It was so stimulating and inspiring to see the variety of ideas come out of most of the 80 delegates. I could see lots of talents and beautiful charismas that can easily grab anyone’s attention. Well, those people need to put themselves little higher on the stairs of success and climb faster to catch up the flying opportunities. I passed this note to some of the delegates. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that good on remembering all the names and this kept me somehow far from others.
I was amazed and thrilled by the acting talents some people showed, their incredible voices and sense of humor. The presentations could really show the outcome of the summit in the skills everyone demonstrated. It is right that the opportunity was not given to every individual and especially those who had something to offer. However, sometimes people should step back to allow others to shine as we have learnt from the summit.
Tuesday 29 November 2011
Peek-A-Neo
The Ninth Day- Vodafone
In addition, most of the women were covering their faces which made it difficult to identify them. The biggest challenge was that they were untrained.
Hand by hand the women were given the necessary training 20% on services and 80% on skills and awareness to start facing the community with high confidence. They work from home and visit Vodafone only once a week.
I interacted with some of them and they seem to be happy working in such project that doesn’t tight them with time attendance every day. The success stories shared by the women were impressive and remarkable. One of them bought a house for her family. Another one got her driving license and then bought herself a car. Another one made one of the difficult deals that Vodafone officials were unable to do. How incredible having such wonderful and unnoticed moving gifts in the society! How wonderful giving them a chance to try and give from what they can offer.
Monday 28 November 2011
Leadership in Action - Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Days
Our group had the honor to visit Williams Technology Center in Qatar. The General Manager Mr. Damien Scott took us through the history of Formula 1 and the next evolution of formula 1 in Qatar. He spoke ab
It is important for Williams as well as their competitors to have their unique style in motor technology. As part of their development strategy, they aim to bridge the gap between sport motor and industry, thus they have established the technology center in Qatar. They are also concerned about having a clear commercial goal, industrial applications and environmental friendly solutions. In addition, Williams F1 is contributing socially by inspiring and attracting the young generation to get into engineering.
The second visit was to Credit Suisse. First we had an introduction from the CEO, Aladdin Hangari. Then we watched a video followed by an interesting quiz. He spoke about how they could remain unaffected with the global financial crisis. His advice to banks that they have to stop the business that requir
To him, the negative publicity about banks is not true as banks can contribute to helping people live better life by providing employment and training opportunities, and financing projects. He thinks that the best way to lead is by example. The leadership style he follows focuses on team approach, following procedures on reporting and weekly meetings, taking responsibility and accountability.
I loved the conversation we had with Mr. Fernando Cavargne-Sani, the Director of private banking. He was so honest and open. A person with high ethics and admires his own values and principles. I couldn’t believe that a person might be patient enough, creative enough and productive enough to stay in the same industry for about 43 years. That is a life time by itself.
Mr. Fernando is also very much concerned about his clients. He always listens and listens to them, finds the best solution for them and finds out what they really need. He believes that the change he wants to make is not an individual effort and has to be done by collaborating with other people. A great message he has passed to all people: Stop money out of money, fight money laundry, put some rules and regulations, take care of the money and give it to the people who really need it.
The third visit was to Doha Youth Center. We had two presentations delivered by Global Change Makers supported by British Council about the Time Bank Project and Basic Life Support. Majd Al Shibli gave a very interesting presentation about the Time Bank project and
The Time Bank team is a sold team that has media, marketing team and implementation team. It ensures the project sustainability by having a map that organizes tasks. Even if someone steps down and leaves the project in the middle, the map keeps it running. The team also focuses on using technology such as blackberry service and face book as it is the fastest way of approaching and reaching the youth than using papers. That is also part of their plan to remain green and environment friendly.
Finally we had a very active presentation about basic life support and first aid. Hatim Elaji spoke about the importance of CPR. He was so energetic and has a great sense of humor and enthusiasm towards his responsibility on convincing us. This was part of his volunteering work and change making task on raising the community awareness of CPR. He insisted that our role on saving someone’s life is more important than the hospital.
Fourth and Fifth day- Leadership and Change
To me, the most exciting part was to implement it on myself. I can happily say that the change curve taught me more about my current situation and the change I am going through. Now I clearly understand what I require to go to the higher stage. It is about giving us a logical explanation of what a change means.
