When you think about a great leader, who comes to you mind? Someone who must be an impactful figure in your life, right?
Leadership in workplace has been making headlines in the past couple of years. Briefly introduced, leaders balance vision with support, empowering team members to achieve common goals. I’ve got no better guest than MJ to talk about leadership and empathy with me today.
- To start with, would you tell us who is Mohamed Jawher?
I am Mohamed Jawher Daly, two months ago I celebrated reaching the age of 27. I pride myself on my multiple achievements of the past few years as I have managed to learn my way through and learn the ways to become more consistent, visionary and disciplined through applying the hard-working quality that I earned from my father.
Specifically speaking, I have pushed myself beyond my limits in the past two years by being the director of Cyber Division and I knew that I am capable of achieving more by relying solely on self-criticism and creative thinking/knowing that my comfort zone will not serve me any good.
- Mohamed Jawher Daly, how did you become who you are today? The Director of a multinational and world-class Tech company!
It was not magic or a straight road that led me to where I currently am. I discovered my interest in the IT field at a young age. As a millennial experimenting with technology at the age of 7, I’ve always wanted to be a proactive member of this space.
How I became the person I am today goes deeper than that, the dark phase that I went through played a huge role in how I operate today. I’m sure a lot of people relate to it. I am a strong believer in the gradual accumulation of experiences throughout the years, and I also believe in connecting the dots between present and past events.
When I look back to where I actually started, everything leads to this point. Acquiring my first computer, taking the first baby steps to learn adobe photoshop, illustrator and the rest of the softwares as an approach to becoming a graphic designer.
I encountered my first huge setback when I discovered the limitations of the Tunisian educational system. As a young man who has shaped all of his swords and was ready to go on the journey of acquiring his graphic designer degree, I felt like it was almost impossible within the walls of ISAM Mahdia.
To keep it brief, I had what was required for becoming a graphic designer but I did not have good numbers on the papers so they(administration) decided that I would be a good fit for the 3D Design department.
Months later, I decided that this is a no-good road and that I will end up being a failure because on one hand I had zero f*cking interest in 3D, and on the other hand because we all know here how much of a broken system the education in Tunisia is. I had no choice but to embrace who I am and follow what I was passionate about; I became a full-stack designer through learning UI/UX design, and front-end development by myself. This journey led me to become the director of Cyber Division.
- What in your opinion makes a leader?
The fact that I am the director of Cyber Division plays a huge role in my perspective on what makes a good leader!
What makes a good leader is the ability to be at the forefront of the playground. To not admit to fears and challenges, and always see through the current events. In other words, what makes a good leader is the ability to lead by action and initiate day-to-day tasks.
A leader is an individual who possesses an important set of skills that make it easy on him and on the people around to work together. Communication, resilience, consistency, respect and the ability to build and maintain trust with people are key factors. As a leader, you will have to be responsible for yourself and the people around you.
Being a good leader involves too many factors and I believe that each person has his own style of leadership but in the end of the day, all that it requires is a clear goal, consistency and the ability to unite the people around you through a shared vision and a good flow of communication to build trust.
- A leader makes a healthy work environment, how would you define such an environment?
What makes a healthy work environment in one word, I would say communication.
When speaking about it, I always tend to mention how things operate within Cyber Division team because it is one of the ultimate versions of a healthy work environment.
Speaking from experience, communication is one of the three pillars that we focused on since the beginning of founding our company. From executives to co-workers.
- I personally think that a leader is essentially a socially intelligent individual. Let’s talk it, shall we? Do you think socially intelligent people are born with it or it’s something you work on improving?
Sometimes in your journey you get to encounter someone and by the end of a conversation you be like “wow, this person is a good listener” that reaction that you get is what makes that one person socially intelligent. Their social intelligence lands in being a good listener.
Now the question is, are we born with these qualities or do we get to obtain them during our journey?
I believe that each one of us is born with one of the qualities of social intelligence but they don’t get to discover them until they are put in different situations and face different scenarios. People will tell you that you are a good listener, others will point to your ability to influence or motivate others and on and on.
So to sum up, social intelligence is a quality that we are born with, but we don’t get to discover until we socialize.
- Thank you Mj for this interesting conversation! I’m sure a lot will relate to the broken education system and how it can affect someone’s career choices.
Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed reading about this topic, leave me in comments below who do you consider a leader, right now in your life?
Mom is my leader!