EMPLOYMENT SKILLS AND HUMAN CAPITAL
Human capital and employment skills are interlinked. “Employment skills,” or employability, can be defined as the transferable skills needed by individuals to make them employable, while “human capital” refers to the collective skills, knowledge, and other intangible assets of individuals that can be used to create economic value for the individuals, their employers, or their community. But what do human capital and employment skills demand from us? The best I can say is “leadership qualities,” and it gives me immense pleasure to write here that, in 2017, the Indian Human Welfare Organization conferred on me two very prestigious awards: the Inspirational Leader Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2017, I was recognized as an Exemplary Leader in the UAE by New York Institute of Technology in collaboration with Multinational Business Academy. In the same year, I ranked third among the 25 most influential CEOs in GCC. Overwhelmed! These recognitions make me glad and, at the same time, empower me with positive energy to keep doing the best I can as a leader.
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The Sharjah government came up with an innovative idea to build a better tomorrow for its citizens and to ensure that they have the right skills, tools, and knowledge to create a knowledge hub through an annual book fair, where hundreds of publishing houses and capacity-building trainers from around the world bring millions of books from different fields, written in more than 200 languages, for the public to read and buy.
The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is the third largest book fair in the world. It is a very prestigious fair in the Arab world and home to an exciting literary event in the region. SIBF is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, member of the supreme council and ruler of Sharjah, who strives to promote literacy and reading and preserve culture in the emirate. The main aim of SIBF is to encourage reading among people, especially the younger generation, by making quality books accessible to them at affordable prices.
Held annually since its inception, SIBF attracts millions of visitors from around the world. The fair runs for 11 days and hosts some of the biggest names in the publishing and cultural sphere and organizes hundreds of events. In 2015, at the 34th edition of SIBF, the participants included Egyptian actor Mohammed Sobhy, Irish writer Darren Shan, BBC and Sky TV presenter and writer John McCarthy, Nigerian Booker Prize–winning writer and poet Ben Okri, and Indian actor Mohanlal. In 2015, there were 1,547 publishing houses from 64 countries exhibiting at SIBF and over 1.5 million books in 210 languages on display. It received 1.5 million visitors, firmly placing the emirate on the map as a cultural focal point.
There are many other initiatives at SIBF, including the Translation Grant, a project of the Sharjah government that funds the translation of books for both regional and international publishers, and the Culture Café, which hosts poetry readings and cultural events featuring regional personalities.
America Reads
The America Reads Challenge is an initiative started in 1996 by the Clinton administration. In August 1996, President Clinton proposed a national literacy campaign that would enlist “one million volunteer tutors ready and able to give children the personal attention they need to catch up and get ahead.” The initiative is funded through Federal Work. In 1996, the Department of Education’s work-study program provided $617 million to support part-time employment for 713,000 students at 3,400 colleges and universities. In November 1996, President Clinton announced that the federal government would waive this requirement and pay 100 percent of the wages of any student employed as tutor for pre-school and elementary school children. The federal government worked as a catalyst in building the president’s “citizen army” of reading tutors.
The initiative trains 35 UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara) students to be tutors in elementary schools. Each tutor is expected to help students advance in the subject areas of reading and mathematics and support children in their school development. Tutors work directly with kindergarten through sixth-grade students to help improve their reading and math proficiency skills. They facilitate one-on-one work with individual students, group work, or class activities. I appreciate the wonderful initiative meant to encourage good education.
The Clinton initiative has encouraged me for the last 15 years to motivate and encourage my employees to read. Reading is one of my favorite hobbies.
Sharjah Reads
In my continued effort to encourage my people to read more and be knowledgeable about different fields of life and business, for the last 15 years I have created small libraries in different organizations where I personally select the books and reading materials with the slogan Sharjah Reads.
SEWA Got Talent
SEWA employs over 5000 individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures spanning over 35 nationalities. This multicultural identity adds a lot to the unique business culture that we have here. This cultural difference also drives innovation.
While giving deep thought as to how I could improve the performance of SEWA, it came to my mind that our organization is a craft and talent powerhouse. And as a connoisseur of talents, I just had to tap this wealth of knowledge that surrounds me. So I gave it a try!
