Interviewer: Mariham Magdy
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Asmaa has been working in the coaching field since 2016 with more than 150+ coaching hours successfully completed [Accreditation from International coaching federation in Life, Relationship and career coaching, Certified in Psychology principles from oxford University UK, Certified Cognitive behavior coach from the Integrative Wellness Coaching Association, received Training in advanced Cognitive behavior Therapy from Oxford Cognitive Therapy Centre]
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East: “Asmaa, can you kindly share with us to what extent do you believe that today’s HR professionals shall consider psychology to provide a perfect management for the HR function in organizations?
Asmaa Kamel: The awareness introduced now a days to all the internet users from the online platforms and social media, added a considerable highlight on the importance of our mental health as individuals, and the direct connection between our psychological wellbeing and our overall life quality, hence a lot of employees started re-evaluating their current career status quo, and how much their work environment affects their core mental health in a positive or negative way.
And since the strength of any organization depends on the human resources as their main asset for success, maintaining and attracting the high calibres remains one of the biggest challenges the HR function face, so by understanding the recent change in people’s mindset and priorities, providing an understanding environment for the employees became an essential strength tool for organisations growth and sustainability.
2- HR Revolution Middle East: How can the HRM as a discipline benefit from Neuroscience?
Asmaa Kamel: Recently most Organizations directs big sum of their budget to the Learning and development of their employees, investing in their technical and soft skills growth, knowing and understanding the importance of such investment and its ROI on their business success. Investing in programs developed on Neuroscience bases on how to understand and motivate employees have a deeper impact on real grounded changes in their mindset, giving them platform for self-development that is sustainable, and not just another training that fades in a couple of days.
3- HR Revolution Middle East: “Asmaa, I was so much interested when I heard you talking about the necessity of considering organizing our work-places in a way to comfortably accommodate our employees with different personality typology. What piece of advice would you give to HR professionals and business leaders in this regard? To what extent do you believe we might hinder the potentiality of our people when we ignore such adjustments?
Asmaa Kamel: One of the very main points of pain many employees face is considering them all as one type only, and based on it expecting that having one workplace and learning solutions will be fit for all the calibres the organization have.
Employees performance aligns with their capacity to finish and focus on their tasks to provide the best results aligned with the org goals and KPI’S, but our capacity to work with full potential is directly linked with our energy. This energy is defined by our personality type and character, for example there are Introverts and extroverts, recent researches like Scott Barry Kaufman psychologist at Barnard College, Columbia University and the scientific director of the imagination institute, explains that Introverts have different brain wiring, were they respond to neurotransmitter dopamine differently “ dopamine is chemical released in brain to provide motivation to seek external reward, like earning money, getting promoted etc., when dopamine floods in the brain both introverts and extroverts become more talkative, alert to their surroundings, but both respond differently to the amount of it, were Introverts have more sensitivity for it, were too much stimulation can drain their energy, so they would need some quite time to recharge, while extroverts need much dopamine to remain energized, so they will need to keep their social interaction active to keep their energy.
Unfortunately many of the workplaces ignore this fact of people being different, and focus on having one description for successful employees for example , that they have to be talkative, upfront all the time, while there can be excellent calibres that just can’t cope with this criteria out of being biologically different, which may lead to frustration or demotivation, also the work place itself is designed on an open space policy which can be distracting for many of the employees, and keep them from exceeding and can be draining for their energy which can be better used to innovate at work instead.
Awareness of these differences can enhance the communication between managers and their teams to know how to bring the best in each of them, and avoid many unnecessary conflicts that affects the day-to-day operations.
In addition, Managers and leaders will know better how to succeed in dealing with pressure and stress without burnout, respecting own authentic nature, wellbeing and long term healthy mental state and optimum productivity for oneself and team.
So maybe Organizations should reconsider their workplaces designs and performance evaluation criteria, maybe just by making few changes in the environment. There are hidden potentials inside thousands of employees, whom can be game changers inside organizations, just waiting for the right communication channels and motivation strategy to shine.
4- HR Revolution Middle East: Throughout your experience Asmaa, how often do you see organizations missing the right way to unblock the potentiality of their people due to ignoring the psychological part? What are the typical consequences of it?
Asmaa Kamel: I just went through an article published in Harvard Business review, based on thousands of leaders and managers in the course of doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years, and I will quote them below:
“To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivated—and able—to bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviours and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.”
The future directed towards the importance of having a mentally well-maintained workforce. Organizations who resist or fail to shift their mindset towards the same direction might jeopardize sustaining their best calibres especially that big organizations and many startups started to shed light on the importance of respecting their teams’ wellbeing and prioritizing it as one of their main growth factors.
5- HR Revolution Middle East: What new psychological perspective would you share with us to consider in managing employees’ performance nowadays?
Asmaa Kamel: Modern leadership have taken a different shape, You don’t need to hire people telling your employees what they should do, you hire calibers or managers that could help them find their own voices, strengths, empowering them to take the lead and ditch the victim mindset, then they will know what to do , respecting their diversity , needs and values! There is never one size fits all solutions.
Once we have the awareness, learn how to take control and eliminate the negative distortions we become autonomous!
Most large organizations invest in developing employees’ skills, knowledge, and competence. Very few help build and sustain their capacity—their energy—that is typically taken for granted. In fact, greater capacity makes it possible to get more done in less time at a higher level of engagement and with more sustainability.
6- HR Revolution Middle East: In today’s VUCA world, how can we succeed in dealing with pressure and stress without burnout?
Asmaa Kamel: Prioritize, create healthy work habits, take frequent breaks, and always communicate with your team and management to make sure that all are aligned.
Always invest in yourself and growth and most importantly be kind to yourself, Know when to say no when you are overwhelmed.
And of course coaching currently is a great tool that help in identifying the right needs customized per each person, getting them on the right track to have the enough resilience and mental strength to face challenges.
7- HR Revolution Middle East: “If there is a chaos in your mind then all your life details will follow with similar one!” Finally, how can we overcome the chaos in our minds Asmaa?
Asmaa Kamel:
1-The first main key is to understand ourselves, our values, our strengths points, and try to be kind to ourselves towards those things we see as challenging within us and the environment around us,
2-Get rid of distortions, limiting believes, negative talk, unneeded obligations,
3- Do a clear plan and breakdown with daily actions,
4- Create new behaviours and patterns,
If you became hostage of your mood, you will never grow or achieve.
Finally, do not be vacuumed by fast pace of life! Cut technology down – I know it’s tempting to get distracted and give your very loud mind a distraction by checking other’s stories as a temp relief- but it’s actually adding up on your anxiety, you are piling up incidents (mostly negative) they are giving you unconsciously hard time, resulting in huge noise inside our brains.
THANK YOU
