Emotional Intelligence with Emad Al-Ablani | GM Group HR – NBK

what’s your leadership philosophy?

Well, leadership philosophy, it’s like a compass that, anyone needs, that service. Any activity without any leadership, let’s say, dimension, it will be a chaos situation. It will be, let’s say, less productive, and, it might lead to more frustration and burnout. So, leadership, I think it’s very essential to any, teamwork, any, let’s say, corporate group. And it requires a lot with that leadership. And we may talk about later on, from, let’s say, vision perspective, strategy perspective.

Even the implementation itself. Because strategy without the right way of implementation, then, it would be only an ink on paper.

How would you be able to implement, you know, your leadership philosophy, in your day to day work?

I think the philosophy itself for any important thing within the organization requires one essential key success factor, which is communication. So even if you have a good leadership without, a strong communication, skills or ability, it would be ineffective a bit. And, sometimes that leadership might signal the wrongful, let’s say, signs or direction. So, without a proper communication, leadership might also distract the business, with extra effort that it is not needed for the time being or, let’s say, burnout for the team members and so on my understanding for leadership, it requires a person that can communicate, positively, effectively. And when I say communicate, it’s not only one-way communication. It’s two-way communication.

Because as much as you need to communicate, you need to listen, analyze, and feed give feedback and so on. So, it’s a continuous effort from the leadership, side, toward the team. And, always, listen, because by listening to others, we’ll definitely allow any leader to readjust the course and, put the full threat.

How do you think emotional intelligence plays a role in the communication between a team and, you know, the management of an organization and the staff?

Emotional intelligence is it’s an extreme required skill. It’s not only for the leaders, even for the team members We need to know each other, not only from a physical interaction point of view because there is unspoken language. During the dynamics of the teams and the, the interaction between the leaders and the teams. And you need to be aware of that. And at the end, we are humans. And humans are, let’s say, might fall sometimes under different source of tensions, whether it’s within the work or outside the work. And the leader or even the team members, if they don’t have a high emotional intelligence capabilities, then it will be harming, the relation on the on the long run. Because at the end, I need I need my boss to care about my not only professional life, even the other life as well. And, I’m sure that being a part of the team, I have a strong, let’s say, attribute that I can, participate within the collective team effort.

But sometimes, maybe there is a lot of, or, some source that drag me down a bit that doesn’t allow me at that at a certain stage not to perform I as I used to be. So, without having a leader that understand me at that time, and, maybe he or she, take the extra mile and dig deep why I’m a bit down, comparing, with other days, then that will, in a way or another, will broke the relation later on. Having said that, being a leader and sitting in that seat, it requires a lot of, let’s say, or it needs you that to be alerted again for the unspoken language or communication, and that will tell you a lot. And because at the end, the people are capabilities and human, respond to something that they drive them or respond to, a motivational, action, whether it’s by word or, a tap on the back.

So, you need to be very careful about that aspect within your team. And without being, fully alerted, definitely, the leader will miss a lot of details during the day. Yeah. Now I’m not saying that leaders should be excessively entering the maybe some zones that the team doesn’t want you to be in. But at least be aware of that and give some excuses. And the smart employees or the teammate will understand that definitely without saying it.

I’m curious to see if you had, if you’re comfortable, like, sharing an example of where there was a conflict or a difficult situation and, the active listening and the understanding of the team members or, the other side have, has helped you resolve this situation.

I think and I’m a true believer that sometimes the you see the situation in front of you, and there is a possibility that you directly interact with it. But if you have enough experience, you would know that there is another way or there is another better way to touch base with that situation. So, you might need to move something very far away. From that situation, and it will indirectly impact. Or create the impact that he would like rather than you directly or physically attend such situation.

And, as an example, sometimes I again, the team or the leaders that really works with me have their own challenges. And, if at that time, if I I’ve decided to act accordingly directly with them, I think there might be some, let’s say, casualties. And, usually, a seasoned leader should avoid any casualties. Yeah. It you should not only calculate the success.

You should also calculate the casualties and the risk that you might be in any situation. And, so, at that, you know, in a specific case, I’ve brought in someone that I really trust within the team at the same level in the team. And I told him in the opening, I think that I cannot, solve this problem or issue without risk, high risk. And I want you to help me in solving this indirectly. So, we’ve agreed on a certain step.

