FROM CORPORATE CORRIDORS TO CONSCIOUS COACHING: THE AWAKENING OF PURPOSE
In a world where burnout has become a badge of honor and emotional suppression is often mistaken for professionalism, one leader chose a radically different path. Muna Zahir’s journey from sixteen years in corporate aviation to becoming an emotional intelligence practitioner wasn’t a career pivot. It was an awakening.
Her story begins not in a coaching certification program, but in the bustling terminals and high-pressure commercial divisions of Oman Air. There, surrounded by diverse cultures, demanding customers, and complex team dynamics, she found herself increasingly captivated not by performance metrics or revenue targets, but by something far more fundamental: human behavior.
“Over time, I became deeply interested not just in performance or results, but in human behavior,” Muna reflects. “How people communicate under pressure, how emotions influence decisions, and how unspoken dynamics shape workplaces and relationships.”
This curiosity would eventually lead her to one of the most difficult decisions of her life: resigning from a stable, successful corporate career in early 2024. But before that leap came a quieter revolution. In 2023, she enrolled in an emotional intelligence course, not with ambitions of coaching others, but driven by pure curiosity about herself.
“At that time, my intention was not to become a coach. I wanted to understand myself better, explore my own emotional patterns, and learn a language for what I had been observing for years,” she explains.
What followed was a period of intentional silence and self-discovery. Even after becoming certified, Muna chose to keep her training private. She understood something that many rush past in their eagerness to help others: you cannot guide others through emotional terrain you haven’t navigated yourself.
“I felt it was important to first practice the skills on myself, to rebuild, recalibrate, and truly live the principles of emotional intelligence before guiding others,” she shares. That period of inner work became the foundation for everything that followed.
Today, Muna’s motivation springs from a simple but powerful conviction: emotional intelligence and mental health are no longer optional luxuries. They are essential life skills. In a fast-paced, demanding world, our ability to understand ourselves, regulate our emotions, and relate consciously to others determines not only our success, but our wellbeing.
THE CLASSROOM OF LIFE: WHERE MOTHERHOOD MEETS LEADERSHIP
If corporate life sparked Muna’s curiosity about human behavior, it was motherhood that taught her resilience in its most raw and honest form. The experience of raising children became an unexpected masterclass in emotional regulation, patience, and presence.
“Becoming a mother taught me resilience in its most human form,” Muna reflects. “It requires presence, patience, and emotional regulation, often in moments when exhaustion or overwhelm could easily take over.”
Motherhood revealed a fundamental truth that would later become central to her coaching philosophy: emotions are not obstacles to overcome but signals to understand. The late-night feedings, the toddler meltdowns, the juggling of competing needs, all of it demanded a kind of emotional awareness that no corporate training had ever taught her.
“Motherhood made me acutely aware of how emotions can quietly influence our reactions, decisions, and the energy we bring into our relationships,” she explains. “It showed me that resilience is not about suppressing emotions, but about understanding them and responding with intention.”
This personal revelation found its professional counterpart in her leadership roles across various teams and situations. Managing people meant navigating pressure, expectations, and diverse emotional landscapes, both her own and those of her team members. Through these experiences, she discovered that leadership is fundamentally about emotional clarity rather than authority.
“The ability to pause, self-regulate, and remain aware of what emotions are present, especially during challenging moments, can completely change outcomes,” Muna observes.
Whether as a mother or a leader, she learned that our emotions can either unconsciously control us or become valuable signals that guide us toward more conscious, compassionate responses. This understanding continues to fuel her work today, helping individuals build emotional resilience by first learning to listen to, rather than fight, their inner emotional world.
REDEFINING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: AWARENESS AS THE FOUNDATION
Ask Muna to define emotional intelligence, and you won’t get a textbook answer. Instead, you’ll hear something beautifully simple yet profoundly practical.
