Excellence Foresight with Nancy Nouaimeh

She Leads, She Thrives: My Journey with Nancy Nouaimeh on the other side of the mic

• Season 3 • Episode 4

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Nancy Nouaimeh steps into the guest seat for this powerful Women's Day special, offering a rare glimpse into her journey as a global entrepreneur running companies across Dubai and Dublin.

From her unexpected beginnings sequencing fungal DNA in Belgium to becoming the first Shingo Institute affiliate in the Middle East, Nancy reveals how her career evolution taught her that true excellence isn't a destination—it's a daily practice embedded in organizational culture. "It's something you do on a daily basis," she explains, sharing how leaders must shift from viewing excellence as merely outcome-focused to understanding it as behavior-driven and principle-centered.

The conversation takes a poignant turn when Nancy recounts her young daughter questioning why all her work photos showed more men than women—a moment that strengthened her resolve to change the "boys' club" narrative in consulting. She advocates for formal sponsorship programs that elevate women beyond mentorship to true advancement opportunities. For professionals of all genders, Nancy's advice rings particularly clear: strategic positioning matters as much as skill. "It's not enough to be great at what you do. You need to be intentional about how you position yourself," she explains, emphasizing self-awareness as a career compass.

Her parting wisdom captures the episode's essence: "Courage, authenticity, and purpose." For women navigating leadership journeys, Nancy's message resonates beyond Women's Day—own your journey, support one another, and never apologize for taking up space. Your voice, vision and leadership matter.

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Nina Keyrouz:

Welcome everyone to a very special episode. As you know, the usual host of Excellence Foresight podcast, nancy Noaimi, is always the one leading these conversations, but today we're switching things up In honor of Women's Day. We're putting Nancy in the guest seat to hear her incredible journey as an entrepreneur, leader and advocate for excellence. She's running two companies, one in Dubai and one in Dublin, while championing continuous improvement and leadership development across industries. Nancy, it's great to have you on the other side of the mic today. How does it feel to be the one answering the questions for a change?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

the mic today. How does it feel to be the one answering the questions? For a change, Nina, surprisingly it feels very good. I'm proud to be on this side and I look forward to what questions you have for me here today. And happy Women's Day to you and to all our audience.

Nina Keyrouz:

Thank you. You're an entrepreneur running two companies, one in Dubai and one in Dublin. That sounds like quite the juggling act. Tell us a little bit about this journey.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Oh, definitely. It was a wild ride so far, running two companies, one in the land of opportunities, dubai, and one in the land of green and kindness, dublin. So let me share a bit about my journey with our audience. Maybe they can learn something from it. If I want to start in simple words, it's a journey of continuous learning and improvement. I started my journey in the scientific field with my degree in bioengineering from Belgium, where I worked in the collection of fungus at the university, sequencing DNA of fungi, and then continued in total quality management with a master's degree. That changed my life, my career and led me to where I am today.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

After Belgium, my family and I we moved to Dubai my husband's six-month-old son and there I learned how to adapt and appreciate the multicultural richness that the country offers. For 15 years I worked in the food industry and learned a lot about food safety, health and safety, tendering and contracts management. What shaped my journey then was the work I got to do as an assessor of local quality awards and national excellence programs. A lot you could learn from witnessing the success of organizations, and what always fascinated me, nina, is to see how those who have built a good culture are unique. They are high-performing and mostly they are very resilient. And this is what led me to leave the corporate world and become the first affiliate of the Shingo Institute in the Middle East.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

And again, when my family moved to Dublin for my husband's career growth. It was a new shift for us, a new life. And here I am today here talking about my journey in Dubai and Dublin, between both countries and both cities. My focus remains always about creating a culture of excellence where people can thrive, no matter what obstacles they go through, and it's challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding. The key is always to build an environment where people are excited to come to work every day, no matter where the time zone they are in.

