During August, I was appointed President of Cairo ToastMasters Club, being involved with the community of entrepreneurs in Egypt, running Egypreneur, a very entrepreneurial future is in the making now for Cairo ToastMasters Club.
I’ll be doing a lot of promotions to ToastMasters and want to expand the membership of its members beyond the club to starting new clubs all around Cairo.
“You should be grateful that I didn’t bring you the police to arrest you, right here, right now”
This was the CEO’s opening statement to my semi-requested termination meeting during an innovation program in Berlin. Less than 48 hours before, the most senior executive, who also won Europe’s top CMO of the year award a year before, has approached me with a warm personal congratulation for what he described as an “outstanding performance”.
As entrepreneurial leaders, CEOs and business executives we often operate in highly competitive environments and face highly intense and complicated conflicts that could cause severe consequences to someone’s career or wellbeing.
Not all leaders play fair and deciding on a course of action while being in the middle of such situations could be overwhelming. Often those who naturally have certain characteristics and experiences in facing conflicts are able to maintain a balanced outlook
Harassment, dominance and leverage control, workplace mobbing and incitement of mobbing is a phenomenon that faces emerging leaders more frequently than others.
Emotional and Psychological abuse is said to be more damaging than Physical Abuse. Physical abuse always leaves visible marks and can be situational traced back to incidents, though emotional and psychological abuse in most cases is extremely hard to trace, which makes it a popular practice for weak leaders and entities.
Also, those who experience emotional and psychological abuse over a period of time experience changes in their behavior and attitude that makes them vulnerable to have their behavior used against them.
As 31 years old entrepreneur, I have survived several incidents of incitement of mobbing and I have provided support and still providing support to entrepreneurs and executives while going through mobbing experiences.
People and organizations are often very afraid of change and this makes a certain type of leaders exercise incitement of mobbing as a tool for dominance and leverage control. I’m not surprised anymore to hear the names of individuals who were involved in mobbing experience.
You are an emerging leader who intimidates those above you
You are spending your time getting things done and not building relationships
You are not aware of group dynamics and positional power and leverage control
You are not protected by strong leaders / institutions above you
Your behavior allows others to take advantage of you
I decided that in the next 10 years, I’m going into Global Trade and Investment on behalf of Generation-Y in Egypt well, he mumbled, you were just complaining about corruption and power struggles in your local Cairo community, now you are about to kick ass with the most powerful people in the world? You think you are ready for this?
I loved these words:
Long before we know ourselves,
Our paths are already set in stone.
Some may never figure out their purpose in life,
And some will.
There are a lot of us who are caught up in this hell we all live in,
Content with being blinded by rules and judgment.
We live in a world where it’s more okay to follow than to lead.
In this world being a leader is trouble for the system we are all accustomed to.
Being a leader in this day and age is being a threat.
Not many people stood up against the system we all call life,
But toward the end of our first ten years into the millennium we heard a voice.
A voice who was speaking to us from the underground for some time.
A voice who spoke of vulnerabilities and other human emotions and issues never before heard so vividly and honest.
This is the story of a young man who not only believed in himself,
But his dreams too.
This is the story of The Man On The Moon.
-KiD CuDi,
Dear All,
I started working with Adobe Premiere Pro producing some videos for YouTube. As I’m starting to talk about unity, picked up that scene from Braveheart, showing how could calling for unity might be deceptive.
Leave you with the video:
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwL-nqC3ic
Calling for unity against a common enemy among people that share a religious belief, country or even a business is very logical and a sign of maturity of whom calling for unity.
But that’s not always the case, some people will sharply betray when it’s the real time. some for a piece of land, some money and others for their own political agenda.
In this clip from Braveheart, I try to communicate that meaning, Wallace won the first battle by himself and the people loved him and followed him as they saw his goal is freedom for all of them.
When it came to the critical preparation for a battle in which he’ll need the help of the other group, he called for unity and actually been promised.
At the hardest time when he sent the sign for the other group to attack, he discovered that he had been betrayed, look into his eyes to realize how it feels when discover that you had been betrayed and learn the lesson and make sure who are you uniting with.
This is a lesson to learn when calling for unity, is that person or group of people actually want to unite for the best of the community, or they’re doing that for their own agenda!
Sorry for the incorrect dimensions and low quality, I’ll fix it in the upcoming videos. Hit the HQ button for now for better preview.
Unite yes, but keep your eyes open for whom you’re uniting with.
As a part of an exercise at Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence class on @Coursera. Prof Richard Boyatzis Asked to write down the top 27 things to do before we die.
On a second thought, I decided not to share my 27 list, though, the general theme in my 27 list had been about “sacrifice” and “fulfilling commitments” other than enjoying or having my own thing, which actually made me rethink a lot of things.
I highly recommend for you to write down your top 27 things to do before you die, it’ll help you very much discover more about the real you.
Cheers for now!
Life goes on, as usual, tough, troubling and confusing, but extremely incapable of changing few things, those who’re noble enough to love a concept, idea or a piece of land when they have absolutely all the right not to, will be the ones to stay with it longer and perhaps forever.
It’s very rare for crowds to move in the right direction except either when it’s absolutely as clear as the sun for the -80 IQ or when they’re inspired by a leadership, let it be an individual, character or an idea.
When it gets confusing everyone returns back to where he/she belongs! Don’t follow the crowds, either be among them when it’s absolutely right or lead them when it’s turbulent and you have a vision.
Tech Entrepreneur, engineer, teacher and researcher.
