Leadership Coaching · Dubai & UAE
that starts with what drives you
One-to-one and team leadership coaching in Dubai and across the UAE for team leaders, managers, department heads and founders building a team. Using the Strength Deployment Inventory® (SDI®) assessment, we uncover the motives behind how you lead — so you make clearer decisions, hold steadier conversations and stay yourself under pressure.
20+
SDI®
1:1 & Teams
JLT, Dubai
In short
Leadership coaching in Dubai is a structured, confidential partnership between a manager or team leader and a coach, focused on how that leader thinks, decides and communicates at work. Instead of teaching a syllabus, it uses questions, assessment data and real workplace situations to build self-awareness and turn it into different, lasting behaviour.
At Start With You, leadership development coaching is delivered by Ursula Crilly in six to twelve structured sessions, built around the SDI® motive-based assessment and the live challenges on your desk right now.
When coaching helps most
Most leaders arrive here at a specific moment — a bigger remit, a difficult team, or the slow realisation that what worked at the last level isn’t working now.
01
You are leading managers, not doers, and the technical skill that earned the role no longer carries it.
02
03
04
Capable people, competing priorities, and friction that no process change seems to fix.
05
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The results are there. The boundaries are not. You want a way to lead that you can sustain for the next ten years.
The approach
Most leadership development stops at behaviour: what you did, and what you should do instead. That produces short-lived change, because behaviour is the symptom, not the source.
My leadership coaching in Dubai starts a layer deeper — with motive. The Strength Deployment Inventory® (SDI®) assessment maps what genuinely drives you when things are going well, and how that shifts through three predictable stages of conflict. Once you can see your own pattern, you can interrupt it deliberately instead of discovering it afterwards.
Motivated by structure, accuracy and fairness.
Every leader blends all three. Coaching works on the blend — including what happens to it under stress.
Individually we can make a difference, but together we can change the world.
What I offer
Eight coaching services for leadership development. Most engagements draw on three or four of them, sequenced around what your role is asking of you right now.
Coaching that addresses values and motivation, not just behaviour, so your direction is one your team can follow.
People are not broken, so the work is not repair. We build from what already works and manage the overdone version of it.
Pressure is the environment, not the exception — particularly in Dubai’s high-visibility organisations and in sectors like aviation, where leading under pressure is part of the job.
Professional leadership coaching built around your role, your calendar and your pace, in private one-to-one sessions.
A connected sequence for leaders who want depth and direction rather than occasional sessions.
Team leadership coaching that improves how a leadership group communicates and reduces avoidable friction.
Built for leaders in finance, aviation, legal and other roles where the cost of a rushed decision is high.
Extending coaching from one leader to the way an organisation leads, alongside in-house corporate leadership training.
How it works
A clear sequence, so you know exactly what you are committing to before you start.
01
A free 30-minute discovery call about what’s happening in your role and what you want to be different. No obligation, and an honest view of whether coaching is the right tool.
02
03
We agree goals, session cadence, confidentiality and — for sponsored engagements — what the organisation will and won’t be told.
04
Sessions every two to three weeks, each anchored to a live situation. Insight, a decision, and a small experiment to run before we meet again.
05
We revisit the original goals, capture what has changed in behaviour and results, and set the practices that keep working once coaching ends.
Outcomes
You recognise the trigger, name the shift, and choose the response instead of defaulting to it.
Availability, delegation and workload managed on purpose — so the role stays sustainable.
Authority without performance — presence built on your own values rather than a borrowed style.
Formats
All formats are available in person in Dubai or online across the UAE and internationally.
Formats
Investment on request
Most chosen
Investment on request
Teams
Investment on request
Who I work with
Executive and leadership coaching, one-to-one sessions, courses and career support each serve a different moment. What stays consistent is the approach: human, grounded, and focused on growth that shows up in how you lead.
For CEOs, directors and C-suite leaders carrying board exposure and high visibility.
