>> Being a chartered manager means that you are a specialist in that area and it means you've got all the skills to do the job to the best of its ability. You are seen as a leader, a true leader who has credentials behind the great work you've already been doing. It's enhanced my understanding, it's enhanced my skill sets, it's improved my mindset. It makes all the difference. This session is recorded and will be available on the CMI website and YouTube channel. Join the conversation by using the live chat box for your questions and comments. We'll answer as many as we can during the Q&A. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the Navigating the New Frontier, the Future of Work and Leading Leading Change Digital Event. My name is Samia and I'm an international regional development manager at CMI. Don't forget to join the conversation by using the live chat box. Feel free to ask any questions you have for the speakers and we'll answer as many as possible during the Q&A session. I will now hand over to Salman Khalid, CMI Middle East Advisory Committee member, to begin today's event. Over to you, Salman. Thank you very much, Samia. Good afternoon and welcome to our Navigating the New Frontier, the Future of Work Leading the Change brought to you by CMI Middle East. I am Salman Khalid, the member of CMI Middle East Advisory Committee. Thank you for joining us from across the region and beyond. Across the Middle East, we are seeing a transformation that at an unprecedented scale where AI is reshaping roles, giga projects, redefining the infrastructure and national visions accelerating the change. Our goal today is not only to discuss theory but practice. We will examine how managers can drive sustainable organizational change while balancing high performance with ethics and employees' well-being. It's my pleasure to introduce my panelist. First, please welcome Mr. Massimiano, the regional director, Middle East and Caspian at Global Maritime and member of a CMI Middle East Advisory Committee. With him joining us, Dr. Shahara, managing editor, Middle East Durgadas Publication and she is also a member of CMI Middle East Advisory Committee. Without wasting our time further, let us jump to our first question of the event where we want to explore how AI can keep balance with humans. So, let us throw this question to Mr. Massimiano. Given the rapid adoption of AI across the Middle East region, there is often a tension between technological efficiency and job security. How can leaders drive future of work while ensuring their teams feel empowered and upskilled rather than replaced? Okay. Well, first of all, we have to do a consideration. We have been over time through many different changing technologies well before AI and we all survived. And I guess from an organizational point of view, the most important thing or at least what I believe being very important is how you present it. I tend not to present the technology in itself but to present what the technology solve as a problem. Unfortunately, AI comes with all a bias of sci-fi movies that tended to replace people. So, that's in the back of your head. But this is not the Matrix, it's not a movie, it's a reality. And it's important as a manager or at least in my experience to involve an employee on a very early stage to get their buy-in of why we need to implement AI technologies, identify which areas we want to resolve using AI, and make them feel part of the implementation process. That's I would say in a in a very short answer, that's my take. Don't impose the technology, but let your personnel be part of the choices and clearly explain to them why we need the technology to improve. Okay. Thank you very much. Dr. Shahara, what is your take on this question? So, first of all, thank you to Samia and you as well, Salman, for being there at this interesting conversation. So, as we were speaking before, we've been through almost a couple of decades of differentiation or let's say involved in technology coming from the time where maybe the TV, first the radio, then the TV, and then you had the computers coming in, plus then little by little we were exposed to technology from a very early time. So, today AI has become the the norm and the much awaited or let's say let's call it a disruptive technology as well because it's important for people to understand that these kind of technologies do come. It's not something that would come in all of a sudden, but little by little as a manager, if you would be able to introduce just like uh what Massimiano just shared with you a little while ago, it's important to actually invest in people in terms of training and upskilling them and also making sure that they understand that it's important to have these skills because it gives you more opportunities in the future. So, communication I think plays a very important role and also what we've realized during the years is that when people feel that they are included in the whole process, so they are more prepared and they know exactly what to expect. So, it's up to us to kind of prepare them in that proper domain so that they themselves could grow and not really look at it as a threat, but instead immerse in it and to learn more and deep dive into it. I I'm that's the shortest one I have. I hope it's okay. No problem. Now, let us jump to cultural readiness for the change. If we talk about the national visions like Saudi Vision 2030 or Oman Vision 2040 are accelerating change at an different accelerated level of pace. From management perspective, how do you handle the change fatigue in an organization that is constantly changing and trying to meet these ambitious national goals within the region? What is your take, Miss Shahara, on this? So, I think we need to first hand have a strong membership. If you look at Saudi Vision 2030, the leadership has been really great, especially in this region. Inclusivity have been one of the best things that have happened, especially the Middle Eastern region was not known for it, but now we can see it due to the more communication which is actually shared amongst all platforms and the fact that people are given a lot of opportunities, also prioritizing