“For me, emotional intelligence is really about awareness,” she begins. “It’s the ability to recognize and understand your own emotions, while also being aware of what others might be feeling. It’s not about controlling emotions or pretending to be positive all the time. It’s about learning how to regulate them and respond with empathy.”
This perspective matters especially now, as workplaces and communities navigate unprecedented complexity. People operate under constant pressure, dealing with uncertainty while collaborating across diverse teams and geographies. When emotional awareness is missing, stress quickly transforms into miscommunication, conflict, or complete burnout.
What Muna has witnessed repeatedly is that emotionally intelligent environments create something invaluable: trust and psychological safety. In workplaces, this manifests as healthier leadership, better collaboration, and more thoughtful decision-making. Beyond organizational walls, it helps communities communicate with greater empathy, particularly during challenging times.
“At the end of the day, emotional intelligence helps us respond rather than react,” she emphasizes. “It allows us to stay human in demanding environments and build relationships that are sustainable, not just productive.”
This distinction between responding and reacting forms the cornerstone of her coaching approach, a subtle shift with transformative implications.
THE PRACTITIONER’S PHILOSOPHY: FOUR PILLARS OF TRANSFORMATION
Muna’s approach to coaching and training rests on four core principles, each born from her own journey of self-discovery and professional experience.
The first principle centers on awareness as the prerequisite for change. Without understanding our emotional patterns or triggers, growth remains superficial at best. Much of her work involves helping people slow down, pause, and reflect on how emotions influence their thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. In a world that celebrates speed and decisiveness, this invitation to slowness can feel radical.
Her second guiding principle emphasizes practice over theory. Emotional intelligence isn’t something to merely understand intellectually. It’s a skill that must be lived. Whether working one-on-one or with groups, she encourages people to apply emotional intelligence principles in their daily interactions, leadership moments, and decision-making processes. Knowledge without application remains inert.
Personal responsibility forms the third pillar. While we cannot control what happens around us, we always have control over how we respond. This shift from blame to ownership often marks the beginning of real emotional resilience. It’s a challenging transition, requiring individuals to release the comfortable story of victimhood and embrace the more demanding role of conscious participant in their own lives.
Finally, compassion serves as the essential container for all growth. Judgment creates contraction; compassion creates space for exploration and change.
“Growth doesn’t happen through judgment,” Muna explains. “It happens when people feel safe, supported, and accepted. I try to create spaces where individuals can explore their emotional world honestly, without pressure, because when people feel seen and understood, real and lasting change becomes possible.”
These four principles work together to create an environment where transformation isn’t forced but invited, where change emerges from understanding rather than willpower alone.
LEADERSHIP REIMAGINED: THE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IMPERATIVE
Muna holds strong convictions about the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. In her view, emotional intelligence fundamentally shapes how leaders respond under pressure, relate to people, and make decisions.
Leaders with developed emotional intelligence possess greater awareness of their internal states, especially during high-stress situations. This awareness creates a crucial pause between stimulus and response, allowing them to choose their actions rather than react impulsively.
These leaders also excel at reading the emotional climate of their teams. They spot tension or disengagement early and address it before it escalates into larger problems. This sensitivity builds trust and psychological safety, which directly impacts collaboration and performance.
This theme features prominently in her upcoming book on leadership, scheduled for publication later this year. The book focuses on emotional intelligence in leadership and addresses numerous misconceptions about what true leadership actually requires, supported by concrete examples from her experience and research.
The traditional model of leadership, with its emphasis on decisiveness, strength, and emotional distance, is giving way to something more nuanced and ultimately more effective. The leaders who will thrive in increasingly complex environments are those who can navigate their own emotional landscapes while creating space for others to do the same.
THE MODERN PROFESSIONAL’S BURDEN: NAMING THE INVISIBLE CHALLENGES
Through her coaching practice, Muna has identified patterns in the emotional and mental health challenges professionals face today. Many experience ongoing emotional overload driven by constant pressure and relentless expectations. This leads to stress, burnout, and emotional disconnection as emotions get pushed aside in the name of productivity.
