How Akbar Sultan Helps Women Leaders Find Their Voice and Rise

 In this inspiring episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Kevin sits down with Akbar Sultan, founder of Akbar Sultan Coaching, to explore his journey from accidental leader to full-time coach. With over 30 years as an HR executive, Akbar shares how his passion for developing high-performing teams evolved into a mission to empower women leaders in male-dominated industries. He opens up about coaching strategies, emotional intelligence, pricing challenges, and the importance of servant leadership. Akbar also reveals his goals for the next phase of his coaching career — from launching a podcast to becoming a TEDx speaker. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in leadership, coaching, and authentic transformation.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akbar-sultan-mba/
Website: https://akbarsultancoaching.com/

Transcript

Akbar Sultan: 0:00

So right now, since I've only been dedicated to coaching as a main vocation since the beginning of the year. So I'm still in the early stages, but I think the answer would be all of the above. So for example, one female executive that was who was promoted from a senior director to a VP level position, the organization had no training for her. And the expectations at the VP level are significantly different than they are at a director level. So she was trying to figure out how to go about this. Somebody referred her to me. We had a good conversation. And then I ended up coaching her for the better part of two years.

Davis Nguyen : 0:35

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Wynne, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Kevin: 1:06

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Kevin, and today we're joined by Akbar Sultan. He's been a coach for about eight years. He is the founder of Akbar Sultan Coaching. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show, Akbar. Thank you, Kevin. Great to be here. Yeah. Well, I definitely want one of the things I like to do before starting the podcast is getting to the origin story, the lore. So let's start at the very beginning. What got you into coaching and turned into a business?

Akbar Sultan: 1:35

You know, so I think it was fortuitous. I was uh in between jobs, and one of my prior colleagues knew that I had a deep passion for developing people and creating high-performance teams. So she mentioned this program that she had attended in um Santa Barbara, California. It's known as the Hudson Institute of Coaching. And I thought about it, reflected on it, and it really sort of lined up very nicely with my desire to do coaching because I personally consider myself an accidental leader. There was no formal coaching on how I sort of went through my career. So I had this desire to do this intentionally. So I went through the interview process, a selection process with the Hudson Institute. I was selected and I did that sort of as a side hustle for seven years, off hours, mornings, evenings, weekends. And then earlier this year, I decided to make it my main main vocation.

Kevin: 2:29

What led to that decision, by the way?

Akbar Sultan: 2:31

Yeah, it's interesting. Sometimes people who are close to you see things and hear things that you don't. So my wife, uh, I've been working remotely for the last several years, and she said, You sound so much happier when you're coaching. And I knew that instinctively, but I just hadn't acted on it. So after that feedback and my own thinking, I realized this is what I want to do. This is how I want to spend the rest of my career. So it was an intentional decision, and she supported me through that process. So I owe it a lot of this to her.

Kevin: 3:01

I love that. Sometimes there's that saying, sometimes you can't read the label from inside the bottle. So it's funny that your wife noticed now. That's a good one, exactly. That's right. What about coaching makes it so fulfilling for you? Why do you feel like it makes you happier?

Akbar Sultan: 3:16

You know, so I've had a 30-plus year career in as an HR executive, mostly not-for-profit healthcare. And I was really sort of amazed that organizations follow what I would call excellence by accident in developing leaders rather than excellence by design. There's usually no formal training. There are obviously companies that do this and do this well, but most that I was a part of and others that I know of never did that. So, as I mentioned before, being an accidental leader myself, where I learned through trial and error and found my own mentors purely by chance and accident, I realized that uh developing leaders and offering them a balcony view of how they are showing up. A lot of leaders struggle with emotional intelligence. They don't have an appreciation for their blind spots. And so when I'm coaching and offering them insights and pushing back on assumptions that they hold, encouraging them to hold their beliefs lightly so other feedback and viewpoints can penetrate their thinking. It's amazing to see leaders have an epiphany, develop skills, and become much more aware. And part of my personal belief is servant leadership, which is where the leaders more invested in the development of their team than their own progression, really makes a difference. So that's what really keeps attracting me to this and seeing leaders sort of realize their potential in this way.

Kevin: 4:42

Now, you mentioned um you're helping leaders. What kind of leaders are you kind of coaching these days?

