Trusted Magazine: How could you describe your career path in few words?
Yasmine Badaoui: Everything but a straight path. Graduated from an engineering school with a major in Information systems for finance, started my career in brand management and navigated through different job scopes. I’ve always wanted to challenge myself with an international assignment, and this has encouraged my move to Dubai with P&G and I am thankful for this opportunity and for the trust that the company has put in me to lead such a big business. The mindset I have is to stay open to possibilities and to keep the willingness to try something new or unexpected that turns into professional learning and growth.
Trusted Magazine: What was your most challenging experience and it has changed your mindset?
Yasmine Badaoui: My shortlist of challenging experiences is a list of three. The first one is the loss of my brother due to cancer. He was 24, I was 19, we were best friends and the disease took him away from us within 3 weeks. This has made me realize that life is short and unpredictable and made me more aware of how important it is to live here and now. The second one is my experience with pregnancy. I discovered in the middle of an important assignment that I was pregnant with twins and of course the news came with all the career anxiety and stress that is fueled by some social beliefs. First thought I had was a mix between « I am not ready for this » and « this will slow down my career growth ». It didn’t last long before I felt lucky to grow two lives and discover the miracle of life and also decided to bust the myth that career and motherhood cannot coexist. I was shuffling my hours and schedule to see my daughters more and I was firm about stopping work at 5 and continuing after they sleep. I also explained to my team that there are specific no meeting zones for times I need to drop them at school or put them to bed. I am also lucky to be part of an organization that has the right culture and has a healthy environnement where women are empowered to be their best. I remember I clarified with my manager the list of things I needed to achieve before going on maternity leave and was committed to deliver on them which I did. Now my daughters are 5 years old and they are my biggest pride and greatest adventure. The third challenging experience was becoming a single mom when my babies were 1 year old which was tough but taught me a lot of resilience and made me stronger so I can provide a healthy and happy environment for my daughters.
Trusted Magazine: When you get surprised by unusual or uncertain context, what do you think?
Yasmine Badaoui: Opportunity for growth and self-development. We only learn when we face adversity and when we are put outside our comfort zone. It helps us learn so much and even more about ourselves which is critical. I’ve come a long way in letting go for example and I used to take things very personally. Failure was not an option that I considered and I was feeling stressed and anxious every time I was facing unusual context. But the challenges I faced and the tough moments I’ve been through made me realize that those were the moments when I learned the most and the only thing I should focus on is to do my best every single time. One insightful thought I want to share with you is that every single human action is motivated by either fear or love. I try to keep this in mind in every aspect of my life and I try my best to always lead and behave from a place of love.
Trusted Magazine: What’s the key success factor for a female entrepreneur in cross cultural context based on your experience?
Yasmine Badaoui: The key factor or call it strategy is to empower the woman leader within and to become confident leading like a woman. There is a cultural stereotype that women are “too soft” or “too emotional”. I believe those are misinterpretations of “collaborative” and “passionate” that are fueling the women leadership style and help federating people around the table because we value building relationships horizontally across the company and outside the company as well. And this becomes the foundation of inclusive and collaborative problem solving and decision making. Another angle to that is that women lead holistically as we realize that people do not park their personal life at the door when they come to work. Hence, women tend to create the right environment where people can be at their peak. If I want to sum it up, the key factors for a woman to succeed are:
- Lead with confidence
- Be authentic and invest time in creating a shared vision
- Value women’s ability to feel people and to multitask
- Set high goals and own the destiny
- Finally: learn, laugh, and move on 😊