Another pervasive challenge involves the absence of boundaries and emotional regulation in fast-paced, always-connected work environments. When emotional awareness is low, stress manifests through reactive communication, reduced motivation, and strained relationships both at work and home.
At the core of many struggles lies limited emotional literacy. Professionals often lack the vocabulary and frameworks to understand what they’re experiencing emotionally. They know they feel bad but cannot articulate why or what to do about it.
“Developing emotional intelligence helps professionals understand their emotions, build resilience, and protect their mental wellbeing in a sustainable way,” Muna notes.
This isn’t about adding more self-help practices to already overflowing schedules. It’s about fundamentally changing how we relate to our emotional experiences so that we can navigate challenges with greater skill and less suffering.
BRIDGING PERFORMANCE AND WELLBEING: THE ORGANIZATIONAL IMPERATIVE
When asked how organizations can proactively support mental wellbeing while maintaining performance and productivity, Muna’s answer challenges common assumptions.
“One of the most important things organizations can do is stop treating mental wellbeing as a separate initiative and start integrating it into their culture,” she states clearly. “When wellbeing shows up in leadership behavior, communication, and everyday practices, performance becomes much more sustainable.”
Emotionally intelligent leadership plays a crucial role in this integration. When leaders model self-awareness, empathy, and healthy boundaries, they create psychological safety. This makes it easier for people to speak up, manage pressure, and perform without burning out.
Organizations also need to recognize a fundamental truth: productivity is driven by energy, not exhaustion. Encouraging realistic expectations, regular pauses, and clear boundaries helps people stay focused and engaged over time rather than sprinting toward inevitable collapse.
“When organizations see mental wellbeing as a performance enabler rather than a cost, they create environments where people can truly do their best work,” Muna explains.
This perspective shift from wellbeing as expense to wellbeing as investment has profound implications for how organizations structure work, measure success, and develop their people.
THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CONNECTION: EMOTION AS STRATEGY
Muna’s sixteen years in customer experience and loyalty programs at Oman Air provided unique insights into how emotional intelligence enhances customer experience strategies. She discovered that emotional intelligence powerfully transforms customer experience by shifting the focus from transactions to human connection.
Systems and loyalty programs matter, but what truly builds customer loyalty is how customers feel during their interactions with a brand. Emotionally intelligent teams excel at reading customer emotions and responding with empathy, especially during high-stress or service recovery moments. Those moments are where trust is either built or lost.
“When emotional intelligence is embedded into customer experience strategies, organizations move beyond scripted service,” Muna observes. “Employees feel empowered to listen, stay regulated, and create meaningful experiences that customers remember long after the interaction ends.”
Emotional awareness plays a particularly vital role in building trust and long-term customer loyalty. It allows organizations to respond to customers as people, not just transactions. When teams pick up on emotional cues like frustration or anxiety, they can adjust their tone and approach in ways that feel respectful and genuinely human.
Trust grows when customers feel heard, especially during challenging moments. Emotional awareness helps employees stay regulated under pressure and resolve issues with empathy rather than defensiveness. Over time, these interactions build credibility.
“Customers may forget the details, but they always remember how a brand made them feel,” Muna notes, “and that emotional memory is what drives long-term loyalty.”
NAVIGATING TRIGGERS: TOOLS FOR HIGH-PRESSURE ENVIRONMENTS
Helping individuals identify and manage emotional triggers in high-pressure professional environments forms a significant part of Muna’s coaching work. Her approach begins with building awareness, recognizing that emotional triggers lose their power once they are recognized.
In high-pressure environments, reactions often happen automatically. The first step involves learning to pause and notice what emotions arise, in what situations, and why. This seemingly simple practice requires consistent effort and creates the foundation for everything that follows.
From awareness, the work moves to understanding the meaning behind triggers. Rather than judging emotional reactions, Muna encourages individuals to view them as signals, often pointing to unmet needs, values, or boundaries. This shift alone reduces reactivity significantly.
