#LifeLessons - Deema Ghata-Aura, Executive Coach for Women on Confidence and Career Pivots

NAME: Deema Ghata-Aura

AGE: 51

INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @confidence_guide_deema

JOB TITLE: Founder and CEO, Criterion Coaching

Deema Ghata-Aura is the founder and CEO of Criterion Coaching, an executive coaching practice based in Dubai and working internationally. 

Her work specializes in helping professional women, particularly expat women in corporate roles, overcome overthinking and build authentic confidence at identity-level.  Her private clients include leaders at organisations such Google, Mastercard, Bain & Company, and the UAE Space Agency. She's an ICF PCC-certified coach, an Energy Leadership™️ Master Practitioner and has a masters in Education where her research focused specifically on expat women in the UAE.

After 15+ years in UK retail finance leadership, Deema made her first pivot to work with young homeless people, then trained as a teacher before discovering her true calling in leadership coaching.

Deema has been recognized as LinkedIn Top Executive Coaching Voice 2024 and has been featured in Fast Company Middle East and Gulf News. An expat in Dubai and the US for 18 years, Deema has built her practice through word-of-mouth referrals, achieving a 90% client promotion rate within six months. She recently turned 51 and is navigating life with teenage children while continuing to evolve her business.

Today Deema, an executive coach for women, shares her 3 biggest life lessons:

#LIFELESSON – 1: Don't be afraid to change

I've never been scared to pivot. From leaving corporate finance where I loved heading a team, to working with young homeless people, to training as a teacher, to becoming an executive coach, each shift happened because I was ready for a new challenge and wanted to make more of a difference. The moves might have looked like big jumps from the outside, but there was always a thread running through them: empowering others. That's my passion, and it's what helps me feel empowered too.

When I left finance, people thought I'd lost my mind. I had an executive role and an excellent salary, a team I genuinely enjoyed leading, and all the markers of success. But I'd wake up knowing there was something else I was meant to do. I worked hard to reflect and work out what was next, and it gave me such a sense of freedom and when I figured it out. I just knew I needed to move toward something that felt more aligned with who I actually was.

Pivots are what intellectually curious people do. They're natural, not failures. Staying stuck in a role that no longer fits just because you've invested years in it doesn't make you committed. It makes you exhausted. The willingness to change when you've outgrown something is a strength, not a weakness.

#LIFELESSON – 2: Don't measure success by others' opinions

One reason I was stuck for so long is that, for years, I was caught in a cycle of people-pleasing and overworking, subconsciously trying to prove I was good enough. I had 17 browser tabs open for every decision, researching what other people thought I should do instead of trusting what I already knew.  I grew up in a culture where "what will people say?" was a constant fear, and unlearning that was very freeing. 

In the early days of my business, I remember sitting in a coffee shop once, paralyzed over whether to post something on LinkedIn. I'd rewritten it five times, checked what other coaches were saying, wondered if it was too personal or not professional enough. Then I realized I was spending more energy managing other people's potential opinions than actually saying anything meaningful. That was the moment I understood that measuring success by external validation was never going to lead anywhere except burnout.

Real change doesn't happen at the level of behavior or strategy. It happens at the level of identity. You can't hack your way to confidence with tips and techniques. You have to build self-trust from the inside out, and that means doing the deeper work of understanding who you are beyond what you do.

The change from seeking external validation to trusting your own answers isn't quick, but it's the only transformation that actually lasts. Once you stop being afraid to be yourself, everything else gets easier, and you start making the difference in the world you were meant to. 

#LIFELESSON – 3: The most important skills in life are awareness and self-trust

...and they are skills many adults have to relearn. Awareness without self-trust keeps you stuck in analysis paralysis, which is where I lived for a long time. Self-trust without awareness becomes arrogance and a lack of empathy. But together, they create the foundation for every meaningful decision you'll ever make, and help you to create a clear voice and energy that can help others for good.  That's why I'm so passionate about women's confidence, because the world needs more brilliant women to lead. 

When I turned 40, more than 10 years ago, I expected to have a mini-crisis and feel some kind of loss. Instead, I felt relief. I finally had permission – from myself –to stop second-guessing, for taking up space, for changing my mind, for knowing what I know.

Getting older has made me more myself, not less. I'm clearer now about what matters and what doesn't, and don't give energy to pretending otherwise!  It's helped me build a life and business I really love.

Awareness and self-trust work together. You need awareness to recognize when something isn't working or when you're living according to someone else's plan. You need self-trust to act on that awareness even when the path forward isn't clear. Once you have both, there's no limit to your impact and sense of fulfillment. 

//

Deema Ghata-Aura is an executive coach for women and can be contacted via her Instagram page @confidence_guide_Deema