Woodthorpe Wright

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Affie Hussein PCC MBA FCCA CPA

Location: Dubai

Affie is an established thought leader and highly respected practitioner in leadership development, change management and performance improvement through Executive Coaching.

Over the last 15 years, he has designed, developed and successfully delivered world class and business aligned Coaching interventions, frameworks and methodologies to drive superior performance and imbed a culture of sustainable competitive advantage in global multinationals.

He has worked closely with internal Human Resource communities to customize strategic and tactical Coaching programmes for their C-suites, senior teams and high potential future leaders, regionally. These programmes have been extremely successful and well acknowledged:

  • ‘I have attended his offices and met several of his clients and can confirm that his coaching sessions have been very well received; strong positive feedback has been provided by his clients who comprised of Finance, Risk, Operations and the Business Functions in multinational organisations.

    On a personal note, I am very impressed by his ability to develop harmonious rapport with his clients. His effective listening skills and the use of clean language during his coaching session enable his clients to identify optimal solutions, and with his help, develop realistic and robust implementation plans to effectively meet their goals and aspirations’.
    Dr. Paul Jeong, ICF MCC, President Asia Coach Centre.

  • “My coaching experience with Affie has been transformational for my own growth and development! I started with the Coach to define a clear career goal to achieve within a specific timeframe. Then we identified areas that might hinder the progress towards the goal. These areas could include better engagement with outside stakeholders as well as self-improvement on a multitude of generalist or specialist skills. With such a well-defined plan, we maintained a weekly coaching schedule and progressed steadily towards the goal.

    The coaching has improved my areas of weaknesses. More importantly, the coaching has strengthened my confidence in areas of strength. The positivity of the process is sustaining my stretch to become a better and more productive professional helping deliver the $1bn profit before 2014 in China”.
    Dr. Ning ZHU: Country Basel II Project Director, Standard Chartered Bank.

Affie is a regular contributor to the key publications and conferences focusing on talent acquisition and development. Most recently he has been published in the ACCA and Mercer ‘global challenges and opportunities’ series, where he shares his Coaching approach on how to:

  • Acquire, develop and retain the ‘Generation Y’ talent pool
  • Transform the C-suite CFO to a “Strategic Finance Entrepreneur”

Affie studied with the world renowned Dr. Paul Jeong (Master Certified Coach/established author) and graduated in 1st position from the AsiaCoach programmes. He currently holds the PCC certification (Professional Certified Coach) from the International Coaching Federation (USA) and has been invited to present his coaching frameworks at numerous conferences. In addition, he has several other Coaching certifications, inter alia; GALLUP Strength finder, MBTI, DISC and the HR Directors and Leadership Post Graduate Certification from Cornell University (USA).

Affie is passionate about people development and has recently designed, developed and delivered an executive level Master class series “Coaching for Success – Individuals and their Teams” for a large international bank. This series is subsequently to be published as an action learning book; initially in English and Korean.

He is an MBA graduate (awarded the Lloyds TSB Group PLC scholarship at London CASS Business School and graduated in top 5%), a Qualified Accountant, Certified Change & Project Management Professional (USA, Europe and Singapore) with extensive experience in a range of extremely challenging and culturally diverse environments, where he has successfully delivered highly visible and strategically important cross border, culturally driven Coaching programmes.

Previously, Affie has held senior roles in London, Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai for established global multinationals. He is married; his wife is a senior C-suite finance executive for a global multinational. They are based in Dubai, London and Tuscany, Italy.

From The Blog

The action of challenge has been a recurring theme for me in recent days. I had forgotten how important it is to be challenged and to challenge others. Growth is dependent on this dynamic and as leaders we can forget that this is a powerful way to motivate, excite, engage, intensify and wake-up the talent around us. As leaders we must expand our range of styles in this domain of challenge.  

Busyness and action are the bywords of our current lives. There is no room for space/emptiness/quietness/nothingness. These seem to be the enemy that no one is prepared to succumb to, so we fight it off by always being on the go, most of it in the name of productivity. 

Sir John Whitmore shares a true story of a key moment of awakening that created a positive powerful engagement of his true capabilities. Speaking here at the recent ICF European Conference 2011, Sir John is considered one of the founders of the modern coaching industry. 

In a joint initiative aimed at self-regulation, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) and the International Coach Federation (ICF) today file with the European Union a common Code of Conduct as the benchmark standard for the coaching and mentoring industry.

 

Our interview today gives great insight into the challenge faced by all leaders in the Middle East namely, ‘how to adapt our leadership style to this specific market with specific nuances’.  

The ‘Executive Next Level’ interview this week is with a top US executive coach. The content is about leadership and the challenges being faced by those people leading organisations in the US as well as thoughts on the key steps we can and should take in stepping up in our leadership of self and others. 

This is the percentage of Middle East Professionals who are looking for a change in career. The recent poll by Bayt.com has highlighted the large gap that exists between employees and their engagement or commitment in their current organisations. 

Yesterday we were invited to speak at the Dubai Financial HR Forum. As people that are passionate about coaching it is great to be able to engage with this high level of HR experience in global organisations and see that coaching has a critical role to play.  

Following a fantastic event in Paris last year I will be attending the ICF conference in Madrid this year.  This is where the leading coaches in Europe convene to talk about and share coaching practices and thinking. 

31st May-1st June 2011
For the first time in the Middle East a conference dedicated solely to Coaching is being run in Kuwait. Woodthorpe Wright Associates have been invited to speak at the conference due to our extensive regional experience in this arena.