The final focus centers on regulation and choice. Through simple, practical tools, individuals learn how to ground themselves in the moment, respond with intention, and communicate more clearly under pressure.
“The goal is not to eliminate emotion, but to use emotional awareness as a guide for more effective and conscious action,” she explains.
This approach acknowledges that we cannot and should not try to become emotionless robots. Instead, we can develop the capacity to work skillfully with our emotions rather than being unconsciously driven by them.
BRIDGING THE GAP: WHERE AWARENESS MEETS ACTION
Despite growing global mental health awareness, Muna observes that significant gaps remain in how organizations approach mental wellbeing. Many organizations struggle to transform awareness into meaningful action. Wellbeing initiatives often exist on paper but aren’t reflected in leadership behavior, workload expectations, or everyday culture.
One major gap involves treating mental wellbeing as an individual responsibility instead of a shared one. Employees receive encouragement to be resilient while working in environments that reward overwork and constant availability. This disconnect creates frustration and cynicism.
Another overlooked area is emotional skills development. Many organizations focus on policies but neglect emotional literacy, helping people recognize stress, regulate emotions, and communicate under pressure. Policies matter, but they cannot substitute for capability building.
“For wellbeing to be truly sustainable, organizations need to align intention with practice, leadership with policy, and performance with humanity,” Muna emphasizes.
This alignment requires courage and commitment. It means leaders must model the behaviors they want to see rather than simply mandating them through policy documents.
CREATING PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY: THE LEADER’S DAILY PRACTICE
Leaders create psychologically safe environments through their everyday behaviors rather than through policies or statements. When leaders demonstrate emotional awareness and speak openly about challenges, they give others permission to do the same.
Muna recalls a powerful personal example of this principle in action. After a tense incident with her manager, she took the initiative to have a one-on-one conversation, gently reflecting back how his reaction may have been perceived and explaining its potential impact on the team. She also suggested a book that had helped her personally, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff… and It’s All Small Stuff.”
“That experience reinforced for me that psychological safety isn’t built through policies,” she reflects. “It’s built through everyday leadership behavior.”
Leaders who respond to mistakes with curiosity instead of blame create fundamentally different team dynamics. When feedback is handled with respect and emotions are acknowledged, especially under pressure, people feel safer to speak up, and trust grows naturally.
It’s also crucial for leaders to listen without immediately trying to fix things. Creating space for honest dialogue and responding with empathy signals that mental health conversations are genuinely welcome rather than merely tolerated.
These daily micro-behaviors accumulate over time to create cultures where people can bring their whole selves to work without fear of judgment or punishment.
BUILDING RESILIENCE: THE POWER OF SMALL, CONSISTENT PRACTICES
When asked about practical daily habits for building emotional resilience and balance, Muna emphasizes that resilience, like any skill, is built through small, consistent practices rather than dramatic changes.
One of the most important practices involves pausing and taking brief moments throughout the day to check in with your emotional state. This means noticing what you’re feeling without judgment, creating a simple awareness that prevents emotions from accumulating unconsciously.
Another key habit centers on learning to regulate before responding. Simple techniques such as conscious breathing or stepping away from emotionally charged situations help create space between stimulus and reaction. This space is where balance begins and where conscious choice becomes possible.
Setting clear boundaries proves equally essential. Protecting time for rest, reflection, and personal priorities supports emotional energy and prevents chronic overwhelm. In cultures that celebrate constant availability, boundary-setting can feel rebellious, yet it remains necessary for sustainable performance.
Finally, practicing self-compassion matters deeply. Resilience grows when we treat ourselves with the same understanding we offer others, especially during challenging days.
“Balance is not about perfection, but about returning to alignment again and again,” Muna observes, offering a refreshingly realistic view of what emotional wellbeing actually requires.