changes instead of doing everything in one go, how you do it like step by step because you can't have a cultural shock as it may because that would actually be disruptive as a whole. So, what the vision statements of this region has been doing is introducing little by little to these changes. So, I guess if you say strong leadership, that is what is required and I think that is required in terms of an employee's well-being and also having that sanity at the end of the day that that we are ready for the changes to come. Thank you. Mr. Massimiano, what is your perspective on this topic? Yeah, it's I think the major consideration is related to the governance document that you have in your organization. So, when a country has an AI or technological programs, uh there is a number of different organizations living in that country that serve uh different business stream. I can go from education, medical, car manufacturers, whatever you want. And you are faced with two different layer. One, what kind of technology do you need internally to fulfill the needs of your organization, and then the second step, understand how your organization may contribute contribute, okay, contribute to develop and to achieve of the target of the strategy of the country. Not necessarily you may be in a position to contribute or maybe your working in industry get can easily contribute. Look for example in UAE now the implementation of the invoices. So, we may not be able to contribute in something but for sure implementing the IT technologies and platform to integrate our service to the invoicing system will support the strategy of of the country itself. So, it's a double kind of it's a it's a double edge. You have to analyze what you need in your organization and based on what you do, which part of your organization may contribute to the goals of the country in itself. Okay. So, now let us talk about the global global trends and remote and hybrid works often clashes with traditional regional management styles and values of physical presence and hierarchy. What are the best strategies for the managers to build trust and maintain performance in the hybrid environment? Mr. Massimo, first. I was I was with me. I'm sorry. No, I That's fine. That's I guess 100% in tune with my actual situation because I work in an an organization with a global footprint. Uh worldwide and my team itself will span from the west of Africa down up to the east of India. So, I work in different time zone most of the personnel works uh remotely. Uh I would say that uh one of the mistakes that the youngest me was doing uh was try to please everyone in terms of a cultural understanding. But then over time you come to the realization that world build trust is consistency. So, if you remain consistent to who you are, to the message that you give, to what the company have to deliver, slowly those barriers generated by remote working, the lack of physical interaction and in terms of talking face-to-face, the distance uh on uh time zone, slowly they fade away. It's a long process but I guess trust is built over consistent consistent messaging. So, if you maintain your position consistently, your behavior are consistent, those are easily overcome. Oh, okay. Thank you. Dr. Sihara, what is your take? Yeah. So, I think in terms of trust as Massimo pointed out, trust is really important and in order to actually do that, I think from the standpoint of the owners as against the employees, you should also have that focus in terms of results and not really physical presence which I think we experienced during the COVID times where everyone had to I mean, we had no choice but to work from home. But that actually gave way to a lot of building in terms of trust building. So, now if you take our company for instance, our head office is actually in India. So, we manage the office in the Middle East. So, our our management and our senior managers, they have the trust in us that we would have all our tasks done and ready in due course. It's not just about the being the physical presence of it but just focusing on what the end result would should be. So, you need to kind of also give leeway to uh be flexible in terms of maintaining accountability. So, and the trust actually grows in employees when they feel that they are supported and not really monitored. I think that's the main thing because sometimes they feel, "Oh, we are being monitored." But that's not the kind of impression that you should give and especially as a senior leader, if you are able to and make them understand, "Okay, this is what we want to do and this is the result that we hope for. This is your timeline. So, you ensure that this task is completed at this amount of time." And then that would be your first step towards building that trust, completing your tasks on time. So, I think So, to build trust, proper communication is mandatory in short. That's right. So, communication as always plays the most important role. So, if you actually communicate what you need and what your requirements are along with your leaders, along with your subordinates as well, you need to ensure that everyone is on the same page basically. So, communication plays a huge role and I think most often what happens is when there is not enough communication, that's when that trust goes a little bit away and then there is a little bit of mistrust against each other which I think could be avoided if in the first place it's properly communicated as to the goals, what exactly your end result should be. If that is properly communicated, I think there's a more smoother way of working towards our goals. Okay. Thank you. So, Mr. Massimo, now let us talk about the talent retention. As GCC, if you talk specifically about GCC, it is it already became too much competitive market and as region as we talk about this region becomes a global hub for talent. Competition is very high. How should leaders use a future of work such as flexible structures and purpose-driven leadership as a strategic tool to retain high potential local and international talent? >> >> It's the question of the century. To give you the straight answer is very difficult because um um we are talking