Your coach
Leadership development coach, facilitator and guide with over 20 years alongside leaders in high-pressure, high-visibility environments — airlines, global organisations and fast-moving corporate settings where performance and expectations are high.
Ursula doesn’t believe in fixing people, because people aren’t broken. She supports leaders in rebuilding self-trust, creating healthy boundaries, and leading in ways that protect both their energy and their integrity. For her, leadership is not about power or position: it’s about presence, how people feel around you, and the culture you create when no one is watching.
Client experience
Choosing the right support
These four are often used interchangeably. They’re not the same, and picking the wrong one wastes months.
| Approach | Core question | Best when | Not the right fit when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership coaching | What’s driving how you lead, and what will you do differently? | You have the capability but need clarity, perspective and accountability. | You need technical content taught from scratch. |
| Mentoring | How did someone else do this? | You want guidance from a person who has held your exact role. | You need a neutral thinking partner rather than advice. |
| Training / courses | What do you need to know? | A group needs shared frameworks and a common language. | The challenge is personal, situational or political. |
| Therapy | What needs healing? | Distress, trauma or mental-health concerns are present. | The focus is workplace performance and forward planning. |
Dubai & the UAE
Sessions are held in person at the Start With You office in Jumeirah Lake Towers, at your own workplace, or online — whichever keeps the rhythm going. Leaders travel in from DIFC, Business Bay, Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, Downtown, Deira and Dubai South, and team programmes run on site across the Emirates including Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
Online coaching follows the same structure and suits leaders who travel frequently or lead distributed teams across the GCC, Europe and Asia. Scheduling is built around Gulf working weeks, including early-morning and evening slots.
Phone
Formats
In person · On site · Online
Languages
English
FAQs
Fees depend on the format, the seniority of the leader and whether the engagement is individual or organisation-wide. Six-session and twelve-session programmes are quoted as a package that includes the SDI® assessment, session time and support in between. Share your context on a discovery call and you’ll receive a written proposal with the investment set out clearly.
Most programmes run six to twelve sessions across three to six months, with sessions every two to three weeks. That spacing is deliberate — it leaves room to test new behaviour at work between conversations, which is where the change actually happens.
The methods overlap; the audience differs. Leadership coaching is for managers, team leaders, department heads and founders building a team, including executive leadership coaching for those stepping into a bigger remit. Executive coaching for CEOs and C-suite leaders focuses on board exposure, organisational scale and higher-stakes decisions. If you’re unsure which fits, the discovery call will settle it.
Yes. What you say in session stays in session. When an employer sponsors the coaching, we agree in advance exactly what is reported back — usually attendance and progress against agreed goals, never session content — and you see that agreement before we begin.
Yes. Online sessions follow the same structure as in-person work and suit leaders who travel or lead teams across multiple markets. In-person sessions take place at the Start With You office in JLT, Dubai, and team programmes can run on site at your workplace across the UAE.
Yes. The leadership team programme combines individual SDI® assessments with a facilitated half-day or full-day workshop that maps the team’s collective strengths and conflict patterns, followed by optional one-to-one coaching for each leader and a follow-up session at 90 days.
The first session is your SDI® debrief. We work through your results, connect them to real situations you’re facing, and set clear goals for the programme together. Most leaders leave that session with one thing they can change immediately.
Goals are set at the start in observable terms — the conversation you’ll have, the decision you’ll make differently, the meeting you’ll run another way. We review against those at the mid-point and at the close, and where the organisation is involved, stakeholder input is gathered at both ends.
Insights
Manager or Leader? The Difference That Decides Whether Your Team Stays
Coaching vs Mentoring: Which Does Your Leadership Team Actually Need?
What Is Executive Coaching? A Guide for UAE Business Leaders
Leading Under Pressure: What 20 Years in Aviation Taught Me About Crisis Leadership
Executive Coaching Cost Dubai: 2027 Pricing Guide