THE CULTURAL DIMENSION: NAVIGATING EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION ACROSS DIFFERENCES
Cultural values exert strong influence on how emotions are expressed and interpreted at work. In some cultures, showing emotion signals authenticity and connection. In others, emotional restraint represents professionalism and respect. These differences can create significant misunderstandings in diverse workplaces.
Emotional intelligence becomes especially important in multicultural environments. When leaders and teams develop awareness of these differences, particularly around communication and feedback styles, they reduce misunderstanding and build trust across cultural lines.
Culturally aware emotional intelligence helps create inclusive environments where different emotional expression styles are respected rather than judged as right or wrong. This requires curiosity about cultural norms and humility about one’s own cultural assumptions.
“Emotional intelligence in diverse workplaces means recognizing that there are multiple valid ways of expressing and processing emotion,” Muna explains, highlighting how emotional intelligence serves as a bridge across cultural differences.
MINDSET SHIFTS: THE FOUNDATION OF PERSONAL GROWTH
For individuals seeking emotional and personal growth, Muna identifies several crucial mindset shifts. The first involves moving from reaction to awareness. Personal growth begins when individuals stop identifying completely with their emotions and start observing them with curiosity rather than judgment.
This doesn’t mean detaching from emotions or pretending they don’t matter. It means developing enough space between ourselves and our emotional experiences to choose how we respond rather than being automatically driven by whatever we feel in the moment.
Another key shift involves taking responsibility instead of seeking control. Accepting that we cannot change others but can change how we respond creates emotional freedom and resilience. This shift releases enormous energy previously spent trying to control the uncontrollable.
Finally, embracing growth as a continuous process rather than a destination allows individuals to approach challenges with compassion, patience, and openness. The destination mindset creates constant disappointment. The journey mindset creates possibility.
These shifts sound simple but require ongoing practice and recommitment, especially during difficult times when old patterns exert their strongest pull.
BALANCING EMPATHY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: THE LEADER’S PARADOX
One of the most common questions Muna receives involves how to balance empathy and compassion with accountability in leadership and coaching. Her answer challenges the assumption that these exist in tension.
“Empathy and accountability aren’t opposites,” she explains. “They actually strengthen each other when balanced well.”
Empathy helps leaders understand context and emotions, while accountability provides clarity, responsibility, and direction. By acknowledging emotions without excusing unhelpful behavior, leaders build trust while maintaining standards. Compassion offers support, and accountability keeps things moving forward.
When people feel both understood and clearly guided, they’re more likely to take ownership, grow, and perform at their best. The key lies in refusing to choose between caring about people and holding them accountable. Effective leaders do both simultaneously.
This balanced approach creates cultures where people feel supported in their humanity while also being called to their highest potential.
FUTURE-READY LEADERSHIP: THE ESSENTIAL EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Looking ahead, Muna believes future leaders will need specific emotional intelligence skills to succeed in increasingly complex environments. Strong self-awareness and emotional regulation top the list, particularly as leaders navigate constant change and uncertainty. The ability to manage pressure, stay grounded, and respond rather than react will prove essential.
Empathy remains equally important, especially when paired with clarity. Leaders need to understand different perspectives while communicating expectations with transparency and respect. Empathy without clarity creates confusion. Clarity without empathy creates resistance.
Ultimately, adaptability, particularly emotional agility, will define leadership success in increasingly complex and human-centered environments. The pace of change will only accelerate, and leaders who can stay emotionally balanced while navigating ambiguity will create significant competitive advantage for their organizations.
Her upcoming book on leadership will explore these themes in depth, providing concrete frameworks and examples for developing these capabilities.
MEASURING WHAT MATTERS: THE IMPACT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TRAINING
The question of how to measure emotional intelligence training impact within organizations reveals Muna’s pragmatic approach. Rather than relying on a single metric, she looks for behavioral and cultural shifts that indicate genuine transformation.
