INTERVIEWER: MAHMOUD MANSI
EDITOR: AYAM AMIN
About Marta Sikora:
Marta is originally a Pharmacist. Before she moves to Egypt she worked as a Pharmacy Manager for 3 years. Later on, Marta became an Executive Manager for 4 years for one of the leading aesthetic medicine clinics. She started with one branch and made it to 3 branches in Alexandria and Cairo.
“As you can see, from my past work history, I had to deal with clients and manage different employees. I had to evaluate, train and change people’s behavior for a better work outcome. That’s my passion, and that’s when I started to go for coaching people and for personal development.”
Marta is working now as a Personal Coach, a Trainer and a Speaker in Egypt and she the founder of (www.SuccessWithMarta.com), and she also has her own blog (www.MartasWorld.com). She is certified from Jack Canfield’s Company to train people and teach them the “Success Principles”. She conducts her workshops and courses in several places. One of those places are ALEF Bookstores, Kafr Abdo Branch, Alexandria.
Marta explains further, “I’m teaching people how to become successful in their lives and careers, how to stop their bad habits and how to develop new successful ones. I love doing this and I love seeing people that I coach doing progress and developing new skills.”
THE INTERVIEW
1-HR Revolution Middle-East: You have been working as a personal coach and trainer in the field of Success Principles in Egypt. You mostly focus on coaching women. Why women in specific?
Marta Sikora: When I think of the ideal person I want to work with, it’s definitely a woman. I understand them well, feel for them and go through the same struggles and hardships as them. They can relate to my journey and me, and can find a lot of inspiration and empowerment just by listening to my story. I have a feeling that they open up to me much easier than with male coaches who are the majority in the field of personal development.
In my group coaching or workshops organized just for women, the energy, the insights and the results are multiplied, thanks to the fact that women honestly and loudly speak about the problems they face every day. One girl told me once after the whole course of sessions that she didn’t understand before why it was “Women Only”, but she appreciated that I thought of it and organized it that way. She said the value of sharing and discussing private issues in the safe, welcoming and non-judgmental environment that I created for them during the sessions was priceless.
I invite men to my lectures as well. I know that many of them gain much knowledge and gain new perspective about their life. After all, my first ever coaching session was done “on” my husband, willingly or not, let it be a secret (WINKS).
2-HR Revolution Middle-East: From your own experience and observation, are women in Egypt facing a different kind of abuse than women in Poland? What are the women abuse problems that women in Egypt face?
Marta Sikora: I believe the country doesn’t matter. The kind of abuse doesn’t matter as well. Women just need to know what they can do for themselves to feel safe, protected and free of the acts that cross their personal autonomy. I highly value each person’s autonomy and rights, and nobody should abuse either women or men. The reality is – it happens. Let’s not focus on the act itself, but on protection and prevention of those acts. Most of the focus should be on helping victims of such violence. I would like every woman that feels endangered to know who to ask for help, where to find shelter, and that her life will not end if she escapes the abuse. She can simply feel safe, start her life over again with no shame, stigma nor sad memories.
3-HR Revolution Middle-East: What kind of recommendation do you provide to HR managers in Egypt to protect the rights of women?
Marta Sikora: I am with protecting the rights of all employees, and I believe women and men are different, but equal. The balance in the working environment can be provided if all employees just feel appreciated, heard and understood, regardless of gender. It’s very helpful that the managerial staff understands the differences in approaching women and men, knows about psychological differences and how to communicate effectively with both groups. The best recommendation I can give to any of the HR managers is simply to acknowledge a person for the good job he/she has done. The results of such appreciation might be surprising for some of them.
4-HR Revolution Middle-East: From your coaching experience in Egypt, what are the psychological and external boundaries that block Egyptians from success?
Marta Sikora: The surprising fact is that across the countries I found the same kind of psychological and external limitations during my coaching sessions. Lack of self-confidence, confusion about the career path, disturbance in relationships with others, fear of rejection and fear of failure, feeling “stuck”, lack of support, negative thinking – to name the most common. As for the external boundaries, in Egypt, I definitely hear about the economical status, no clear future opportunities for young people and the vision of better career options abroad.
Those are reported to me as “blocks” to success.
I see it a bit differently. I can find only one real reason that stops Egyptians from achieving success. They need a leader to encourage and inspire them to unleash their full potential, nothing more. I have seen it happening during my coaching or workshops – I give the students a tool, no answers, no guidelines, just a simple tool. They take it, use it according to their own needs and discover a totally new talent that was already there inside of them, but covered up with layers of fear, uncertainty and confusion.
5-HR Revolution Middle-East: You have worked as a Pharmacy Manager in Poland and an Executive Manager in an Aesthetic Medicine Clinic in Egypt. What is the difference between managing Polish and Egyptian employees?
