In a world often obsessed with the titles, speed and performance charts than define leadership, Hayssam Al Amine brings something else, something profound. His philosophy doesn’t start with strategy decks or KPIs. It begins with a question:
What makes human beings rise?
For over 20 years Hayssam, CEO of Resource Performance Management (RPM), executive coach, psychometric specialist, speaker and author has been on a quest to discover one. The mission of his life is this: to change the world. One person at a time.
From boardrooms in Dubai to leadership teams throughout the GCC, Asia and Nth Africa, he has supported leaders to clarity, purpose and emotional mastery. His influence is not loud; it is deep. People come into his sessions feeling uncertain, overwhelmed or disconnected and come out seeing themselves differently. And as Hayssam likes to say, Change starts in the brain before it appears in performance.
His and RPM’s stories both stemmed from this conviction.
A Vision That Started With a Question
Hayssam’s path did not start with an intention to become an executive coach. It started with a fascination with human greatness.
Even in the early days of his career, he saw something others didn’t: a lot of really successful people were underperforming, not because they lacked talent and skill, but because they lacked self-belief, clarity or emotional congruence.
I’ve always had a certain faith that people are able to do much more than they know, he remembers thinking. They just need the right mirror. I wanted to create that mirror when I created RPM.
That belief became RPM’s foundation. Today, the Dubai headquartered firm is known for its psychologically-grounded devleopment programs, it’s 9-Step Methodology and delivery of corporate turnaround results across continents.
But at its core, RPM has always been personal: growth, one brain at a time.
One turning point took place at a leadership workshop where he was leading in the early days. A room of disillusioned professionals turning, one honest conversation, one mindset change and one epiphany at a time.
It wasn’t that I gave them answers, he recalled. It was because I helped them ask the questions and brought value to what they were doing.
And in that moment, his mission became clear.
The Power of a Changed Mind
Transformation as a strategy Most organizations tell researchers that they are already trying to do better. Change, for Hayssam, is an inside job.
Change doesn’t start in institutions, it starts in minds, he says. His is a straightforward and radical philosophy:
When people learn to think better, they lead better, live better and create better.
This conviction inspired him to start his podcast, The Ripple Effect, which unravels the psychology of leadership, the bravery behind change and the emotional patterns that shape human behavior. Listeners call it grounding and awakening all at once heady, entertaining and soulful.
His latest book, Leading the New Gen Z – How to Lead the Generation That Refuses to Be Managed, is a groundbreaking guide that equips leaders to understand the mindset, expectations, and emotional intelligence required to effectively lead a generation that is reshaping modern workplaces worldwide.
A Journey of Emotions and The Ultimate Guide for Today’s Modern Leaders, are his next books that go further into emotional intelligence, awareness, resilience, and the modern leadership mindset.
In each chapter, keynote and program Hayssam challenges the same truth of:
- Transformation starts inside.
- Leadership starts within.
- Impact begins with awareness.
What Distinguishes the Most Impactful Leaders?
In nearly four decades of coaching leaders around the globe, Hayssam has seen a trend:
- The highest-performing leaders are not necessarily the stereotypical strong leaders, those who are bold and hard-charging.
- They balance ambition with empathy.
- They share eloquently and lovingly.
- They don’t lead down from the top; they don’t lead by hierarchy.
- It’s not about being in charge, he says. It’s about taking care of the people you’re in charge of.
His coaching also encourages the executives to see beyond performance metrics and re-engage with the people behind them. Using his psychometric expertise and knowledge from behavioral science, he enables teams to identify covert strengths, blind spots and emotional triggers that are limiting them.
Emotional intelligence, he says, is no longer a soft skill. It is the strategic heart of contemporary success, the difference between leaders who flame out and leaders who leave legacy.
Smashing Mental Barriers, One Truth at a Time
Ironically, even though they hold titles, many executives fight the same internal conflicts:
the fear of failure, the fear of judgment, imposter syndrome and the pressure to prove themselves.
People wear confidence as armor, he says, but most of them are struggling.
His job is not to make them stronger.
His job is to help them become more honest, because honesty is where growth starts.
He teaches leaders that growth isn’t about becoming someone new; it’s about returning to who we truly are.
One of the most radical changes he encourages is to shift from achievement to significance:
Success is building something for yourself. Significance is what you create for other people.