Nina Keyrouz:

Wow, dubai and Dublin. That's some serious globe-trotting. Now what's one cultural difference between Dubai and Dublin that has surprised you the most in business?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

A very interesting question. Without making a lot of comparison, what surprised me when we moved to Dublin is the humbleness, the kindness and always ready to support attitude of the Irish people. That's really something very nice to see and it's cultural. But let me tell you a story.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Last year I attended a small gathering of lean practitioners in Cork, at the south of the country, and I remember one person describing why they managed to improve so quickly in a short period of time. For those who know the Irish story spanning over the 10-15 years back, they had a lot of development happening. So what he said? He said we know very well that to become competitive with the big countries, we need to keep our focus on our people and build the right ecosystem for them, keeping our values and culture, and this is what you see when you do business in the country here in Ireland. On the other hand, dubai is a very cultural environment, is a young city and a place where you appreciate diversity, you learn to be adaptable and you learn to grow with the growth of the country and the companies that you work in.

Nina Keyrouz:

I noticed you talk a lot about building a culture of excellence and your slogan is making excellence a habit. Excellence is often seen as an achievement, but you frame it as an ongoing practice. How can new leaders and organizations shift their mindset from viewing excellence as a goal to amending it into their daily operation? What does that look?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

like in an action? Oh, that's a very good question, nina, and for me, yes, excellence is an ongoing practice. It's something you do on a daily basis, and shifting the mindset of leaders from viewing excellence as a goal to amding it into their daily operations requires a transition from a simple event-based improvement effort to a culture-driven approach where excellence becomes a way of thinking and working. And in Shingo model we say excellence is a new way of thinking, right? So we need to really shift mindset of people when we talk about excellence, and this means moving from initiative driven excellence to principle driven behaviors that are sustained over time. And you see, we're starting talking about people. Behaviors and the mindset of people somehow dictate their behavior. So building excellence step by step through good systems, systems that focus on enabling positive behaviors, is key for leaders and organizations. So to your question what does this look like in action? It's when we look at excellence as being measured by behaviors, not just by outcomes. So we combine both outcomes and behaviors when we look at what we want to achieve. Organization in this case, move beyond just tracking KPIs and focus on assessing how work is done. How do you go through that journey to give the results? How is the behavior of people being shaped in the organization. For example, instead of only measuring defect rates, leaders observe how teams collaborate to prevent defects in the first place. So you see, we move excellence and we move the practices to a different level when we start focusing on systems and behave rather just on the outcome and the results.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

And the second point I would like to highlight here is that daily practices reinforce excellence. You need continuity when you do that. Standard work, visual management and huddles are used to maintain alignment and continuous learning, and these tools, when you practice them on a daily basis, they provide a foundation for excellence. I encountered one example, for example, working with a hospital. We saw the hospital unit starts each shift with a five-minute reflection on improvement opportunities rather than waiting for quarterly reviews. This is led by the team. This is led by the people.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

The third which I would like to point to share with you here today about how or what excellence looks like, is decentralized problem solving, for example, where you empower people in the organization with the right skills and authority to solve problems at their level, so they don't have to wait for their managers. The fourth point would be excellence is integrated into decision making. How to integrate excellence as part of the daily decision making in the organization and not just wait also for reviews to take decisions. So you see, in this case, excellence at all levels, looking at long-term impact and alignment with core principles rather than short-term gains Everyone in the organization focus on that long-term impact and not just looking at the moment and the time of doing the work. So all of these things are very important for leaders to see, to believe in and to try to put them in place.

Nina Keyrouz:

That's a powerful perspective. Shifting from seeing excellence as an event to amending it into daily operations truly changed the game. You gave us some great examples of how this plays out in practice. Building on that, I'd love to hear your thoughts about leadership. What's a leadership lesson you learned the hard way.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Oh, let me think I think the hardest lesson I've got is how to show empathy as a leader and courage to support your people, no matter what. When you are leading a team, people look at you for support, objectivity and right decision making, and you need to live up to that. So here's my story. I worked on a project in a toxic environment once. Managers did not last a lot. It was a complex environment.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Me being a servant leader, I always put my people first, protect them from politics and whatever comes around that, and this helped me gain their trust and they worked in a more healthy environment while I absorbed the stress and I did not let it reach them. This fostered loyalty, stronger teamwork and outstanding result. It was hard for me as a manager, but seeing the results of the team in such a toxic environment was very rewarding. That thing that taught me that courage is very important as a leader. You need to live up to it and you need to make sure that your team is put always first before any other interest on any politics in the organization.