about people and people have different needs and different understandings. Um Today, I guess my answer would be and uh ensure that flexibility is personalized. Uh we have tools for example artificial intelligence provided tools to maximize the understanding of every single person contribution to the business. In the past, we were only looking at time sheets and we can only see how many hours a person put into the day. That was the limit. Today, I changed completely because the capability to analyze data in terms of hourly cost against generated revenue give us the opportunity to measure actually the contribution that a person put into the hours. So, I don't need a person to work 8 hours in a row anymore just to say, "Okay, you worked 8 hours in a day and uh you actually fitted the bill." I have people that work 3 hours um revenue and profit that people that works over 8 hours. So, I think personalization it's important. Let people understand that the implementation of technologies like artificial intelligence uh they buy them freedom. They are not taking anything away. It just actually allow managers and institution organization to give the real value of a personal employee contribution to an organization in a very focused analytic way. So, I would say my answer today will be this one. Personalize this to to guarantee people their uh ad hoc tailored um working time if if you allow me the this definition and keep monitoring. Okay. So, Dr. Sihara, what is your opinion regarding this thing? So, I think one of the main things for talent retention, especially if you take the UAE and some of the other destinations, I think opportunity of offering more flexible work options has become the norm. In terms of the visa process as well, this digital nomad visa which is offered in different parts of the world for those who are talented, I mean, that's a really great option because you can work wherever you want which means you're flexible so long as you deliver. I I if just think about the tech companies, half of the tech companies are from India. And they are the ones who would answer your calls. So, that itself is a talent. And it doesn't mean that you need to really have that talent in what specific market. So, some of the options that you can offer is to create that purpose for a person to actually stay in that company. So, in certain times, yes, people feel that they are not acknowledged for all the work that they have been doing, for all that they have brought into a company. So, from a leader's standpoint, so we also need to understand how to make that person feel that he or she is appreciated for all the talent that has brought in. Because everybody spends a lot of time in a company giving their talent. Each and every single person brings along with them at least a few talents. It may not come in as the best designer or the best writer, but it could be solving a very simple issue. It may be a small admin issue, or it may even be someone who's really good in supervising the cleaning of the office, or maybe they are very good at communicating with other people and bringing in partnerships. So, each and every person brings a talent. So, that talent needs to be recognized. It also needs to be shown to the particular person or persons that it's something which is most important, and the the person him or herself is important for the growth of the company. Because the growth of a company or an organization, whether it's public or private, it always depends on people. There can be technology, but at the end of the day, it's the people's talent that matters. AI didn't just come out of nowhere. It was created by people. It was created by someone. The first person who wrote the data analytics or the data the data search options, it was a person. It was not something that just popped out. So, human qualities are important. A small talent of each and every person should be recognized. Most companies have different ways of rewarding talent as well. Sometimes, you would if you're really good in sales, the way they appreciate it is by giving them, let's say, a percentage of the sales that you bring in. If you have a good notion of getting more partnerships on board, then you're given a certain percentage for those partnerships. So, apart from that kind of reward, which can be monetary, it can also be something more psychological as well, keeping in mind that the person needs a little bit of mental push as well, because mentally, you need to you need that person to know that he or she is appreciated, which actually brings in more motivation. The person would want to build the company more and do more for the company. So, I think if they feel that they are valued, and if they feel that they are being heard, I mean, sometimes, one example, I hope there is time, I could give you is I know this gentleman for a very long time. He actually came in first as a front office manager in a specific hotel. Today, he's one of the leading area managers in the region. Excellent. >> And what he does is he recognizes once there was one gardener who came up to him, and he was only a junior manager at the time, and came up to him with a solution to do something sustainable for the company. And the gardener said, "You know, if we do this kind of composting, we can ensure that we have our own garden. We have a large garden. Why not we make use of it, and we can generate revenue?" So, he took a chance on this talent, and he always says, in all his keynotes and everywhere he speaks, how he recognizes each and every person. And this is something that I have been experiencing as well, because each and every small idea or even a strategy that is given by anybody should be for the growth of the company. Definitely. The organization, the company's growth depends on people. And for for technology to come in, people are really important, because without people, there'll be no technology. We have come through almost a couple of decades with experiencing different forms of technology, calling it different phases. But we here we are here today because we are still developing systems that would make our lives easier. So, I think I'm sorry it took a longer time, but I think