And then I left or trusted that, 3rd party, which is within the leadership team, to go and tackle that person directly. And the issue then solved. And, the guy or the person came in, and he was aware about his situation and, the limits at that time, did not allow him or even allow me as well to interact with him. And, he felt sorry, but I told him, and since we are grown up and, you’ve admitted that there was a situation within you. So, let me tell you something because someday, he will be in my seat.

The guy he who came to you was sent by me. And he was a bit surprised. Then he asked me why you did not contact me directly. I said, I think it was for benefit of both sides, myself and yours. At that time, I don’t think that you were, able or capable to receive any criticism, although it is a constructive one. But he definitely will be on a negative vibe, and you will receive it differently.

And, to tell you the truth, I was not sure about myself that if I see some negativity from you, what is my reaction going to be?

The world is changing, especially after COVID, happened and a lot of workplaces have shifted virtually. And some of them have moved, to a type of hybrid work environment where sometimes you would work in the office and others, work from home. What do you think the future trends of HR are in Kuwait? What are your predictions? And how can, an executive or a leader or yourself prepare your organization to meet or, you know, be on bar with these, upcoming HR trends?

I’m going to be very specific about Kuwait Yes. Because Kuwait is very different environment, I think, even from GCC surroundings. Remote working, it’s good, but definitely cannot provide you with the maximum output that is expected in in a corporate environment within Kuwait and specifically in banking industry. I mean, the banking industry in Kuwait specifically requires a huge interaction, whether it’s with the external customers, individuals or companies or other corporates, or even within the internal customers. It’s proved to us that meeting over, let’s say, Teams or Zoom, it’s productive, but not that much productive. The human interaction adds huge value to the to the, discussion. And, people, while they are discussing and keep connected to each other in presence. While that element would be missed in the, in the virtual world. So, Kuwait, I think, would continue, doing, let’s say, the majority will do on the physical location, working hours. Maybe some of the industries can do it from, home. However, I think work working remotely would give more flexibility for special cases even within the banking, if situation requires that. So in in a nutshell, I think every organization should have a policy for that, to organize that, but not to make it as a common practice. You should have a policy that allow maybe a woman taking care of her kids, newborn kids, to work remotely for, let’s say, 6 months, maybe a year. Based on her, let’s say, situation.

And you don’t lose people because of such limitation. So, I’ve seen that specifically women in, private sector and in a highly demanding, environment like banking. When she, deliver a baby, she goes through a lot of turbulence because she’s new in the motherhood, let’s say. She wants to put more, attention and effort for the newborn baby while, also, she’s in need for a for a job.

But at the end, if there is no, policies or procedures that allow to balance that situation, then definitely the woman will choose home. Choosing home will lead to a resignation. And that resignation, definitely, it’s a loss for us from talent perspective.

And what does it take to keep that talent? Absolutely. To change your mindset, to build up a policy, to, allow you handling or dealing with such situation, let’s say, a legal way, well organized way. And you can’t put lot of things in. The option is you cannot count the options there. So, you decide about the options. And you create that flexibility. But in general, to me, I don’t think that working remotely will be the natural thing in Kuwait. Maybe it will fit for a business that, require, let’s say, less cost or operational cost for the startups, yes, definitely. The, remote working would be an excellent option for them. Yeah. But for big, corporate, it would be very difficult.

And do you see any future trends coming in the Kuwait business environment with regards to HR? Yeah. There will be moving toward the digital world. And, nowadays, digital, maybe it’s only touch base with the services that we offer directly to customer. But, here in MBK, we are trying our best to even create that digital experience, which is an should be an excellent experience even for the job seekers. They don’t need to come here, and we conduct initial, interview just to touch base with them through Zoom or Teams and so on. And then they have to come physically.

Tell us about a challenge that you faced throughout your career, that has, you know, that you’ve been through and has changed your perspective on your work and your life.

I think the biggest challenge that I have faced after graduation is moving from government sector to private sector. I used to work for Kuwait University, and I did excellent 12 years there. Actually, I was doing some HR issues, but in a different way. At that time, I was a responsible person for sending Kuwaiti scholarship to obtain their master degree and PhD. So. there is some relevance if you get it from following up the students and so on. But the, it was the first experience to me, professional experience. And although that Kuwait University was a prestigious place to learn, but when I moved to MBK, it was a kind of shock.