Nina Keyrouz:

Well, thank you for the stories, but I also heard that you have a funny story related to your daughter and to your work.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Can you share it? Oh yeah, absolutely. And today here, this episode is for women and I would like to thank you, nina, for being the host today. So my story is about my daughter. So she came one day and looked at my office photos I mean on my screen, and we were looking through that and she said, mom, why all your pictures at work always has more men than women? And that surprised me and I was like kid, it's a bit of a boys club in the consultancy field in the GCC.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

So that's the reality. Sometimes I'm in meetings where I'm the only woman with six or seven men. This is what we have to live with and this is the environment we have, not just in GCC, I think everywhere. When you work in a field where it's male-dominated field, you'll end up sometimes being the only woman in the room and I had to explain that to her and talk about why there's fewer women in leadership roles in my industry and in other industries. And that made me more determined than ever to change that narrative and it was a funny moment but also a big reality check. And I think we read a lot about women working mom, that they give strength to their kids, that the kids of women. Working women are always stronger. They may be more assertive in what they want to do in life, and I think that's a reality that we live now, today, and we want to see it spread across the entire globe, nina.

Nina Keyrouz:

Ah, your daughter sounds so adorable and that's so true. You mentioned the importance of changing the boys' club narrative. What's one practical step companies can take to support more women in leadership?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

The one practice that I could think of is for companies to do and is to take leadership in this and establish formal sponsorship programs for women that connect women with senior leaders who actively advocate for their advancement. It's not just about mentorship. It's more than mentorship it provides guidance. Sponsorship that involves senior leaders using their influence to open doors, recommend women for leadership roles and ensure they have visibility and key projects and decision making opportunities. We need to create opportunities for women. We need to start with that and then let the women show what they can deliver and how they can deliver. So I think creating those opportunities for sponsorship programs would be one of the things that I recommend companies to do.

Nina Keyrouz:

It seems to me that you had really a tough road and journey in your business. What's a piece of advice you wish someone had given you earlier in your career?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Yeah, I have one piece of advice I would like to share but, reflecting on the previous question, nina, that now came to my mind something that when I started my first role in Dubai and I had challenges making my voice heard in meetings and I remember the CEO I was reporting to him he said 10 years back there was no woman in leadership in this company. We didn't have anyone who really was leading the partners here who was a woman, and all the guys you're working with come from an environment men dominated. So we are in a great spot now, but we still have a lot to do. But that's where your challenge is and I'm here to support you. I think this is very important also for women to have the right support behind them to be able to shine as we say so. So for women to have the right support behind them to be able to shine as we say. So.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Going to a question about the piece of advice which I would like to share here today and I wish that I've heard in the beginning is how to position yourself strategically, not just skillfully. I am a skillful person, I focus, I'm hands on manager and at a point in my career I was not really focusing on how to position myself strategically and I see other people, other managers, other people, young people. Sometimes they know how to do that and that makes a big difference. Know where you want to go and how to get there. And it's not enough to be great about what you do. You need to be intentional about how you position yourself, the career path you build and your self-awareness. So if I want to talk a little bit about these three things how to have good positioning it's important for someone to understand his expertise and where it fits within the bigger picture of the industry and align with strategic initiatives. Build visibilities. Ensure that decision makers recognize your value and your organization, the leaders. They need to see you. They need to see your value and opportunities don't just come from hard work. They come from being seen in the right places, whether you're doing voluntary work or in your organization. It's important to focus on that.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Second point is have clarity in your career path. Don't just take the next available step. Think, think ahead, stop and think when you need to do that. Identify where you want to be in five, 10 years down the line and reverse engineer the skills, experiences and networks needed to get there. It's very important. The network is very important, and that's what helped me really to be able to build my companies and be where I am now today. So seek roles that stretch your potential, not just ones that feel comfortable. It's really about planning, about looking at your career path and have a clarity where you want to go and how to get there.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

And the third point I mentioned, which is self-awareness as a strength. I truly believe in that and I see it with kids also who are self-aware, or kids who are less self-aware. I see that difference. It's about really continuously reflecting on your strengths, the gaps and what truly drives you Know when to pivot or to pivot, when to double down and when to challenge yourself. That all comes from self-awareness. The most successful careers are built by those who align their authentic strengths with the right opportunities. So you need to remain authentic to yourself, know yourself and find the right opportunities, and if I had embraced these principles earlier, I would have approached my career with even more strategic intent, I think, nina.