Common indicators include improved engagement, healthier feedback conversations, reduced reactivity, and stronger trust within teams. Leaders often report clearer decision-making and more conscious responses under stress. Team members describe feeling more heard and supported.
“When emotional intelligence is working, the environment feels different,” Muna observes. “Conversations are more respectful, accountability is clearer, and performance becomes more sustainable.”
This qualitative approach acknowledges that the most important outcomes resist easy quantification. Changed relationships, increased trust, and improved wellbeing create measurable business results, but the mechanisms connecting them involve human dynamics too complex for simple metrics.
PRACTICAL WISDOM: PRIORITIZING WELLBEING IN DEMANDING LIVES
For professionals struggling to prioritize mental wellbeing amid career and life pressures, Muna offers practical, compassionate advice rooted in realism rather than idealism.
“Start by reframing mental wellbeing as a foundation, not a luxury,” she begins. “You cannot sustain performance or fulfillment without caring for your emotional and mental health.”
The invitation is to begin with small, intentional practices: pausing regularly, setting boundaries, and checking in with yourself. Transformation doesn’t require changing everything at once. Consistency matters more than intensity.
Most importantly, she encourages people to give themselves permission to slow down and seek support when needed.
“Prioritizing wellbeing is not a weakness,” she emphasizes. “It’s a long-term investment in both your career and your life.”
This permission-giving feels especially important in cultures that celebrate busyness and self-sacrifice. Choosing wellbeing in such environments requires courage and conviction.
THE FUTURE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: FROM SOFT SKILL TO CORE CAPABILITY
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Muna sees emotional intelligence moving from being perceived as a soft skill to recognition as a core organizational capability. As workplaces become more complex, diverse, and technology-driven, the human element will require much more intention and skill.
Organizations will increasingly depend on emotionally intelligent leadership to manage change, uncertainty, and wellbeing without compromising performance. Emotional intelligence will also prove key in building trust, inclusion, and ethical decision-making in environments where these qualities face constant pressure.
“Those organizations that invest in emotional intelligence won’t just retain talent,” Muna predicts. “They’ll create cultures that are resilient, adaptive, and deeply human.”
This vision offers hope in a moment when many people feel increasingly disconnected from their work, their colleagues, and themselves. Emotional intelligence provides a pathway back to connection and meaning.
A LEGACY OF AWARENESS: TRANSFORMING HOW WE LIVE AND LEAD
When asked about the legacy she hopes to create through her work, Muna’s answer reveals both humility and ambition. She wants emotional intelligence and mental health to be seen as essential life skills, not just professional tools. She hopes individuals will feel empowered to understand themselves, regulate their emotions, and live with greater awareness and balance.
On a broader level, she aspires for her journey to contribute to healthier workplaces and communities where empathy, responsibility, and conscious communication form part of everyday culture rather than aspirational ideals.
“If people walk away from my work feeling more grounded, self-aware, and capable of responding to life with intention rather than reaction, that would be a legacy worth creating,” she reflects.
This legacy extends beyond any single coaching engagement or training program. It lives in the ripple effects of individuals who learn to pause before reacting, leaders who create psychologically safe environments, and organizations that genuinely prioritize human wellbeing alongside performance.
Muna Zahir’s journey from corporate professional to emotional intelligence practitioner demonstrates that the most meaningful career transitions often begin with curiosity about ourselves. Her sixteen years in aviation provided the raw material, her personal experiences as a mother and leader refined her understanding, and her commitment to her own growth gave her the credibility to guide others.
In an era when emotional burnout threatens to become the default state for professionals worldwide, her work offers something increasingly precious: a pathway to sustainable performance and genuine wellbeing. By helping individuals and organizations develop emotional intelligence, she contributes to a future where success and humanity need not exist in tension.
The question facing workplaces and communities now is not whether emotional intelligence matters, but whether we will invest in developing it before the costs of ignoring it become unbearable. Leaders like Muna are showing the way forward, one conscious breath, one intentional pause, one emotionally intelligent response at a time.
