Reflection on 2020

2020 has been a challenging year,  with the spread of the coronavirus worldwide that had implications on our careers, companies, economies, psyches, and emotions. The COVID-19 pandemic looks different from any of the crises that we have faced, even people start sharing stories about the flu pandemic of 1918, yet history doesn’t repeat itself, that year provided us lessons on the importance of Resilience, creativity, reflection and gratitude. 

2020 was a peak for some and a valley for others, indeed, it is natural for everyone everywhere to have peaks and valleys at work and in life, yet you can change your valley into a peak when you find and use the good that is hidden in the bad time.

I believe that “good” is leadership, as 2020 shows us the importance of Leadership; to be specific the ability and willingness to make a leadership change that will positively enhance organizational and personal growth, which John C. Maxwell coined it as “Leadershift”.

By having the vaccine the world started breathing again and find the light that shows to the end of the dark tunnel that we been through, I use the word “find” because the light was blinking from day one of the pandemic, yet only a few believe that it’s there, and you can count me one of them. 

Whenever I pass through experience always set a time to reflect in that experience, as the experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is, while we are at the end of the pandemic, and the end of the year, I asked me two questions to reflect on the past year events and challenges:

The first question: Have I grown in this year or I am the same as of 2019?

The second question: Am planning to grow next year or not? If yes do I have a plan?

I spent my time on the past week reflecting on 2020 events, trying to answer the above two questions, and I find that despite the challenges it’s still one of the best years that contributed to my growth journey, not only that, I started receiving the rewards of my persistence over the past years.

Below are highlights of the events that affected me most and shaped me to be who I am today:

First: Meeting a friend, colleague each month for cup of coffee

The target was to engage with the community and exchange ideas to enhance our growth journey, I met several people, till the pandemic started, then I resume from July onwards.

In one of the sessions, I was asked to have a cup of coffee with a former coworker, to support him in his new journey, but it turns out that he inspired me and motivated me to peruse new goals. people are ready to share a coffee with you, just ask.

Second: achieving Distinguish Toastmasters

I was glad to receive the DTM award, which is the highest educational award in leadership and public speaking from the most famous nonprofit organization in the world “Toastmasters International - where leaders are made”, indeed, it took me, six years to receive that award, but that journey helped me to develop my public speaking and leadership, and most meet new people who helped to shape my destiny and personality.

After receiving my award, I started a new journey through the Pathways program- Dynamic leadership.

Third: MBA Journey

I was inspired by Jack Welch the former CEO of GE, where after reading his book “Winning”, and my research leads me to Join his business school Jack Welch Management Institute , where I started the MBA program in July-2017, at the begging of 2020, I was excited because I am going to complete the program and meet him in June for the graduation ceremony.

Two weeks before submitting the capstone project; exact on March 2nd 2020, Jack Welch passed away, it was the saddest moment in 2020, it was difficult to lose someone whom you were watching his videos and listen to his wisdom on daily basis over the past three years, yet Jack Welch taught us the importance of a legacy.

After two weeks after his death, I submitted the Capstone project, which is the latest activity in the university, then I watched a recorded message from Jack Welch; congratulating us for completing the program, not only that also set a path for us to grow, after watching his message, I become a teary-eyed, even I tried to hold my tears when he passed away but after watching his message I didn’t.

I was proud to complete the MBA from a leading business school with honor, and learn the business from the Master; Jack Welch, that was one of the milestones to achieve my biggest goal to become one of the best executive leaders in the world.

Fourth: A new challenge at work.

After a moth from the pandemic, I was asked to move to a new assignment, to lead the construction management team at Fujairah, it was a bigger assignment and it should be challenging especially during the pandemic, yet I learned over the past years to be resilience and agile such to adapt to change.

It was the first time in 15 years to work in city i.e not in desert, I was astonished by the capabilities of the new team, where they showed that they are bigger than their weight, where the behaviors of the team were matching with ADNOC values; so it was an easy job to work with that team, but the challenge was to hire a new team member who matches their capabilities.

Working with ADNOC the leading Oil and Gas Company in the world is a blessing, where we have taught how to take risk management seriously to pass the weather storms efficiently, we used the shining days to train and rehearse how to exceed the expectation and deliver beyond what is required.

The latest article of ADNOC Group CEO H.E Dr. Sultan Al Jaber torched me a lot, its available on the link A Thank you message to ADNOC employees

Fifth: Summary of the books

At the begging of 2020, I decided to start summarizing books in different subject and publish the summary to my Twitter account, so I could maintain my growth mindset at the same time fulfilling my passion for developing leaders, by the end of 2020, I completed the summary of 53 books.

I was inspired to do so, after reading Jim Mattis book last year, that he said

If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.

So I decided to select books that cover the majority of the topics and skills to be a foundation for growth to the next step.

Sixth, Investment

Warren Buffet, the best investors in the world, always advices that the best investment you can make is in your self, and of course family part of that investment too,

that’s why this year, I have invested a lot in my son Aws to get over his difficulty in speaking, I am thankful to miss Layan and his swimming coach.

Seventh: Writing Letters

Writing letters is one of my hobbies, even I am thinking if I will write a book, I will write a book called “ unsent letters”, this year, I wrote several letters, but two letters touched me most, one was for my daughter Layan on her birthday because she is 7 years now, so she should be accountable, and another letter to my son Aws, that I extracted from the 53 books, I summarize and decided to pick one idea from each book and put it in a letter to be part my legacy top him once he grownup.

Eighth: a skill that I am still developing - sketching,

Once the student is ready the teacher appears, I was blessed to have a good mentor who keeps motivating me to develop several skills, and lastly sketching.

Recently he gifted me anew paper tab, to help me take that skill to next level.

Plan for 2021,

2021 goals will be higher than 2020, with a focus to strengthen my skills in project management because it’s my core business and keep a growth mind-set.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain

Happy new year to all!