Marta Sikora: I have to admit I needed to change my approach towards management when I started working in Egypt. That is the effect of differences in traditions, customs and mentality of Polish and Egyptian people. It is natural that each nation has its own attributes. Learning and noticing those differences, as well as understanding and being eager to deal with employees here in Egypt, allow me to find the golden mean. I didn’t lose my “European way of thinking”, but I became much more flexible for sure. I always appreciated that all employees need to understand the rules and their importance, to embrace and practice them in day-to-day work. They felt in control of the situation, enjoyed it, because the responsibility was in their hands. After a while they started not only to follow my advice and way of working, but also put more and more useful rules to apply by themselves, just so work goes smoothly! That’s what I believe rules and procedures are made for, to simplify our daily duties.
6-HR Revolution Middle-East: As a manager in this field, what are the qualifications you search for before hiring any sort of employee?
Marta Sikora: I look for personality rather than qualifications. The best employees I had were surprisingly the ones that had no previous experience! They were the most eager to learn and eager to apply the knowledge. They were the most interested to make their work flawless and they always asked for feedback to improve their performance on a daily basis. Maybe I just love to teach and share the best practices with young people and I enjoy their enthusiasm? Our cooperation was always bringing me lots of satisfaction and great results for our clinic and patients.
Honesty and trust are a priority as well. The worst mistake or the most uncomfortable situation inside of the team or between the employee and the client can be solved quickly and positively, only if there is trust and honesty between the manager and every employee. We all learn from our mistakes and they are a natural part of our work. So there is no need to make it hard on each other.
I have to add one more thing – clear communication and stated expectations, from both sides, are as well crucial. Those qualities assure no misunderstandings.
7-HR Revolution Middle-East: Before you came to live in Egypt you previously worked as a pharmacist in Poland. What is the difference between pharmacy in Poland and pharmacy in Egypt?
Marta Sikora: I’ve worked in Poland in many different pharmacies. As for Egypt, I had a chance to practice in one of the pharmacies during my student’s exchange in 2008. From the perspective of a pharmacist, working in a community pharmacy diminishes the role of a professional pharmacist and diminishes the chances of gaining knowledge. In both countries, I’d rather go for clinical pharmacy or industrial pharmacy – both of those specialties were of my own interest back in Poland.
8-HR Revolution Middle-East: What sort of advice would you give to Polish students who seek to have a successful career in pharmacy?
Marta Sikora: The advice that I have applies to all students. It is to always go for the career that is interesting for you, that you are passionate about and will be attracted to everyday. When you wake up in the morning and don’t feel like going to work that means it’s not challenging you enough, it’s not stretching you enough and not exciting you enough. That’s what I felt one day about my work in a community pharmacy. After that, my private life took a turn and I moved to Egypt. If I had stayed in Poland, I would have most probably searched for managerial work in a pharmaceutical field.
9-HR Revolution Middle-East: In your personal opinion, what are your negative and positive comments regarding the pharmaceutical industry in Poland?
Marta Sikora: In my opinion, the industry offers a lot of different opportunities to pharmacists graduating from the medical university. It’s no longer only a community where pharmacy is the sole choice. You can follow the branch you find most interesting without limitations. I see clinical pharmacy as the most promising because it was for me a new level of putting into practice the extensive knowledge a pharmacy student gains during the years of studying.
10-HR Revolution Middle-East: From your life and work in Egypt, what is your critique of the working environment in Egypt and your suggested solutions?
Marta Sikora: That’s always the greatest question – not only to ask “what is not working?”, but to point out “what can we do to fix it?” I’ve worked with many Egyptians. I’ve interviewed hundreds of them. What was many times shocking to me was their attitude, saying, “I don’t believe that work means anything; I don’t believe my work matters; I don’t believe I can make any difference in the world”.
I always loved to have a job I enjoy, maybe that’s why I was always asking myself: “Do I love what I’m doing today? Do I feel like waking up in the morning? Does my work make me feel alive?”
A few times my answer was “No” – that’s when I made my career shift. I think each one of us has a purpose in life. People I have met during my lectures always agreed with that statement. The only problem occurs when we don’t know what that purpose is, and we do what others are telling us to. We need to start listening to our own opinions and follow our own choices, to find that purpose.
Just by meeting young Egyptian people during my sessions, I noticed how a broad spectrum of talents is found here. I wish all of them can be nourished and used – that’s more than enough to solve all the problems in the working environment.
11-HR Revolution Middle-East: Do success factors differ from one country to the other?