I decided to have a meeting with the human resource manager, Saeed, and gave him the responsibility of finding/tapping talents. This is how the idea of SEWA Got Talent came into being. The idea behind this was to provide employees with an opportunity to showcase their talents so that SEWA can identify the rich and varied talents it harbors. As expected, the response was overwhelming. Many employees came forward with their passion for writing, singing, painting, cooking, playing international games, and many more.
One employee, Abu Ba Backer, from the water call center section, is worth mentioning here. He is endowed with the talent of writing poems and prose. In fact, he has written plays that have been staged in India. I am amazed by his short poems and prose writings, which have been published and won accolades. Armed with such great talent, I truly appreciate Abu Ba Backer’s efforts to find time outside his daily chores to keep his passion for writing poems and prose alive.
Getting the right mix of talent is important for companies to progress in areas such as innovation, collaboration, customer satisfaction, and of course, technology. I admire people who think and work in very different ways—all-rounders and specialistswho imagine and implement.
SEWA WRITERS
SEWA Writers is an initiative conceptualized by the Marketing and Communication Department, which I supported and approved right away. The idea behind it is to invite all SEWA employees who have writing talent to share their success stories, whether personal or professional, with their colleagues. We decided to pick a personal inspirational story from various writers every week and send it to the department so it could be shared with the rest of the employees. I was overwhelmed by the employees’ responses and happy to see how motivated and inspired they are as they are able to share their experiences with their colleagues. I was told by the marketing and communications manager that he has a long waiting list of employees who want to contribute to this endeavor.
CALLIGRAPHY TALENT
Have you ever imagined what the world would look like without creative people? Boring! It is my deep-seated belief that every individual harbours a unique talent. And a talent with a dash of creativity is rare. One example is calligraphy. We found out that a SEWA employee is a fantastic calligraphy artist. He has organized exhibitions and displayed his artworks/craft in other public forums. In fact, one of his latest exhibitions has been extended for another month on the directives of the Cultural Department of Sharjah.
Welldone, DBA
The Digital Business Academy (DBA) is a free online platform created by Tech City UK to teach people everything they need to start, grow, or join a digital business. DBA worked with University College London, Cambridge University Judge Business School, Founder Centric, and Valuable Content to create 11 expert courses. Upon completion of the courses, DBA provides access to rewards, including free co-working, internship, and bespoke mentoring support.
It offers 11 expert courses, ranging from developing a digital product to running social media campaigns and mastering finance for your business. DBA offers a free opportunity for you to gain the business skills you need in a digital world, at your own pace, from your own place, online, for free.
Each course consists of short video lessons, giving you practical advice from experts and entrepreneurs who have been through it all, with hands-on tasks to help you practice what you have learnt.
For each course that you complete, you earn a certificate. On top of that, you earn the right to apply for the many rewards on offer. This is truly a fantastic effort by DBA. Now I would like to quote sayings from David Cameron, former prime minister of the UK. “The UK is one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the G20, and we must embrace new models of education, such as the Digital Business Academy, to upskill our national capabilities and provide people with the tools they need to participate and thrive in the new economy. Building on our initiative to put coding into the school curriculum, Digital Business Academy provides the commercial know-how needed to turn the UK into a nation of business builders, with an equipped workforce for the 21st century.”
Retreat of the Leading Brain | Emergenetics
Emergenetics psychometric profiling is a world-class tool developed after many years of brain research at Harvard and Nebraska Universities and used by the biggest organizations around the world, such as Microsoft, Cisco, Deloitte, Western Union, Allianz, Siemens, and Accenture, and so on.
A noteworthy example here is SEWA young leaders’ visit to Cambridge University in the UK to attend a course on the emergenetics program in the UK. It was a week-long course that ran from May 8 to 14, 2017. Emergenetics is the merging of two ideas: our behavior emerging from our life experiences and our genetic traits. Emergenetics is rooted in the concept that who you are today is a product of your behavior, genetic makeup, and life experiences.