Akbar Sultan: 4:48

So I actually uh coach all types of leaders, but my ideal client really are women who are working in male-dominated sectors and they're not getting recognized, they're not moving forward, they don't have sponsorship, they're stalled in their career, they're not getting promoted. I was doing some research and it showed that women in 2024, women earn 83.6 cents to every dollar that a gentleman was making. That number is much larger for women of color, and it's actually smaller for younger women, which means they're advocating themselves for themselves much more effectively. Finding uh helping women find their voice, enhance their influence, select and uh find a sponsor who supports their journey, get promoted in their career, achieve their aspirations for their work life. Those are all passions for me. And one thing that I'd like to highlight here, Kevin, is that one of the reasons I'm so attracted to this is throughout my life, I've been very privileged to be around women who were very strong and stood tall and firm in the face of all manner of obstacles. My mom is the primary example. She was the only woman in our neighborhood when I was working who had a professional job. Her limo used to come pick her up because she was working for multinational companies, Burma Shell and other companies like that. There was a time when my dad was without a job for a year and she ran the house. So to me, that became very normal that women being strong makes a difference. I have a sister who, with three young kids, went to medical school and finished medical school, and now she's a practicing physician and a senior leader in Calgary, Canada. I have another sister who is an executive director for uh battered women in Vancouver, BC. My wife, very strong, my mother-in-law very strong. So I'm surrounded by women who have overcome all manner of obstacles. So that gives me a real passion to make this my ideal client.

Kevin: 6:43

Yeah, I was gonna say it's not too common where I see like a guy who like mainly coaches women like that. And so thank you for that backstory. Based on your experience, what do you feel like these women leaders kind of struggle with? What kind of challenges do women leaders uniquely go through that most men don't go through through your experience?

Akbar Sultan: 7:06

So, you know, many of this I have observed, and many of this I've heard through my sister and my mom and others in my personal life who have had robust careers or developed robust careers. A lot of times women can offer input in a meeting and it's dismissed. Two minutes later, a man can say the same thing, reframe it, and everybody sort of pays attention. So women get interrupted a lot more, women make a lot less compared to men doing the same exact job. It's harder for them to get a sponsor who will advocate for that promotion and increases. So they get stalled for a variety of reasons. And then the other thing that gets in the way is women are constantly juggling work and personal life. Women are primarily responsible for raising the family, raising children. So balancing both these things, workplaces a lot of times don't offer flexibility to these women. I think COVID was an excellent example where employers realized that we've had the technology for a long time for people to work from home, including women. And that gave people, especially women, an opportunity to balance their life, saving as much as two, three hours a day, commuting to work, depending on where they lived in the country or the world, actually. So those are a variety of challenges. And because all the rules in the workplace are made by men, because men dominate the workforce in that way, leadership positions, there's a lot of room and capacity for gender-friendly, women-friendly workplaces. And we have a long way to go as a society and as the world to do that.

Kevin: 8:38

Okay. That that clears up a lot. And so, what I'm also really curious about too is like, so you specialize in helping women leaders, right? And so let's talk about the marketing. How do these women leaders typically find you?

Akbar Sultan: 8:53

You know, so I certainly coach men, uh male executives as well. But like I said, if I were to identify an ideal client, it happens to be women. So I do a couple of things. One is that I'm soliciting candidates independently for one-on-one coaching through LinkedIn. I'm very active on that platform. I write a lot of articles, I respond to a lot of posts. And then lately I've started partnering with uh female coaches and female leaders. And I'm trying to do joint podcasts, joint presentations, and present myself as an ally that I am because I certainly can't know all the things they go through. I have a deep appreciation for their experience because of my own personal life that I was talking about. And then my own sister, the one I mentioned earlier, who's a physician in Calgary, occasionally she invites me to speak in front of female uh physicians. And I talk to them about emotional intelligence, I've talked to them about burnout. So it's really partnering with women leaders, physicians, others, to see how I can share my message and see how I can best support and be an ally for women leaders.

Kevin: 9:59

What does a typical coaching engagement look like? Is it mostly one-on-one coaching? Do you do group trainings, organizational trainings? Very curious on that.

