In light of the recent Bahraini Women’s Day, Bahrain Confidential is featuring women who have made notable contributions in their respective fields. In this series of interviews, we aim to uncover the tenacity of each woman leader, how they pushed boundaries and found balance to rise to the top.
Wafa Alobaidat
Occupation: CEO, Obai and Hill
Wafa AlObaidat is the founder and CEO of Obai and Hill, an award-winning agency in Bahrain offering bespoke creative services and solutions in the areas of PR, design, marketing and digital. Over time, Wafa also created successful brands like Sukkar, Barrel & Drum, Milk, among others.
As an executive, Wafa leads on the frontlines and gets her hands dirty with the team, “I make a sincere effort to have a more coaching approach towards leading the team and empowering them to discuss how they would do things before weighing in on anything with my perspective. I believe that with each passing year my leadership style has evolved and I’m agile towards adapting it”.
“One of the toughest decisions I had to take was prioritizing the company’s needs before my own and for the first couple of years I did not pay myself. There was a positive and tremendous learning curve through this and I’m proud to see how we’ve scaled and grown as a business over the past 10 years”, Wafa shared.
Wafa initiated and spearheaded a lot of empowering initiatives for women including a podcast that is topping charts and a platform where women learn from shared experiences. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been insatiably curious about human potential and empowering women”, she said.
Her biggest career inspirations are Sheryl Sandberg, Arianna Huffington and Melinda Gates. However, she also finds motivation in the grit and determination of many women she has grown up around, worked with and networked with.
After ten years of building and scaling a successful communications agency, Wafa shares that her experience and passions combined was a strength. She advises women who want to lead to bring their whole selves to the table if they want to thrive in today’s world – “That includes your unique set of gifts, your personality, your sense of humor and most importantly, your heart”.
“I believe that whether you run your own business or not, a creative and entrepreneurial approach is critical to fully blossom in the modern world and to experience the happiness and fulfillment you deserve. No matter what your dreams or obstacles are, you have the power to change your life and, by doing so, you’ll change the world”, she added.
Wafa enjoys “10 pages a day of reading across multiple books”, daily morning workouts, spending time with her son and catching up on podcast episodes or masterclass lessons she’s watching. “I’m always on the lookout for more inspiration and information to absorb that would help me and my team grow”.