Dr Roshanak Bassiri Gharb
Equity Partner,
Clyde & Co, Dubai
“Having a non-credible branding is worse than not having any visibility”
What are the enduring qualities that will never change for someone to be a well-rounded leader?
Empathy, the ability to observe and listen, the capacity to champion others, and providing honest feedback but also solutions for improvement. It is extremely important to have a vision and a strategy and take decisions and being humble to admit when a mistake has been made and learn from such errors.
In top leadership roles, what are the gender challenges you’d like to address?
The bias against women — and specifically women with family. Most of the time, such women are more proficient and organized than their colleagues (especially males), but there is an assumption that they will fall short at some point and if they do not want to do something or they are too busy, it is because of their family, while in reality they are just working more than others and they do quality work.
I would also want to have more diversity in decision-making roles and for the leadership to take a more empathic and innovative view by changing the rules of the game by not following the prevailing narrative built by the limited gender diversity representation in managements.
As a leader, what are the constant learnings you need to factor in — and how difficult/easy is it to reinvent your style from time to time? Can you share any tips?
You need to stay humble, never be too proud of your position,and what you have achieved. You need to remain curious, explore and observe — and catch early the changes in trends, methodologies, your “corporate family”, and global political and economic dynamics. You need to have clear values but be ready to give others the opportunity to lead, when you are not the best person to drive a decision or a strategy. In essence, being a team player is the best way to learn and grow.
How relevant is personal branding for you? How do you integrate that with the company branding so that you are always aligned with its mission statement?
I think first of all you need to be aligned with the company you are working at; the moment you feel too apart is the time to consider whether that is the right place for you. Your branding cannot be forced to be aligned, it has to be authentically aligned. When it comes to branding is important that your image coincides with who you are, otherwise sooner or later you will lack consistency and coherence, and there is nothing worse than having a non-credible or fake branding. Having a non-credible branding is worse than not having any visibility as it ruins the trust of the people and the market. You need to be proud of who you are and what you do, otherwise branding would not work. Basically, you will see your brand when you look into the mirror and be the first one who is happy about what you see. And obviously we are all human, we make mistakes and there is space for improvement. The important thing is to make sure that we learn and grow