The lecture covered the part of engaging people in change emotionally, strategically and influentially. It also covered the types of leadership:
- Unconscious/ Incomplete (Direct leadership)
- Conscious/ Incomplete (Coaching and mentoring)
- Conscious/ Complete (Support)
- Unconscious/ Complete (Delegate)
As a reflection of this session, I went looking for a mentor. And here I go with my group leader Shaeb Alnajjar. I chose Shaeb because I was amazed and inspired by the way he accepted the change in his life and went on towards his successful future. He was a good listener, paid attention to my story and provided me with wise and smart pieces of advice.
Then we come to the fifth day of the summit. It was a continuation of the last session about change in addition to action planning and sustainability. In the beginning, Binna and Stuart spoke about influence and persuasion. What works when you have been influenced? Why do they influence you? What people say and how do they behave?
We had an interesting exercise and this time my partner was Dr.Umair from Jordan. He played the role of the persuader and was able to convince me with his reasons though I was trying to be more reluctant. On the second part of the exercise I was supposed to be the persuader but I turned up to the pursuer. Dr. Umair was so influential and the example of the exercise just worked very well for his advantage.
I learnt that the importance of influence by words is only 7%, body language 55% and the tone is 38%. Thus I have to pay more attention to my body language when persuading someone.
I also learnt that leadership skills can be born and built in a person. Leadership authorities can be extended to others and a leader should know when to step back and allow others to take a major role on leading. There is no perfect leader, rather, there is a leader who is always keen to learn, try and review and get feedback. It is good to have roll models, yet not to be copying them or under their shadow.
It was the last day with Binna and Stuart. Frankly, I felt bad. I really admired their knowledge, humility and humbleness. They have not made any gaps or barriers with us and it was a great pleasure to be in their lectures.
Then we had the sustainability lecture with Will Day. I liked his name so much. He presented so many frustrating and shocking facts; nevertheless he was impressive with his way of presenting. He said “Prediction is very difficult especially about the future” and he is right.
Will Day raised some serious and challenging questions: what needs to change? What are the priorities? What are the obstacles? How might they be addressed? And the most tricky question was: what does success look like?
Third day of the Summit- Katara
I was happy to be a coach. I think I was able to ask Niken some magic questions in addition to the broad and specific ones. I guess that helped on provoking more positive thinking and relieved the flow of ideas and made them more achievable.
I feel glad to know Niken and to know about her goals as they were more than one. We promised to keep the first goal secret between us provided that I keep on following up her progress. It is realistic and feasible Niken, you just need to raise your confidence about it.
Another exciting part about the third day was related to positive thinking “resilience”. We had the lecture in Katara, The Cultural Village. Resilience is “The ability of bouncing back from a set back”. What a wonderful accomplishment when being resilient. “Do not be your biggest obstacle to your progress” as Binna Kandola said. That is a fact. In most of the cases, we are the main reasons of our failures regardless of the surrounding resources. We should admit
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The day went on smoothly and we had two more lectures in Katara. Ayesha Al Mudehki, Executive Director of INJAZ Qatar and a lecturer from the British Council (unfortunately I can not recall his name). They both spoke about bringing communities together and the importance to cultural exchange.
Finally we had the chance to visit the first traditional DHOW exhibition in Katara. It was an interesting exhibition in a pleasant weather and wonderful beach. The reflection of the boats’ lights, the waving flags and the shadows of the sky on the sea face gave incredible and unforgettable scene.
Sunday 27 November 2011
Be a change maker
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Just use the good things within you for the best of the world. In the end, we all share the same world and our advantages should no longer conflict with another.
Thursday 17 November 2011
Three days of the Mosaic Summit
First day, we had nice introductory speeches from the Mosaic management, Alison and Jonathan. Then w
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With Stephen Howard
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The second day we had Proff. Kandola and Stuart Duff taking about the leadership and involving us in very exciting exercises. There was also Farah Williamson, Middle East Director at the Social Investment Consultancy. Farah inspired us by her patience and great work to help people who are suffering from poverty.
The most exciting part of the day was when we had a visit to Katara, the spectacular cultural village in Qatar. In the begging, we had a speech from Prof. Kandola. Then we had a speech by Ayesha Al Mudehki, Executive Director of INJAZ Qatar. There was another speech by a lecturer from the British Council (unfortunately I can't recall his name).
With Tayseer and Ayesha Al Mudehki
Finally it was the time for us to explore Katara. It is an amazing place facing the sea that is carrying some traditional boats from the gulf countries. We listened to some traditional gulf bands and music, watched the light show and had a visit to the boats exhibition. Then we had a wonderful Egyptian food and enjoyed being away for fun.