First of all, at that time, which is I have the same, not prospective that maybe the private sector is not safe or not stable. There might That’s actually a question a lot of, people There might be there might be, let’s say, some threats, would lead to, an opportunity to lose your post or your job. So, and, again, I’m moving from an environment has its own, policies and procedures to a new one, which is MBK, extremely organized, well established from procedures and policies, and you need to be aware of them. You need because here in private sector and specifically in MBK, everything is policy and procedure.

There is a huge flexibility, but, again, there is guidelines that you need to abide, you need to respect, and there is a, let’s say, a way of escalation… things… If the policy doesn’t serve you, then you go to the next level and so in order to obtain because we are extremely dynamic. Yes. We are well organized from policy and procedure, but we are not stagnant. We are extremely, dynamic. And if things don’t serve by the policy, then you can escalate and go obtain the right approval from the right authority. So, transfer, changing that mindset from that environment to this environment was one of the biggest challenges, especially, at that time, I was newly married. And, in order to put more effort, it led to that I spend more hours in office. Sometimes, I left office around 11 o’clock night. So, I came specifically in winter.

It’s still dark and go dark. To tell you the truth, any passing that phase was extremely difficult to me, And, my wife really stood to me, and I’m very grateful for her. And then I I’ve tried to start to be more familiar with the culture here, with the with the requirement, but that comes with definitely an effort. It requires a huge effort to read, be aware.

So, I reach a situation to having extra working hours in the office needed to become a habit. So, this is the second challenge. How to break that habit? Because it’s it starts to become normal. I stay till 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock.

But, again, yes, I have the supportive, surrounding, but I should not excessively, misuse it. So, I’ve tried my best to broke that habit and tell myself why shouldn’t I leave in 4 o’clock every day because the working hours at that time finish on, I think, 2:30 or 3. So, I put target for myself. And even if I’m not done with my work, I leave it on the, any desk. I leave.

So, I’ve tried to crunch that any nearly formulated habits and become the, again, the normal person. But it’s not easy. You would feel pain. Sometimes you would feel stress when you come back again tomorrow. You would feel that stress, and that stress continue with you.

And with time with time, you start to acquire more skills and I’m really grateful for MBK for a reason that they do believe in training and development. So, I’ve been through a lot of development programs that allow me to acquire, skills, teach me how to handle stress, how to handle difficult task, how to handle multiple task, how to go beyond the expected results.

I am I’m grateful for MBK is because MBK believes in their people. And I still remember in the old building next to Barkia. I was in my office, and then I received a call from our group CEO. And he said to me, Eman, I’m going to send you to obtain your, executive MBA. It was extremely surprise to me. I did not Expect that offer.  And I accept it immediately without even discussing it with my closest, circle, which is my wife. And when I came back to lunch, I still remember. I said to her, this is what happens to me. And then she said, what did you say? You know, I accepted immediately. And she’s always trying to push me to obtain more, any qualification. So, this is what one of the things that really the environment helps you to evolve and become a better person. And, again, if I go back just for a maybe a word that I have mentioned that I have a suspicious that the private sector is not stable, now I can tell you with a huge confidence that private sector is stable, MBK extremely stable, subject that you perform.

If there’s one thing, only one thing that you can change about the role of HR, what would it be?

Well, always there is opportunity to become better. This is a life hack. And, to answer the question, I think MBK did not, let’s say, hide any resource not to allow MBK to become better.

And we are now, we are not we are not a normal HR in MBK. We are a real strategic business partner for the executive management or and for the business groups. So, we work with them on strategic basis. Most of my strategy as a group human resources serve the business strategies, whether it’s from, talent acquiring or talent development or talent management or even rewards and benefits. So, I think the mindset of the current executive management allow HR to become like an octopus.

We have arm everywhere. And, to answer your question, I think we’ve already had it, that the transformation from being a normal HR or passive HR, let’s say, to proactive HR, strategic business partner, it’s happened already in MBK. Is there anything, in the future?

How that would be? By become more reachable to our employees without a need that they come, to us. And this is where we are going to. There is plenty of automation that we are introducing for HR services. And even from consulting point of view, because we consider ourselves as a consultant for our employees, we are trying our best to be reachable for them, whether through chatbots or AI later on, and things in that direction, Gong.

 I know that I’ve learned it, have it in the hard way, and I would like to make it as much as easy for others to benefit or learn from what me and others other leaders, been through in an easiest way.