He believes that the shift is at the core of every meaningful legacy.
Coaching and Leading in the Asian Century Miracle Shanghai India Still Standing The Other Middle East Coaching Across Cultures Global perspective with local Heart
Hayssam, who has spent time at the helm in both the GCC, Asia and North Africa knows that top level management is certainly not a template fill-in-the-blanks process.
Culture shapes trust.
Culture shapes expectations.
Culture shapes communication.
Leadership is extremely relational in the Arab world, he says. People follow authenticity before authority.
His coaching combines world-class success strategies with ‘cultural intelligence’ so the principles he teaches are not only effective but can be used in context.
For individuals, his method is introspective. For corporations, it is systemic. The RPM 9-Step Methodology guarantees that personal breakthrough translates into organizational alignment and measurable performance.
And with his psychological background, he goes much deeper than mere motivation. In his sessions, he merges cognitive reframing, behavioral science, emotional mastery and leadership strategy for an ecological approach to development.
Because as he puts it:
Learning is only as valuable as it is applied.
Moments That Redefine Organizations
One of his many corporate triumphs is especially memorable.
A high-profile organization in the UAE was having major issues with silos, inactivity and low morale. Teams weren’t talking to each other, leaders were exhausted and performance was stuck.
Hayssam created a change journey that started with leadership mindset work and has continued into a new learning and sociocultural ecosystem.
Within months:
- engagement scores increased
- joint work got better
- productivity surged
- reinforced leadership alignment
These youth, they were not only learning new skills, he says. They became new leaders.
It was a reminder of his most profound belief:
- When people grow, companies transform.
- When companies transform, cultures elevate.
- And where cultures rise, nations follow.
Emotional Mastery: The Next Evolution of Leadership
Today’s leaders are experiencing unique challenges – volatility, multicultural teams, generational changes and emotional exhaustion.
To do that, Hayssam coaches leaders to master three key superpowers:
Reflective awareness — being aware of what is driving your actions
Controlling energy, not suppressing emotions
Empathic decision making — balance of heart and head
Those are, in his mind, what make up the modern leader.
And they are the basis for his forthcoming book, The Ultimate Guide for Today’s Modern Leaders — a blueprint to leadership in an age when emotions create engagement, and engagement creates success.
How to Stay True Man on the Inside in a World that Undermines You
As an author, CEO, coach, speaker and trainer, people often wonder how he stays grounded.
And the response to that question is honest and simple:
Gratitude keeps me grounded. My family keeps me human. My clients keep me inspired.
He’s not interested in impressing people, only in impacting them. The most influential thing, he says, is to be real.
Resilience: The Quiet Power Behind Leaders
For Hayssam, resilience isn’t about the unshaken. It’s about being created by difficulty.
Every adversity is a university, he says. The best leaders in my experience are those people that have been able to turn their pain into purpose.
He has watched leaders teetering on burnout transform themselves into more powerful, more gentle, and more influential versions of themselves.
Resilience is not coercion; resilience is emergence.
A Mission Founded on a Profound Truth
Only when Hayssam, who says he aims to change the world one person at a time, he really does.
He is convinced that transforming one human has a silent ripple effect through families, teams, companies and communities.
When one sees themselves different, he says,
they lead different and they love different, the communicate differently.
- That’s how change spreads.
- It is the heart of his work.
- It is the soul of his legacy.
The Future of Leadership Development
In the future, Hayssam foresees an industry in which coaching sits at the crossroad of tech and depth.
The future is AI + EI, he explains to me.
AI meets Emotional Intelligence.
Technology will accelerate learning.
But humanity will never be replaced.
The best coaches will use data to inform empathy, not replace it.
Advice for Coaches and Leaders in the Making:
His advice may be straightforward but it is potent:
Never coach for applause. Coach for awakening.
Stay authentic.
Keep learning.
And keep in mind: People emulate how you make them feel.
There’s no such thing as impact based on information, he says, impact is about connection.
A Legacy of Awakening
When you ask him what he would like his legacy to be, his voice takes on a soft clarity:
That I inspired people to realize how great they can be, instead of diminishing them.
That by way of RPM, my books and The Ripple Effect, I inspired a generation to lead with humanity, not ego.
He never set out to build a big company.
He aimed to make better people.
And that might be the most important ripple of all.