Akbar Sultan: 10:08

So right now, since I've only been dedicated to coaching as a main vocation since the beginning of the year, so I'm still in the early stages, but I think the answer would be all of the above. So, for example, one female executive that was who was promoted from a senior director to a VP level position, the organization had no training for her. And the expectations at the VP level are significantly different than they are at a director level. So she was trying to figure out how to go about this. Somebody referred her to me. We had a good conversation, and then I ended up coaching her for the better part of two years. Wow. Helping her figure out how to show up as a leader, what her true values were, what her emotional intelligence capacity was, what her blind spots were, how she juggled family life and work life, how she made her voice be heard in conversations where initially she was struggling with it, where men were talking over her and so forth. So that was one avenue. The other one is that I have presented to groups of women in the past and just talked about servant leadership, talked about dealing with conflict, a variety of other things. And then through that, it creates a pipeline for me to get clients if they're interested in that kind of thing.

Kevin: 11:21

The success stories after a coaching engagement with uh people like this.

Akbar Sultan: 11:26

You know, the biggest success story a lot of times can be just how they show up. And this client over time started opening up. She was talking about how she struggled making dinner for her family after having a long day at work. Her husband was a great guy, but very traditional. He thought the housework belonged to his wife. He was not so much involved in it. And she ended up having honest conversations with him on how they could both participate because they both work full-time. They had two young children. How would they do that? So her capacity to have honest, vulnerable conversations and engage her partner is one example where she got more comfortable. And to her surprise, he was more than willing. She had never asked, he had never offered. So that was one aspect. The other aspect was that she became much more confident championing her ideas. She created relationships with some senior sponsors who helped guide her career in her organization. She started getting invited to conferences that she had never been, where she was a keynote speaker. So those are some of the things that really sort of started transforming her career, and she became known for her expertise in her specific niche. And more importantly, I could see that she was feeling much more balanced, that her work and her personal life would both be managed effectively without burning herself out. I see.

Kevin: 12:46

Okay. And so it sounds like what you're doing is pretty hands-on and pretty intimate. How do you think about your client capacity, I guess? Like how do you manage it? You mean the client's capacity to absorb all of this? No, for yourself, because as a co as a coach, it's quite a bit of uh it's quite a bit of work to hold space for someone like that, right? That's what I would assume, at least. But how do you think about it?

Akbar Sultan: 13:10

No, I think you're absolutely right, Kevin. So one of the adjustments I've made as I've transitioned to coaching being my main vocation is you really have to be in a good headspace because you cannot take, as a coach, I cannot take my client to places I haven't been. So that means centering, doing yoga, meditation, and making sure that you're always creating space for the client. And there are times when the client may need to pull back. There are times when I can feel my own emotion rising depending on the topic they're talking about, because there is a cross connection here in the struggles I've seen women in my life go through, and some of these struggles I hear women share with me. So it's really important for me to make sure that I can hold the space, stay centered, stay calm. And I think it's a shared vulnerability because to me, coaching isn't about solving somebody's problems, it's about tapping their own agency. The only way I can do that is if I'm present with myself and I'm emotionally calm and centered. Now there are times when you have to pull back, recalibrate, and then connect again during the session.

Kevin: 14:17

You mentioned something really interesting. I notice we've talked about things like tapping into one's own agency, EQ, burnout. And something I like your perspective on is what I've noticed is a lot of coaches, they struggle with things like pricing, especially like with more the inner work, the deeper work sometimes, right? And so how do you think of course you don't need to give any hard numbers, but how do you think about pricing these services? How do you structure it, especially when a lot of this stuff can't be tied to a KPI necessarily sometimes?

Akbar Sultan: 14:52

So I think it's a good question. And a lot of times the pricing really depends on if the person is coming to me directly or if the organization is footing the bill. That certainly makes a difference. It also depends on just a couple months ago, I coached somebody who was affected by the federal layoffs. She was an attorney working for the human rights group, helping refugees, and it was a pro bono coaching engagement. So I helped her for over, I think, four to six sessions, just talk to her. So it's not always about money, it's about meeting the person where they are. And I would argue that there is, even though some of the things I'm talking about are considered soft skills, EQ and dealing with interruptions and all of that, they're actually hardcore business skills. And the leaders for tomorrow, and I would argue even today, really have to have these skills down because technical skills are table stakes. These are the skills that make a difference if you want to have high engagement and empower your teams and move the organization forward. So the KPI is actually pretty strong in all of these cases I'm talking about.

