Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
“Recently, we have seen many leaders who lead their teams with an attitude that focuses on ‘results’ without paying attention to the ‘individual’ and the ‘process’. It has been trending to praise those leaders and demote leaders who show empathy or emotions. I strongly disagree with that. I respect and look up to leaders who show empathy and lead by example.”
Reem Kassem
THE INTERVIEW
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Reem you have been working in the world of NGOs for a long time and you are very well connected to others in the same industry worldwide. What are the common challenges NGO leaders are facing? What are your suggestions?
Reem Kassem: Major challenges facing NGOs is that they have funding for projects but lack sustainable funding for operations and salaries. Many people who operate in the NGO world are volunteers and contribute with their knowledge and time, and not having a sustainable income threatens their sustainable contribution as well.
Another challenge is the lack of clear and supportive policies that govern the NOGs work in several countries. Many of them get lost in the bureaucracy and many projects either do not get achieved or get delayed.
It would be great if laws and regulations would be modified to allow NGOs to generate income that would cover their operation costs. If they are allowed to do some side activities that would help them pay their staff and their operational expenses, this way they won’t be dependent on grants or external funding.
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Does success in the field of NGOs requires different skills than that of the corporate world?
Reem Kassem: Oh yes J It requires a set of very different skills.
Networking skills are key in the NGO world! You need to know and surround yourself with the right people. You need also to constantly communicate your impact, sometimes before the impact actually happens and sometimes you need to shout it out loud while it is happening. Your reports should always show how your work is impacting people’s life and how many people were engaged, and how this impact is going to be sustainable in the future.
And most importantly you have to have empathy and be able to understand and deal with complex situations without judgements and even without having very clear givens and factors. It is more about managing people and their complex surroundings backgrounds and situations they have went through, rather than managing very clear numbers, income flows and products like the corporate world.
These to me are more complex skills than business and corporate world skills. Developing these skills requires developing yourself first as a cultural leader.
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Reem you have been through a lot of experiences and projects. Can you share with us one or some of the challenges you have faced during your work and how you overcame them?
Reem Kassem: My answer to this question will draw on my answer to the question above:
The core focus of AGORA is organizing big public space festivals that we organize in various locations in the city. Every time we try to choose a different location that is worth visiting and organize the festival there to also help this venue to generate modest income.
One of these was “Bab Elbahr” festival editions, where the location was the Roman Theatre in Kom Eldikka, Alexandria. This was in 2016, during a timing of fear of public gatherings, and also fear of unexpected audience behavior in large gatherings. The structure and archeological aspects of the Roman Theatre doesn’t allow building or putting any fences between the audience area and the stage where the artists would perform.
To acquire permissions for this specific venue, I had gone through a lot of unfortunate procedures and a very tiring process to be able at the end to use the venue. Authorities warned me from any unfortunate incident among audiences, or a behavior that would harm the venue in any way. I was in a position to take personal responsibility of the behavior of almost 4 thousand people coming from all over Alexandria! but mostly those young people who don’t have the chance to attend events for bands like Sharmoofers – which was the main performer on that day. I was keen to have the entrance ticket for the festival same as the normal entrance fee of the Roman Theatre.
The picture in brief was a very exposed open fragile venue, with almost 4000 enthusiastic young people, and a few volunteers from AGORA who had specific roles, no guards and no roaming security. I had only one thing to do which was give an introductory speech and talk to the audiences and ask for their empathy and give them ownership to the festival’s success.
I started my speech by thanking them for coming, and explaining to them in details the tiring process of acquiring permissions for the festival. I also explained to them that I was told that without fences and guards to control the audience the festival won’t succeed and for sure there will be some violence among people. I told them that I do not believe this is true and that I trust in them to make the event a success, and to prove to the authorities that while we are all here to enjoy the arts there is absolutely no chance and no reason for any violence. I asked them for help in making this day a success, and helping me continue my mission with AGORA, because without them nothing will move forward.
The day was a huge success and remembered by many till now, with everyone dancing and chanting and enjoying their time without any act of violence or even little trouble. The chief of the Tourism Police on that day came and saluted me for this success and told me a sentence I remember till now. He said, “After all those years I am observing your work. At the beginning I didn’t understand why this woman is wasting her time, but now I understand!”
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How do you work on continuously developing yourself as a person? And as an entity?
Reem Kassem: As a person I always look for knowledge anywhere. I try to be always engaged in fellowships and cultural exchange programmes to widen my horizon and develop my knowledge. At the moment I am doing my PhD in “The Role of Arts and Culture in Developing Resilience and Counter Violent Extremism”. But honestly, I learn more from people I surround myself with. At AGORA I learned a lot from the volunteers. As much as we do learn from people who are older than us, we do learn as well from people who are younger than us. AGORA’s volunteers are all exceptional young people with bright minds and brilliant behaviors; I couldn’t be more blessed being surrounded by them.
As an entity, I try to always develop our strategic plans according to international benchmarks. AGORA and myself as an individual, are part of several international networks that help in expanding the institutional capacity and ability to develop strong strategic plans. As members of the entity, we are all with flexible minds. We do not adapt a rigid management methodology. We have the ability to adapt to any situation. Adaptability is key!
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Most entrepreneurs are focusing on making their own startups while few are establishing their own NGOs. What do you believe the reason is?
Reem Kassem: I have mentioned at the beginning of the interview that one of the challenges in the NGO world is policies that govern their work in addition to the availability of funding.
And I believe that’s also the reason why entrepreneurs are focusing on making startups rather than opening NGOs. They prefer to be financially independent and away from all the permissions and authorizations procedures that in many cases exhaust the process.
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: As an experienced professional in the sector of Arts and Culture, what is your advice to organizations who want to build a strong and inspired community and culture within their organization?
Reem Kassem: My advice to anyone who wants to lead an organization with a strong and inspired community and culture is to lead by example. To first become an inspiring and empathetic leader, then expect his/her organization to follow. Focusing on people and processes is far more meaningful and has more impact on the final results, than focusing on the final results solely.
Recently, we have seen many leaders who lead their teams with an attitude that focuses on results without paying attention to the individual and the process. It has been trending to praise those leaders and demote leaders who show empathy or emotions. I strongly disagree with that, and that’s my personal opinion based on my personal experience leading people during tough and rapidly changing times. I respect and look up to leaders who show empathy and lead by example.
One more aspect to add to leadership styles; authenticity. Authentic leaders always win, because they speak from the heart and when you are honest people believe in you and follow your vision. I have seen recently leaders who fake authenticity and empathy. They try to fake behaviors which they do not believe in, and attitudes which they are not, to manipulate their employees towards certain goals. People working under such a leader often build alliances and suffer from a toxic work environment.
For an organization to have a strong inspired community and culture, its leader has to focus on the collective goal and common good rather that his or her personal fame and legacy.
HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What is your advice to young leaders and students who long to create their own non-profit projects or work in the NGO community?
Reem Kassem: I tell them that it is a long road full of challenges that requires inner and outer strengths, perseverance and faith. Therefore, they need to take care of themselves and their personal mental and emotional health. It takes a lot of time to build a network and even more time to achieve impact, so moving forward slowly is totally fine. It’s ok to fail as long as they fail forward!