Driving Change is a strong skill set that Aseel Shahin has developed as many of multinational organizations she has joined required a quick business turn around which helped her build skills to understanding the situation, analyze data/information & engaging stakeholders & executers at early stage for effective implementation.
Aseel is Head of Business Operations at ACINO and an experienced Commercial Intelligence & Excellence Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Pharmaceutical, Medical and Consumer industry.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Aseel Shahin:
Brief our audience about your journey as a women leader. What challenges you had to face to reach where you are today?
Throughout my career I have always empowered myself through education & self-development. Of course that includes tackling challenges that are outside my comfort zone which helped me shape and understand my passion throughout.
As a female leader, Wife & Mother of 2 kids, I am proud to say that I have overcome many challenges & that women in our present society are much more empowered than previous generations.
The presence of globalization & Multinational companies in our region has created a landscape for women leadership & empowerment. But we still have an exciting journey ahead!
I am also proud that I was born in a country (UAE) where its leadership has always been dedicated to empowering Woman. Based on my many years of experience and the fast moving career landscape of the region I saw a main challenge were men had struggles in copping with woman in leadership roles. Even with their best intentions, the only way this challenge was overcome was through bringing them to the conversations and exposing biases.
Change is happening and its observable. However, I do believe as well that one of the main drivers to empowerment is to have a stronger support system at home and in the workplace. This is not to create an advantage for women but to allow them to make choices on a more equal scale. Such support can include duration of maternity leaves & paternity leaves.
Last but not least is to involve more men in Women leadership initiatives as including them will definitely help create more understanding and collaboration in our society.
Describe Industry offerings that address the need of your customers.
Customers added value solutions, Consistency & customized experience/Engagement which are the main priority of the 3 multinational organizations I have worked at.
What are the challenges you and your team in your industry come across in your day-to-day operations?
Timing became less rigid due to globalization thus impacting work life balance or work life choices. In addition, the pandemic and working virtually has increased ineffective meetings, lack of engagement & lack of empathy.
What people, what books, what life factors have influenced and impacted you?
Carol S Dwek has inspired me in her Book: Mindset, where it guided me to follow the growth mindset framework on personal or professional. There is always room for improvement & development.
As mental wellbeing is an important factor in sustainable work environment, I have been Certified as Mental First Aider which contributed in navigating and supporting colleagues in need. Which brings me to two main highlights which I always remind myself of (1) Listening to challenges & (2) usage of human strengths to stay well
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives Organizations you worked in.
I believe Transparency in communication, Collaboration, Trust, Engagement & Integrity are quite essential to drive healthy culture across.
Based on my experience the more diverse teams are in the more productive & creative organizations are. Each individual has set of strengths that contribute positively to the successful outputs by the organization
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals?
Being a people’s person I envision myself leading roles that are closer to people & Culture. In my opinion the backbone of each organization is its human capital. Empowering & developing the potential in people leads to a more resilient organization.
An important aspect for human capital is the environment. It is sometimes the missing piece of the puzzle that includes Talents, Skills & Attitude in organizations
This is where I am planning to focus my career in the coming 10 years.
What would be your advice to budding Women Leaders?
Bring more men to the conversion of empowering woman as it will contribute on empowering each other by focusing on strength instead of gender.
In addition, to all Woman Be confident & be yourself, Understand your strengths & how you can impact in your organization, raise and empower other woman colleagues & leaders.
Finally, always allow time for Self Reflection.