No problem. So, madam Miss Zara, we also want to listen from you that what two strategies your company is using to retain the talent. Then we will ask the same question to Mr. Masumian. Yeah. So, in terms of our company, one of the main things that they do is they actually ensure that we are appreciated right along. So, when it comes to our management, they are very strategic in pitching us as important people. They will always ask us, "Okay, this is what we want to do. What is your opinion?" So, each of us do have that platform where we can share our opinions with our owners. So, when the company owners know that this is the opinion of the people, they also understand. So, I have been with the company for almost 12 years. And most of the people have been in this company for a very long period of time, some even 20 years. So, that is the trust which is built, and our company has built that talent and that trust right across. Because because being open to communication once again, at the end of the day, it's communication that's important. If you have good strong communication, the growth of the company is really great. So, today we are where we are. We started with one branch office, but now we have two branch offices in the Middle East, and we are looking at the third and a fourth. So, which means we are at a much better level because of communication. So, at the end of the day, it's communication that really matters. I hope So, now we should appraise your HR manager or the board? I think the board and HR manager both. More than anything else, the board takes a lot of decisions, and it comes through the HR manager. So, I think all in all, the whole management stream Uh-huh. brings in all those changes. Definitely, definitely. So, Mr. Masumian, please share your experience on employee retention strategies. Oh, well. I I will use one comment from the audience. So, let's say it's the talent doesn't need to be manager, it needs to be liberated. And it's beautiful. You know, it's a beautiful comment. But we need to transpose this into reality, because today every organization operates under a very strict boundaries that are certifications. We have policy and procedure. And everything has to be done in a repetitive manner that is measurable and is auditable. Okay. >> And it doesn't really It doesn't really help to liberate talents. Mhm. It's um myself, I mean, in my organization, uh we try to find way I mean, we believe we believe that AI can help to remove the from the occasion from the question. Uh the repetitive works, accounting, review of documents, uh consolidations, this can be done by AI. And this should free times for people to think out of the box, review the process, and find different solution to do the same things in a more effective way. And I do believe that there is no pay rise and bonus that makes a person happy like knowing that he made a difference. Some I have people that made difference in my organization. I I would like to think that I am one of them, but I can tell you I have at least three guys in my office that they made a revision on on process, streamline processes, make it cheaper, make it easier, and make it better. So, maybe we should re-look at the entire process on our organization that run because uh when we want to measure everything automatically we put everything in a box. And that become very difficult to liberate talents. Then uh I don't know if it makes sense. Yes, yes, definitely, definitely. Okay, now uh let us jump to our to discuss about the global volatility. We have seen that global volatility volatility can disrupt even the most stable resource chain. Based on CMI professional standard for managing risk, what is the one leadership habit that most effectively prepares an organization to stay resilient during sudden shift in the markets? Mr. Masumio, let us start with Okay. The fundamental things is transparency. Every single individual in the organization need to understand where the company sit in the panorama of the business. And I guarantee you very very few they really know where the company sit. Is my company big? Is my company successful? How we compare to the competition? Are we leading the market? Are we following the market? Uh there is a the tendency coming probably from the 70s that the management have to retain the knowledge that shouldn't be shared because the knowledge is our power. But today with the AI everybody got knowledge. I mean my daughter she's 19. She can ask ChatGPT the same question that I'll ask and come with the very similar answers. So, it's not anymore like before. And we need to allow our personnel to understand where we are and where we are going. Because when this is clear the action, the strategy, the technology that we want to implement, they become meaningful. They will understand why we are doing something. Even if you have to do a salary reduction or promotions, when you understand why you do it you can digest it. When things are imposed, the first reaction as a human being is rejection. Why you are doing this on me? We are all smart guys. We are all have families. We all have to run budget. We all we only work check to check to be sure that our budget fit at the end of the month. Our company is not different. They just need to understand where we are. So, as Dr. Chiara said before, communication transparency is everything. Trust is built over evidence. Otherwise, we talking about faith. Faith is when you trust on something that you don't see. You just trust. But this is business. So, we need This is not about faith. It's about trust. Trust comes when you show, when you explain, and they buy in. Then you can go wherever you want in each direction you like. The company will move as one body. Okay. Dr. Chiara, what is your take? So, I think one of the first things is to always have I think we learned a lot of lessons especially from COVID times. And risk analysis and being ready for all those risks of change, we actually learned it the last the hard way actually during that time. So, right now what I feel is people are more prepared and they know that there is risk involved. So, one of the first things I think as a leader especially coming from