Leadership and Decision Making -Mistakes made, lessons learnt

There are two Ultimate Truth's that have repeatedly surfaced over the past 36 months that have drilled into me life long lessons around leadership and decision making.

#1 - Leadership is never about yourself. It is always about the others.

#2 - Decision making is actually much easier than many people realize. You just need to be very clear on what your values and principles are.

Life does not often go the way you plan it, but as the old adage goes, "You may not realize it at the time, but a kick in the teeth is sometimes the best thing in the world for you".

What does aspirational leadership look like in Arab Culture?

On 2nd December 1971 - 49 years ago, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who is the personification of modern collectivist leadership which embodies elements of kindness, empathy, compassion and tolerance - had the vision to unite the Trucial States into a UAE. This is not too dissimilar to the country's stance on foreign policy today. There was wisdom in this stance back then, and there is wisdom in it today.

One foundation of his philosophy as a leader was that the resources of the country should be fully used to the benefit of the people. This extended to the women of the UAE, who flourished under his visions of education, employment and equality. Sheikh Zayed was also notably a firm opponent of harsh dogmas and intolerance.

49 years on, his sons courageously struck the Abraham Accords and are pursuing another vision that has many tenets of collectivist leadership around it. A vision that goes beyond just the borders of the UAE, and is a vision that seeks to create unity and find common ground throughout the region.

There are plenty of parallels that can be drawn to the country's first beginnings and exponential development under Sheikh Zayed in the past 50 years post discovery of oil - to the current drive towards adopting and embracing science and innovation to drive development for the next 50 years.

Other than the clear guidance set by the example of visionary leaders of yesteryears, the following is a limited summary of lessons learnt in the recent past.

• Always speak up, regardless of the consequences. Consequences are often directly correlated with how important it was to speak up in the first place.
• Be willing to compromise for your goal, but never be willing to compromise on your goals. Things may take longer, but good things take time.
• What is meant for you will never miss you. What is not meant for will never reach you. Somethings in life are just beyond your control. Accept it and move on.
• When making a decision with enough information, it is better to choose with your logic. When making a decision with not enough information, always choose with your values.

What would I do if I had $100m to invest today?

If I had a hypothetical $100m to invest today, I would follow the principles of the founding father which is that the resources of the country should be fully used to the benefit of the people. This is how I would distribute it to maximize impact on the early stage ecosystem. The split below would change

• Allocate $80m to an inspiring female entrepreneur for her first time fund focused on a gender lens/impact fund lens - which would be consistent with the current Government's vision to be the Impact Investing capital of the world. Given the fund's mandate, it would create the most amount of impact for the most number of people.
• I would allocate $10m to a deserving later stage startup company, utilizing blockchain technology, digitizing supply chains - that maybe operating in the critical Food Security sector of the UAE. I have a bias towards the aquaculture industry.
• I would allocate the final $10m across a number of deserving Seed & Series A+ startups to fuel the next generation of entrepreneurs adding value to the UAE ecosystem.