each person to be known and supported.

There was a personal cost. Marie's time zone suited Qatar much better than mine. From Melbourne, I was often working late at night or in the middle of the night. I loved the work, but I do not miss those hours of work.

A different kind of success

Around that same period, another part of my working life was changing.

By 2020, Rachel had completed the work of adapting the Empower World programme into an Indigenous-focused programme and submitted it to the ICF for approval. There were enough certified coaches who could step into the training and mentoring role I had held.

Rise2025, now Rise Global, had grown into an independent, self-determined organisation with Indigenous coaches able to carry the work forward.

This was exactly how it was meant to be. The purpose was always to support capability and leadership within the communities themselves. Rachel had created something that could grow through its own people, grounded in their identities, values and knowledge.

I felt enormous joy in that. And I felt sadness too.

I loved the programme and the people. Knowing that it was right to step back did not mean I would not miss being part of it. There is something tender about reaching the point where a contribution you have loved is no longer needed in the same way.

It helped me understand success differently. I could be proud of what we had shared and grateful that the work could continue independently. I could also allow myself to feel the loss of a chapter that had meant so much to me and fulfilled my values and purpose.

Returning to a changed Qatar

When travel became possible again, prospective participants began asking to return to the training room. Marie and I decided to go back to Qatar.

Our cohorts were smaller than they had been before the pandemic and during our online programmes, but there were enough participants to make the journeys very worthwhile. Other work arose alongside the training, and it was wonderful to be together in person again.

This was around the period before and after the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The scale of Qatar's development was astonishing. Having first arrived in 2006, I could see how profoundly the country had changed. It felt alive with the energy of what had been created and possibility!

After the World Cup, many people left and the communities around us were changing again. From our perspective, those shifts seemed to affect the number of people looking for coach training. We had to keep asking what our audience wanted and how we could best reach and support them.

Then Marie shared her decision to leave the business.

Her priorities were changing, including positive developments in her family and she was considering the future of Empower World too. After twelve years of building and delivering together, our partnership was moving into a different chapter. We still collaborate on some specific pieces of work, including the Empower World Coaching and Leadership Podcast which is in the top coaching podcasts and is in the top 5% of downloaded podcasts globally – which we are truly proud of!

I had not really had the opportunity to process what that change would mean for me. Perhaps there are parts of it I am still processing.

I did not feel the business was in the best position to be sold back then. Yet continuing meant taking responsibility for a future we had previously held together. I had to consider whether I wanted to do that, and what it would ask of me as I was already ‘stretched’ to capacity at the time – so it felt.

What kept asking me to stay

Whenever I considered leaving Empower World myself, something would bring me back to the work and legacy Marie and I had created.

Someone would share how their life had changed through our training. A conversation would open a possibility I had not considered. A piece of work would leave me energised and remind me how much I still loved coaching, the programmes we had created and developing coaches. And often, someone or an organisation would approach me to collaborate with me and I would feel energised and inspired!

I came to think of these moments as signs. There were too many to ignore, although they did not remove the practical challenges of running the business.

So I continued, with the support of our team and associates. Katie Mapondera and I shared many ideas and hopes for what could happen next. Having people alongside me who understood the work, and believed in its possibilities, mattered enormously.

We began experimenting and adapting. More people started joining us. I could feel us finding our stride again.

Then the conflict in the Middle East disrupted our plans once more.

We cancelled face-to-face training. Several major corporate initiatives we had been discussing were put on hold. Work that had felt close to becoming real was suddenly uncertain.

This has been the toughest year of the journey so far.

Private client work and my work with an Australian University and an American coaching organisation have helped sustain me and Empower World. We also decided to offer training online through the Northern Hemisphere summer this year, something we would not ordinarily have done. Coaches joined us from Qatar and elsewhere, including Africa. Once again, people came together across borders to learn, practice and support one another, and there is a wonderful feeling and excitement about this cohort of highly talented, reputable senior leaders and entrepreneurs who joined this course. It’s about what could be possible in their lives, communities they serve and their countries.

There are still possibilities

This week, I attended a group coaching supervision session with an extraordinary group of coaches and supervisors. I shared some of the challenges I have been carrying, along with the opportunities I could see ahead.

Their feedback helped me stay connect with what I bring to this work and why it matters. I left with more energy and a renewed sense of direction. Coaches need places where we can speak honestly too, especially when we are holding responsibility for others.

And in this same week, another person told me they regarded Empower World's training as world class - which Marie and I have heard before. This coach said: having coached with peers around the world, they felt our graduates brought an unusual depth of skill and mastery to their coaching. Their encouragement was clear: keep going.

I hold that feedback with gratitude. It does not settle every business question, but it reminds me that the impact of our work reaches beyond the numbers I am looking at on any particular day.

What I carry forward

At the beginning of this series, I described the exhaustion of doing work that looked successful but left me feeling hollow. Coaching helped me understand what I valued and gave me the courage to make different choices.

Living those values has brought extraordinary relationships and opportunities. It has also asked me to adapt, to let go of work and partnerships I loved, and to make decisions without knowing how they would turn out.

What I carry forward is a greater appreciation for the people who help us find our way. Rachel and the Rise community taught me about belonging and self-determination. Marie and I built something neither of us could have created in quite the same way alone. Our colleagues, coaching partners and graduates continue to show me what that work has made possible.

For coaches building a practice of your own, I hope this series gives you permission to recognise the whole experience: the joy, the uncertainty, the losses and the support. There may be times to persist and times to change direction. Having people who can help you think honestly about both is invaluable.

I cannot close this story by telling you that everything has been resolved. I can tell you that I am still doing work I love, with people I value, and exploring what could come next.

I stepped off the merry-go-round because I wanted a life with meaning. Even in this difficult year, I can still recognise that meaning and purpose in the conversations we make possible and the people who carry the learning into their own lives.

That is why I am choosing to continue, trusting the practice will evolve, emerge and there will be some letting go too.

What matters deeply enough to you to shape the next chapter of your work, and who could help you see what is possible?

From Merry-Go-Round to Meaningful Building a Coaching Practice in the Middle East — Part 3 of 3