chartered management side, uh we need to be more proactive. I remember long years ago I used to work for an advertising firm. So, we had this CEO and the first word coming out of his mouth all the time was try to be proactive. This was when I was very young and at that time we were thinking oh, why is this person asking us to be proactive? And we used to question him. But I remember how he took us. So, since it was from an advertising background, he actually made us go to a print shop. And he made us see how the printing is done. He ensured that all the younger candidates were able to see the whole process of printing. So, so that we can explain to our customer, okay, this is the process. This is how a sheet goes into a machine and this is how it's printed and this is how it will be printed if you don't get the proper image and if you don't get the proper JPGs or or the resolution for it. So, from that point onwards we also realized at a very early age that it's important to be proactive. So, I think we um kind of changed our perception as well and also coming from a background where we had to live uh one day at a time because we we had a similar situation coming from an Asian country and we basically grew up with it. Like 30 years of our life was with it. Uncertainty and not if we will see tomorrow. So, for people like us who already have had that purpose of risking everything, the purpose of not knowing what tomorrow would be, um we basically managed to be more proactive. So, we would always think out of the box and as a chartered manager I think that is one of the first things that we also learn when we do our courses and when we actually answer those questions that um a resilient organization don't just react, but they basically are prepared for the crisis before it happens. So, I think UAE is a great example uh because they talk about the weather conditions for example. So, they're very prepared with what they need to do because of proactivity and even today we are here because of that safety net. Uh the trust that we have with the authorities and imagine 10% of the population is keeping 90% really safe. And I think from that point of view it's strong leadership and being proactive. I think these two together makes a vast difference. So, I hope I answered uh your question, Salman. Yes. Mr. Masumio, if we discuss about the current geographical tension, I just want to know what type of risk management for example in your industry is doing to protect the business as well as the jobs of the employees. Yeah. Working in the Middle East give you a little bit of an advantage especially for the 30 years compared than working in country where we consider stable. So, the risk of political or geopolitical shocks are always taken in consideration every year when we do business risk assessment. As Dr. Chiara said, you have to be proactive. You can't react in a situation that is uh Uh we had minimal disruption even though we work in an essential uh um essential business stream. So, we cannot not work. So, we have to work also in situation of flooding and worst situation we we can energy stop flowing. So, we go to work even in the worst case scenario. Uh we need to pass the message that the situation is under control from a leadership point of view. I mean in CMI we always confront ourself on how you manage a situation that is uh difficult, is emotionally challenging, and is actually physically at risk like a war, like flooding, geopolitical shocks, or any kind of major disruption where you are actively involved. So, we are here telling our people that the situation is under control while we are also exposed to the same level of risk. Uh I think I think people in these moments they are more looking at the way you communicate things rather than what you communicate because as I said they have access to the same information. When we establish a reference point that can be governmental bulletin, that can be internal risk assessment and emergency protocols for procedure and protocols to manage emergency. Those are reference points and this is what we have to follow. The management has to transmit the confidence even though we may not have all the answer. That we analyze the situation every moment step by step and we share this information with them and we take the decision with them. And they will follow. I have 300 people working at the moment between Saudi, Qatar, here. And we all know the situation. We keep it pulling it. Because Dr. Shah say 30% of the population managed to protect us from from external uh factors but our duty is to keep the economy running. So there are no excuses. We are there. And again uh confrontation between managers, between leadership and alignment is the most important things. Mano, Shahman, do you have something to add on this? What do you think? Yeah, so I think in the industry during the past let's say almost three to four weeks the industries that I work on are basically on the trade side in terms of travel, tourism, hospitality, cargo, logistics and supply chain. If you take all these into consideration, each and every industry have been doing whatever possible to keep the momentum, the positive momentum forward and they have been contributing in various ways of ensuring the stability of the the current times that we are facing and even from our standpoint, from our company's perspective, what we want to do is to keep that momentum going because whatever said and done this these kind of small hurdles coming, it's not new. This is basically history repeating itself. So we would have pandemic situations, maybe tsunami situations, volatile situations. These are things that we have been seeing and we've heard about it during history. We have learned history and we've we've known what it's been like right throughout history. So these are just short-term uh hurdles that we need to basically somehow or other go through and sometimes being positive uh like what we are today gives a very good sense in terms of going forward and especially when it comes to leadership, this is where it's different because if you have a strong leadership like the one in the UAE or even in Saudi, if these leaderships these