Nina Keyrouz:

Thank you. So interesting, and this came to my mind if you could give a TED Talk on something other than business and leadership, what would it be?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Oh yeah, I think I already touched a little bit on that. I would definitely relate it to what I've just said about self-awareness and multicultural intelligence. In today's world, success is not just about skills or knowledge. It's about how well you understand yourself and how effectively you navigate different cultures and perspectives. And too often professionals focus solely on external achievements without reflecting on who they are, what really drives them and how cultural intelligence play a role in their growth. So self-awareness should be a career compass. How to recognize your strengths, values and blind spot can help you position yourself strategically and for multicultural intelligence. I think understanding different cultural mindset is essential for building influence and impact in your career. So that would be the talk that I would really share with the wider audience it seems you're so energetic and dynamic person.

Nina Keyrouz:

What is the one daily habit that keeps you energized and focused, and what is your message to women on women's day?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

look. I'm lucky enough to know, to have known some incredible women who inspired me every day. I have friends like Kaba Sha'ar. I met a new lady which I hosted on my podcast, olive Murphy. I've met a very good network of women across my career and these women are rock stars in their fields and they remind me how important it is to lift each other. And my message is simple You're not just capable, you're unstoppable.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

What gives me my energy is my family, is my kids, my husband, who's very supportive to what I do, and the way I think I was raised by parents.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

That had impacted my life because they were also entrepreneur and I saw them building their career from scratch after the company that they were working in burned and they had to. Really, both of them found themselves without a job. So I think it's important to find your own motivation, know yourself, find what motivates you and be surrounded by a good network of family, friends and colleagues and like-minded people who supports you. And I think, having been on ASQ board and having been a member leader for long, I was lucky to have that, and whether you're running a business, leading a team or just living your best self, you deserve to be seen, heard and celebrated every day, not just on Women's Day. So I think, as women, we strive to shine, we strive to demonstrate our potential, but we are definitely there and we can do much more and with the right support, we can really be so proud of what we're doing and celebrate that on a daily basis.

Nina Keyrouz:

That's such a strong message. Any final words for the women watching today.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Oh, absolutely For all ladies listening to us. So please keep shining. Don't let anyone tell you what you can do, especially when they haven't walked in your shoes. Being a woman is hard, is challenging, is overwhelming sometimes when you have a family, but also a unique role, and the world needs more women leading with heart, passion and, of course, excellence, and I focus a lot on excellence. So let's keep breaking those barriers down and have a little fun while we're at it. I was reminded many times that I need to have fun, and I think I'm in a stage where I'm doing that very frequently and I'm happy to be at this stage in my career. So happy Women's Day to all.

Nina Keyrouz:

Nancy, this has been such an inspiring conversation. From leading businesses across continents to breaking barriers for women in leadership, your journey is a testament to making excellence a habit. To everyone listening, I hope you're walking away with insights, motivation and maybe even a new perspective on leadership and continuous improvement. Thank you all for tuning into this special Women's Day episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to follow the podcast, share it with someone who needs to hear it and stay connected with Nancy for more insights on excellence and leadership. Nancy, any final words before we sign off?

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Yes, thank you, Nina, very much for hosting me, but what I would like to end up with is three words courage, authenticity and purpose, and it's important for everyone women or men too, and kids and young professionals is to focus on that. So own your journey, support each other and never be afraid to take up space. Our voices, our vision and our leadership is really something that matters. So go out there, make an impact and happy Women's Day. Everyone, or leadership is really something that matters.

Nina Keyrouz:

So go out there, make an impact and happy Women's Day everyone. And with that we wrap up today's episode. Thank you, nancy, for sharing your wisdom and energy with us, and to all the women and everyone listening keep striving for excellence, keep breaking barriers and Nancy will catch up with you in the next episode. Thank you very much.

Nancy Nouaimeh:

Nina.

Nina Keyrouz:

Thank you.

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