The team also visited St. John’s Innovation Park at the center of the North Cambridge Research and Development Cluster. The innovation center is the first of its kind in Europe and focuses on supporting knowledge-based businesses. The Innovation Incubator at St John’s Innovation Center provides first-class training and support vital for any growing business.
We were quite impressed by its philosophy because of its uniqueness. It is uncommon because it encompasses inherent human genetic profiles and behavioral aspects. Hence, we decided to build a SEWA Emergenetics Mini Lab in our main boardroom, which explains the theory in a few lines. The emergenetics model mesmerized me. It presented offbeat ways to unleash individual potential at the optimum level.
Emergenetics, which is the science of identifying our individual preferences, states that each individual’s temperament can be described in terms of three behavioral attributes and four thinking attributes. I will explain the concept of emergenetics in more detail in the following paragraphs.
BEHAVIORAL ATTRIBUTES
The behavioral attributes are what people see first about you. These attributes can be changed through training and coaching. They comprise the following three traits:
THINKING ATTRIBUTES
People cannot see the way we think, and what is going on in our head may be mysterious to them. These attributes are core and fixed within an individual and difficult to change. They comprise the following four traits:
By understanding and appreciating our emergenetics profile/preferences, we get to have more complete knowledge of ourselves. The info graph below summarizes the concept of emergenetics.
Data Rich, Information Poor
Just because data are collected does not mean that it can be used. Every organization produces data every day. However, many companies fail to harvest these data and turn them into useful information. This limitation is a big problem for large firms that have legacy systems. Older information systems are often incompatible with other systems, technologies, and ways of conducting business. Incompatible legacy systems can be a major roadblock to turning data into information, and they can inhibit a firm’s agility, holding back operational and strategic initiatives. Outdated information systems that are not designed to share data are incompatible with newer technologies and are not aligned with the firm’s current business needs.
There is not a single formula for success when designing a corporate information strategy: think of market basket analysis or demographic trending—gather bits and pieces of information known to be meaningful, and connect, model, and store them in such a way that they provide insight that supports business objectives.
The 5 Levels of Leadership
John Maxwell, a very well-known American author, speaker, and pastor, has written many books primarily focusing on leadership. On August 7, 2017, at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai, Maxwell presented me with a signed copy of his outstanding book: The 5 Levels of Leadership. The entire book is devoted to exploring the levelstheir upsides, their downsides, the best behaviors for a particular level, the beliefs that help a leader move up to the next level, and how a particular level relates to the laws of leadership. Let us wade into the levels!
LEVEL 1: POSITION
This is the lowest level of leadership—the entry level. People who make it only to level 1 may be bosses, but they are never leaders. They have subordinates, not team members. They rely on rules, regulations, policies, and organizational charts to control their people. Their people will only follow them within the stated boundaries of their authority.
Position is the only level that does not require ability and effort to achieve. Anyone can be appointed to a position. This means that position is a fine starting point, but every leader should aspire to grow beyond level 1.
LEVEL 2: PERMISSION
Making the shift from position to permission brings a person’s first real step into leadership. Leadership is influence, and when a leader learns to function at the permission level, everything changes. People do more than merely comply with orders; they actually start to follow. And they do so because they really want to. Why? Because the leader begins to influence people with relationship, not just position.
When people feel liked, cared for, included, valued, and trusted, they begin to work together with their leader and each other. And that can change the entire working environment. The old saying is indeed true: people go along with leaders they get along with.
LEVEL 3: PRODUCTION
Production qualifies and separates true leaders from people who merely occupy leadership positions. Good leaders always make things happen. They get results and can have a significant impact on an organization. Not only are they productive individually, but they also are able to help the team produce. No one can fake level 3. Either you are producing for the organization and adding to its bottom line (whatever that may be), or you are not.
Some people never move up from level 2, permission, to level 3, production. Why? They cannot seem to produce results. When that is the case, it is usually because they lack the self-discipline, work ethic, organization, or skills to be productive. However, if you desire to go to higher levels of leadership, you simply have to produce. There is no other way around it.
LEVEL 4: PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
At level 3, the emphasis is on personal and corporate productivity.
The ability to create a highly productive team, department, or organization indicates a higher level of leadership abil