leaderships are the reason that we are so strong and we have become ambassadors today although none of us are actually from the region is because we have created that trust because they have actually become the leaders of who they are. They have shown they never speak but they do it in action. So there's a lot of people who love to speak but there's no action. But here what we've realized being here in the UAE, I have realized myself personally how different the leadership is and how this leadership has given me the opportunity to be positive and it's the same right across all boards of those whom I work with and even the partners that we work with. You speak with anybody, everyone is an ambassador for the UAE. And everyone wants the best to happen. So everyone's in that notion where they want something good to come out of something which is a very short-term kind of disruption. But they know that at the end of the tunnel there is a light. So everyone's working towards that tunnel just as we worked during the COVID time. We were looking at that silver lining at the end of the tunnel, the light at the end of the tunnel. So I mean we are once again in that same process. So going forward, strong leadership, communication, these two are really important. So that's why our leadership tells us um believe what comes through the original channels. This is also a very responsible way because we each of us need to be responsible in what we report, in what we uh tell other people. There are lots of other countries who report AI originated um uh news items which is not the way. So here what the uh leadership did is leadership actually told taught the people this is why we want you to only listen to these channels. So they made sure that there was a clear path of communication. So if you are a strong leader, this is how things will turn out. Everything would be positive in life because if you have a strong leadership who would communicate with with everyone, even the employees. If you communicate this is how it should be because of this reason and give the reasons behind it. That's when you know that your goal is already done. Okay. Okay, before we proceed to our next question, I would like to urge all the audience if they have any question, they can drop it in our this chat box so we will take all your maximum questions to reply in the end of Q&A session. So now let us discuss something about today's generation. The Middle East has one of the youngest population in the world. How must the leaders or managers styles evolve to manage a future of work where the expectation of Gen Z employees around ethics, sustainability, transparency might differ from the established corporate norms? Dr. Shahara. So um it's it's interesting because my daughter and I had the same conversation last evening and again this morning about her generation and my generation. And one of the things that even I have realized um having a daughter in her 20s is that uh they as Gen Z expects honesty, that's number one and they want to be included and also they need a purpose as to why it's happening. So if I think these three are really important being included in whatever that is being done, having that purpose and honesty and I think another one I would throw in is transparency which is most important. So I think if you are open and if you would like to have those values brought in I think some of the the gaps, the generational gaps would um be able to kind of we'll be able to close it better than you know because sometimes uh in our generation we had to trust even without seeing. Whatever that was given uh we needed to we we would not ask questions but we would just say yes, that's the way to go forward. And uh but today uh next generation, the Gen Zs would always ask us, okay, why is it that we have to do it? Is there a way that we Is there a reason why we are doing it? They would question you and at that time you would need that answer to ensure that you answer honestly. Yes, we need to do it in this manner because this is how we achieve our goals. So if you are to achieve goals technology is important. We can cut short a lot of the manual work that is being done. And what you need to do is ensure that the manual work is done in an efficient manner and time-saving manner. So, if you take a Gen C person, he or she would be able to do it in no time. I think Massimo shared with us earlier on because they know exactly how to do it in a much shorter period of time than another person. Maybe uh a Gen Alpha or Gen X person. Mhm. Mr. Massimo, I would like to ask you one last question. Okay, how this Chartered Manager framework and Chartered Management status help you to sharpen your manager or leadership skills? It helped me a lot. And I'll tell you why. And not because I'm a fellow member of the CMI. Mhm. Uh I like to read. I like to study. So, for me, knowledge is something I'm thirsty about knowledge. I want to learn. And today it's plenty. Even 10 years ago was plenty of tutorials, video, books on things. The issue was I joined the CMI I think 10 years ago, maybe or 9 years ago. There was no structure. So, I was taking bits and pieces of knowledge and do this collage, this puzzle together. And sometimes the pieces didn't really didn't really overlap properly. So, you look at the full picture, you say, "Okay, it's not bad, but it's not perfect." The CMI they gave me structure. So, self-reflection, uh the opportunity to confront myself with other managers, learning from experience from others. Plus the um the course product progression, the material that they provide and make available to the members uh is not just thrown in a repository like that and you have to look at it. It really follows step-by-step a learning progression. And for me, was a great help. So, having someone that put together in a clear and very easily understandable frameworks, okay, you start from here. It doesn't matter where you start because there is a system. I was playing online recently on the new web web page forms. The self-assessment automatically tell you where you start. So, you don't have to start from zero. You may start from number 13, number 45, number 78 of the training material