Kevin: 15:55

I see. One other thing I'm really curious about are your future goals, right? You mentioned that this was your first year going full-time into the coaching and making it your true vocation. So I'm kind of curious, where do you want this coaching business to take in the next few years? Do you have desires to scale? Do you want to hire? Do you have secret dreams that no one knows about? I would love to kind of hear about that.

Akbar Sultan: 16:16

Yeah, I think I'm sort of reminded of Emerson's quote where he said, even if one life has breathed easier because you lived, that means you've been successful. I'm paraphrasing. So my goal for this endeavor is obviously all of us need to make money to pay our bills and support retirement and so forth. But my major goal at this stage of my career is to support primarily women, find their voice and be successful and all the things we talked about. So part of my view for the uh next one to three years is really launching a podcast. I'm working with a female coach who is really deeply engaged in empowering women. And both of us see that there's a cross connection between what I'm trying to do and what she's doing. So we talked about launching a podcast. I'm also thinking of doing monthly webinars on a variety of topics, finding a sponsor, dealing with conflict in the workplace, servant leadership, emotional intelligence, how to find your voice, how to deal with interruptions, how to manage conflict with grace, all those things. I've written several articles for LinkedIn. I want to continue to do that. I want to get more active on posting. And then on a side note, I'm also thinking of pursuing speaking engagements. I get them off and on. And my aspiration is to be a TEDx speaker someday.

Kevin: 17:32

Now that's quite a bit. And so I'm kind of curious, like, as you're thinking about these goals or these yourself.

Akbar Sultan: 17:39

You know, one of the biggest challenges, Kevin, is that having worked as an HR leader for so many years, my life was very structured. 50 plus hours a week, back-to-back meetings, and so on and so forth. Now I have more capacity in terms of time. Very few coaches will coach 40 hours a week. They usually supplement that with speaking or webinars and so on and so forth. So my sort of learning opportunity here is how do I structure my time? Of all the things I mentioned, which of these rises to the top of the pile in terms of my passion? What will it take to do that? The logistical, technical, variety of things you have to navigate. And I'm very blessed. I've found fellow coaches and organizational development leaders who I've known through my career who are helping me through some of these stages. So pacing myself, because this isn't about working all the time. It's also creating that mental capacity that you were talking about, like how can I be present for my clients when the conversations can be so intense occasionally? So it's really a balance between engaging in this work with all my heart and giving myself time for hikes with my wife and my dog, reading, yoga, meditation, all of that.

Kevin: 18:50

And I'm also really curious, do you have plans on like hiring people or do you like keeping it really intimate where you're part of the work mostly?

Akbar Sultan: 18:59

You know, I really like engaging at a deeper level. Uh, so the hiring that I would probably do is probably going to be more in line with that partnership I was talking about with this fellow coach where we may do a podcast together. Uh, I am thinking of maybe hiring a virtual assistant to start looking at some of the technologies I'm thinking of because that's not a good use of time for me. If somebody can actually do the research and figure that logistics out, that certainly would help. So I'm actually talking to somebody next week that's been recommended to me as a virtual assistant.

Kevin: 19:32

Sure. It's through the lens of business investments because, like you said, you're thinking about hiring a VA. And as you know, a lot of coaches, a lot of entrepreneurs, we invest to things like coaching, training, marketing, team members, right? A lot of different things. The laundry list goes forever, right? And so what I'd like to do is kind of uh what I want to do is prompt you a phrase and you just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. It's kind of like the psychology, like pretend I'm a psychologist and you're sitting in the chair and you're just like sharing the first thing that comes to mind. And if there's a story behind it, I would love to hear it. I'm gonna prompt you four things, okay? Okay. First business investment you ever remember making. Launching my website. How long ago was that? Eight years ago. Okay. Last business investment you made most recent?