Marta Sikora: Success factors – no, but the attitude of people towards those factors – yes. I have found many Poles who did not believe that success is in their reach. I have found many Egyptians who did not care much if they were successful or not. But then I understood that success means something different from one person to another. The key to being successful is to first define: “What success means to me?” and then go for it, no matter what other people will be telling you.
I was considered a very successful pharmacist (one of the top in my university), a very successful executive manager (created from scratch 4 clinics in Egypt and abroad). However, for me success is the satisfaction I feel after hearing: “I didn’t trust your simple tools and the principles at the beginning. I didn’t believe something can change in me by attending your sessions. But now, after the whole course, I experience it in every moment of my life. You were right, I just need to be present, use the simple techniques and my life will be different”.
After you figure out the definition of success, put into action basic success principles and strategies I teach in my courses, coaching sessions and workshops, you will feel successful.
12-HR Revolution Middle-East: How did you brand your name as a trainer in Egypt and create your own audience? What are the strategies you used to help you achieve this?
Marta Sikora: Before I brand myself, I come up with the idea of who will I help, who will benefit the most from the shared knowledge, who is in need of my guidance in problems? I believe the next big thing in the business world is the shift from selling the product to serving people. I don’t think “what is my brand?” I ask “whom can I serve, where is the person that urgently needs my assistance?”
Of course I use all the success principles given by Jack Canfield in his training program that I was a part of and got certified from. Here are some of them:
- Ask, ask, ask – I ask constantly, I ask everybody, I ask for everything. We can only do so much alone, when we ask we have a bigger impact on society and our audience.
- Believe in yourself and reject rejection – I know how to deal with “no”, I know not everyone will be interested in my work and I accept that. I just say “next” and move forward.
- Visions, dreams, goals, affirmations, visualizations, meditation, prayer and other “brain stretching” techniques are extremely important as well.
- Overcome your fear – that’s one of the biggest strategies; fear of failure and fear of rejection stops most of the people from achieving what they dream of. I teach what Jack Canfield says, “Feel the fear and do it anyways!” Fear is a natural part of our life. It’s needed, but not to paralyze us, just to warn us. Small hint – imagine the worst thing that can happen – whenever I tell anyone I coach to do that and who is afraid of something, it always ends with, “Hey the worst thing ever is not that bad!” and they laugh out loud (GRINS).
The greatest strategy always, and in every industry you work is a very cliché sentence: “Be yourself”. Some people will like you, some won’t and that’s a good thing! We are over 7 billion people all over the world, there will always be someone there in need of you.
13-HR Revolution Middle-East: Why is Jack Canfield your favorite author? Why do you think he is so successful?
Marta Sikora: He perfected his tools, strategies and techniques over the period of 40 years of study and never-ending improvements. That’s what I admire about him. I read hundreds of books on personal development, but his “Success Principles” (that I teach now as well, after becoming a certified coach in that field directly from Jack’s company), are different for one simple reason. He has collected 67 universal success principles, has given real life examples of those principles and then he tells you how to put it into your own life! That’s the key! By using his teachings in my seminars and workshops I see it happening before my eyes. We discuss the principle, I show the participants how I applied it to my life and then they get an exercise, a tool or a strategy that they can use in their life starting from that moment on. And then they come to me or write an email to say how transformational it was for them! That’s what I think Jack’s advantage is over other trainers. Besides, he practices what he preaches. He teaches persistence and he gave the best example of it: When 144 publishers rejected his book, he didn’t give up. Thankfully he didn’t because the book that was rejected by so many publishers has sold over 500 million copy. Yes, you read right, over half a billion copies!
14-HR Revolution Middle-East: What’s your advice to Egyptian youth who seek a successful career?
Marta Sikora: Find what that successful career means to you, define it, search for the people who can help you get there, find a mentor, find a role model, find support in a form of a friend who will walk with you towards your dreams or a coach or a member of your family who believes in you and always encourages you to get up and follow your passion. Don’t let fear, obstacles or other people stop your journey to success. Treat them as lessons, learn about your mistakes, correct your course and move on. We have an internal GPS system, and it always works. It always tells us if we are moving in the right direction because when we do, we feel pure joy inside. When we feel distracted, bored, confused, stuck – that means we are off-course. We need to correct it and go back to the right path towards our goals and dreams.
And most importantly, compare yourself only to yourself, never to others. Be proud of yourself, even if others don’t see your success. Don’t wait for others to validate your dreams. You will succeed eventually and they will say you were one of those one-night success stories, while you know you went on a journey to achieve that success. That journey is an exciting road because with every meter of it, you become a new, better version of yourself.
HR Revolution Middle-East: Thank you so much Ms. Marta for your efforts to the Egyptian society and for this interview.
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/Martas-World-613862475388886/?fref=ts