available. And from there, you go on. So, it's such a flexible and yet personalized uh system that from the point of view it really supported my growth a lot. But, I would say the most important part for me, I didn't felt alone. You know all these uh Tik Tok and Instagram, uh issue of leadership, you are alone. Mhm. It's not true. It's not true. Look at us. Me, Salman, Shahara, we are not alone. I have a problem, I text Shahara, "Listen, how would you do this?" You know what I mean? You are not alone. Mhm. That's to me is the biggest achievement. The idea that no matter what I have to face, I have friends. I have this huge family around the world. Even you today I'm picking up such amazing idea from the comment that you guys have are writing down here. It's in front of me. I can see new comments, new comments. I would like to answer to everything. That would have been a 1-week long webinar. And as much I would like because it would really satisfied my ego. Exactly. I'm but trust every single question you put there has been written. So, I don't know if this answer your question or why CMI has been important in my life and my career as a manager. Okay. So, Dr. Shahara, how how it helped to you? So, actually being a Chartered Manager helped me in a lot of ways. Like it basically enhanced my leadership career skills as well. Uh especially coming from a background where I wanted to be in leadership for a very long period of time. So, little by little, this uh coming into the management course itself, it helped me realize what is important in terms of decision-making. It gave me a whole new way of looking at things and how to basically tackle those issues. And of course, to talk to people just like Massimo said, you have colleagues, you have peers who'd be able to support you in terms of what sort of skills you need to do. And uh if basically you want to grow as a leader and uh be a more professional, I think it's important to kind of uh concentrate and invest on something like Chartered Managers because it makes you it helps you stand out from the rest. Because you learn those skills and sometimes you enhance the skills that you already have. Because in my case, some of the skills which I had, I was able to enhance them better uh mainly because I went through every documentation um that was provided and uh learning all those skills and enhancing it made me I think a better leader as well going forward. Excellent. Madam, now let us jump to our Q&A session due to time constraint. So, first question I would like to ask you, Dr. Shahara, uh we got this question would there be the points on how HR could help managers? It's a generic question someone asked. HR, right? Yes. Right. So, I think HR actually plays a very important role in every organization. If you have a strong HR HR is actually the kind of the connector between the employee >> Sorry for interruption, Madam. This is generic question, not related to HR. Okay, would there be the points on how this AI could help managers? Oh, okay. AI. Okay. So, AI actually is a very important aspect in today's society. And we know that going forward, AI would be the way to kind of be more efficient, be more productive, and that would actually impact every aspect of your life. So, if there are points how it could help managers, some of the ways that it could actually help the managers to go forward would be to kind of give them that efficiency and uh turn turn around time. It would be much easier because your time is cut short. And you're able to look at the problem and to go about it with the use of technology, which would be AI. Because if for example, um in the line of uh let's say you have a BL and you're a cargo operator. So, you need your cargo to move from point A to point B. And what better way than to have AI do it for you? Because then you don't need to waste a lot of time filling out all the forms. Instead, within a very short period of time, it would be able to uh manage what needs to be done. And it would be going forward. So, this would be cutting uh short that period of time. I think um as a manager, long time ago, when Excel was first brought in long years ago, Mhm. this this was our time AI, I would say. Because Excel sheet uh made you see how you can make the profit faster. Yeah. And I think in our masters, we learned how to build it faster. And uh especially for the projects, when you have to do like a project proposal, you know exactly how to do it. So, today we are calling it AI, but we also grew up with these kind of technologies, which was disruptive at that time. So, I think AI is important to managers. It's just that it's how you basically make it to your benefit. And not be a slave to AI, but make AI work for you. I think that's how I would put it. Yes. Mr. Massimo, we have like couple of questions. So, be to to the point. Like next question is, how you lead multi-generation while remaining authentic to your leadership philosophy? Yeah, I never had an issue with multi-generation also because my biggest love is also my worst enemy. It's my 19-years-old uh So, I love her. The most thing is the things I love the most, but uh being 19, everything I say become wrong by definition. Um we work. We have employee there are 68. We have employee there are 22. I think we just accept the difference. Respect. It's I think it's the key. Respect, and authenticity. And consistency. We don't need to treat everybody at the same way. I don't I don't believe in uh equality in that sense. I believe that everybody needs to be treated the way they have to be treated based on their education, religion, heritage, and everything. So, I adapt the way I deal with someone. I don't adapt my leadership principle. Those remain very firm. So, my principle, my beliefs are firm. But, my fairness it's not the same across the board. So, I deal in different way with different people, but they also know understand why I do it. So, it's a universally accepted. I In the last years, I didn't have any of those issue. And trust me, working in the Middle East, I have four or five different religion. And if I'm not wrong, based on my last quarterly report, 27 different nationalities working in my office. So, you're