Akbar Sultan: 20:19

I just figured out, I was uh contacted by this group called Digital Mentors. And part of my learning through my journey, especially this year's, that I'm more dedicated to coaching, is that even though I have a high degree of passion to have these conversations and go deep into coaching, you still have to know the logistics of running a business. And I've been in corporate America for the bulk of my career. I've never had to run a business of that nature. So digital mentors was recommended to me. And they actually help you identify your ideal client, your passion, how to market, how to tap leads, how to create automated workflows. Because that's the part that I wasn't aware of and is absolutely essential if I'm going to grow this business. So that's the latest investment I've made.

Kevin: 21:06

Hey, let's these might overlap a little bit, but best business investment you made. First thing that comes to mind. Best business investment I've made? Yes, best business investment you made. Digital mentors by far. Love it. Okay. Last one. I know there's always a silver lining, but what's the worst business investment that you made that you kind of wish you got your money back?

Akbar Sultan: 21:28

I started advertising on Google seven or eight years ago. And for this type of business, it was not productive. And I didn't realize it probably two, three years later because I was working a regular job. I was doing this as a side hustle. And after a while, I was like, what's the return here? And there was hardly any. So that was money lost, but also a lesson learned. Coaching is a much more intimate business through referrals and other pieces. So that avenue is very productive for other types of businesses. It wasn't for mine.

Kevin: 21:58

As you're sharing these stories, I'm sure there's certain memories that come up for you. I guess, like how if you look back, how has your decision-making process changed, if at all, in what to invest in and what not to invest in?

Akbar Sultan: 22:12

You know, so I think the work with digital mentors has really focused me because they asked me who my ideal client was, and women obviously jumped to the top for me. But right below that would be leaders who uh don't have a good peripheral view on how they show up, how people see them. The other group would be emotional intelligence that's lacking, and they don't have an understanding that it's missing or it's an area of enhancement for them. So those things really come to mind for me as I go deeper into this and create capacity and time for each of these client types.

Kevin: 22:47

Last game I want to play with you, it's called overrated, underrated. And so, as a business owner or coach, you've probably gotten a lot of advice. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, probably some of it solicited, probably like most of it unsolicited. So I'm very, very curious. Like, what's the most overrated piece of business advice you've gotten so far? What's the most underrated?

Akbar Sultan: 23:10

So I think Google's advertising was something that was recommended to me very highly. And again, that person was well intentioned. They were just in a different type of business. So it was not worthwhile for me, as I mentioned. The best piece of advice I actually got was when I was going through the Hudson Institute of Coaching, and one of the senior coaches over there who was part of the faculty really talked about going deep within and really understanding where you're coming from and holding space for the client. Some of what you and I were talking about earlier. And that advice, because part of what sort of is a was a conundrum for me when I started coaching. Formerly, I've been supporting people and developing people for the bulk of my career. But coaching officially was different in that sense that you don't give advice. Consultants give advice. Coaches actually help you get to your own answer because the assumption is the client has agency and is resourceful enough to solve their own problem. So they're not there for you to solve their problem. They're there for you to help them understand what's getting in their way. So this coach helped me understand that. And he said the experience you have is going to come in very handy, but you need to step back and lead from behind. You're not there to provide answers.

Kevin: 24:22

Very wise advice. I think a lot of people forget the difference between coaching and consulting, and you hit on the head. Last question for you. How can people find you and connect with you?

Akbar Sultan: 24:32

Akbar Sultan Coaching, a K-B-A-R-S-U-L-T-A-N coaching.com. And I'm also very active on LinkedIn, so they can certainly find me through that. And on my website are client interest forms. I also have uh Calendly if people want to schedule time. So those are all the ways people can reach me.

Kevin: 24:50

You know, Akbar, as we're speaking, it's kind of funny how you mentioned uh you are an accidental leader. And I never really thought about it before, but so often no one really teaches you how to be a good leader. And a lot of times, a lot of people go through trial and error. And it was also very, very interesting hearing your perspective on how you stumbled upon your ideal client, how it's actually women, which I thought was really, really interesting, and how you highlighted some of their challenges as well. I just want to really thank you for sharing all the knowledge or wisdom that you've collected over these last eight years and shared it to our our uh channel. And I just want to say, like, you I appreciate the work that you do. Thank you for it, and I appreciate for you coming on the podcast, Akbar.

Akbar Sultan: 25:36

Thank you so much, Kevin. It was a pleasure. Really appreciate your time.

Davis Nguyen : 25:38

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.