going to make everybody happy eventually. Okay. Okay, Dr. Shahada, next question is for you. Okay, every change is connected to emotion of a person affected by the change. How can lead a change disconnecting the emotion of a people from the situation? So, I think emotions are really important for people. And I think we also come from a very emotional background. When you are at a young stage, you become more emotional in all the changes that happen. But, I think it has to be with experiences as well. Because if you have had enough experience the way in which you deal with your emotions is different. Each person deals with emotions differently. Uh like for example, lots of people have anxiety. Uh if they are told all of a sudden of a change that's to happen that person is going to be very anxious. And the person is going to ask you "Oh, what does this mean to you? What does this mean to me? And how am I going to uh go out for the rest of the month if by chance it's something really drastic?" So, uh as a manager, as a leader uh when dealing with that, we also need to be more professional in what we say and in how we uh basically communicate. You can't just say, "Oh, you be emotionless." And just say, "Okay, this is the reason. Uh you do it this way, and you just uh use your authority." Uh using authority and using professionalism are two different things. You can use authority if you're going to be the um the leader of armed forces where you uh get them to march uh in a straight line. But, in the corporate world, your marching is different. You need to march in a professional manner. Where you need to ensure that people who would fall on the way, you need to know how to pick them up. So, professionally, you need to ensure that the emotions are kept intact. Mhm. Again, I go back to my communications, which I think is very important, but little do people realize the impact of communications. It's really important to communicate in the proper manner. So, if you want someone to be emotionally guarded that's the best way forward that I would say. Okay, thank you, madam. Now, Mr. Masumian, another live question we got now. Okay someone asked, "I have been supporting a number of leadership teams with the cultural change. In common, they all wanted to be more effective and reduce bureaucracy. AI offers solution. What is your thought?" Uh absolutely. Uh bureaucracy has always been an issue in every organization, especially if you think of an audit, at the end of the audit, how much paperwork just to be able to get a certification. Mhm. AI, it's a perfect tool. It's a tool that should remove the need for a person to do a repetitive job. And I guess that is also the limitation at the moment because this is the one of the only way employee they see AI. Okay, AI is there to do the repetitive task. It's not only there to do the repetitive task. AI can only be used to creative task if you ask the right question. So, there is still a um a part of learn, a learning curve from both management and employee. But, definitely, uh I I can see uh that the best way to implement AI is identify the area where AI can remove bureaucracy and tasks that repeat on a daily basis. And to be honest, to be perfectly honest, no human being should be burdened on this Excel and um uh access file for more than 20 minutes per day. But, uh I support this. Yes, I think that's the way to go. Okay. So, Dr. Shahada, another question is for you live. Okay, there are leaders who believe that working from home uh and at work working in the office is best, which reduce flexibility and engagement. What is the best way to encounter that mode of thinking? So, um see, it depends on your industry. If by chance your industry if you're working as a teller in a bank, or if you're going to be at the service counters yeah, it's important that you need to actually be present physically because you are interacting with uh uh customers. But, in um in the case that if by chance you're not interacting with customers then uh the management and the leaders also need to understand how flexibility and engagement could be curtailed at the most. Because um the mode of thinking of the leaders and the management is, "Oh, if we don't uh see them, we don't know what they're doing." So, that comes falls into the category of trust, which we spoke about, I think uh in length at the beginning. So, trust is something which needs to be worked on uh between the leaders and the employees. So, between the owners and those other stakeholders and everybody within the company, they need to know what's actually happening. So, if they know that this is how it's going to be then they are able to trust the people uh who will be working for them. So, the leaders need to actually have that trust, especially for work from home. Like I said earlier if there is uh so, the leadership also needs to change their mode of thinking. And uh the leaders also need to know how to uh kind of get these situations um to adapt to these situations. Because most of the leaders uh if by chance it's a a family-owned institution the leadership may differ. But, if they have the professional qualifications, if they are a chartered manager, or if they have received uh anything from a professional body they would know how to go about in terms of working from home as against working uh on site. So, I think that's what I can tell. Yes, and unfortunately, due to time constraint, we have to wrap up the session. So, thank you all for joining us today. Today, we explored how leaders can balance AI and digital transformation with a strong focus on human side manage hybrid teams in a region that values the presence and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive market. Before I hand over the session to Miss Hema, I would like to thank everyone again. Goodbye, and we have we look forward to seeing you again in our next event. Thank you. Thank you. Don't forget, as a CMI member, you can find the latest management and leadership insights at managers.org.uk. If you're not yet a member, join our community to discover CMI confidence with on-demand resources, our network of mentors, and industry-leading accreditations. >> >> Mhm.