004: Mohamed Latib: I was left all alone

004: Mohamed Latib: I was left all alone

Intro: Welcome to the Fast Leader Podcast, where we uncover the leadership like hat that help you to experience, break out performance faster and rocket to success. And now here’s your host, customer and employee engagement expert and certified emotional intelligent practitioner, Jim Rembach.
Jim Rembach: Thanks Kimberly. Welcome Fast Leader Legion todays show’s is going to be one that is going to be from a person who has a global view on leadership, has a phenomenal sense of humor and is somebody that we all get a lot of good tips from when it comes to leading ourselves and others, and his name is Mohamed Latib. I’ve known Mohamed for several years, but for you, you want to know that he was the former Dean of Gwynedd-Mercy University’s School of Business and Center for Lifelong Learning and prior to that he was Vice-President for Program and Strategic Development at DeSales University where he headed the MBA program and led the university’s international initiatives that resulted in the implementation of programs in Romania, Italy and India.

He’s been the developer and facilitator of executive and corporate training programs for over 35 years across the US and globally with topics that include strategic thinking, leadership teamwork, effective communications, multi-rater feedback, conflict management, change management and customer service.

He has also served as a consultant and mentor and coach to senior executives for such global brands like Siemens, Air Products, Dominion Textiles, Swift Textiles, Pennsylvania Power and Light and Smithfield Meats.

Mohamed has travelled extensively across the globe, lived on three continents for extended periods and even hike the Indian range and Amazon sub-Saharan desert jungles. He’s familiar with eight languages at various levels of fluency and is a keen golfer and yoga practitioner, you may have to figure out how all those languages has fit into the golf play I may need to learn a language in order to get better.

Today he’s actually a beaming grandfather and the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Periscope IQ. Where he leads the company’s practice in employee and customer engagement. Mohamed Latib, are you ready to help us get over the hump?

Mohamed Latib: I am indeed, Jim, and it’s a pleasure to be with you thanks for the invitation.

Jim Rembach: The honor is ours for sure, especially mine. Now I’ve given our listeners a brief introduction about you but can you please tell us little about yourself so we can get to know you even more?

Mohamed Latib: Well, I think the introduction is fair. I think what I would weave in to that introduction is the fact that I have lived on three different continents over my life and as a result of being on three different continents from very early in my childhood to where I am today, the experiences that I’ve harness over the years has allowed me to be who I am. And part of the agenda for this show is indeed to share with your listeners anything that I can convey via the experiences I have had.

Jim Rembach: Definitely. We’re looking forward to that. All of us, I think, are inspired by quotes. And on this show we like to share some of the most favored leadership quotes by the people who were getting the opportunity to learn more about and learn about their stories and ways they’ve gotten over the hump. So, I’m sure you’ve had literally thousands and thousands to choose from throughout your career. Is there a leadership quote or two that maybe stands out, let’s try with your most favored, and see where we can go with that.

Mohamed Latib: Jim, that’s an interesting question and I’m not sure that all the years after having read as much about the leadership phenomena in the literature as well as in my experience, that I had a favorite quote. However, I will tell you that the best definition of leadership that I came across that was not in the textbooks that I’ve read is one that is practiced at Gore and Associates, W.L. Gore and Associates, well-known for having produced Gore-Tex.

I visited the company many years ago and was fascinated by the fact that they treat leadership as a fluid phenomena, and that’s manifested in their definition of leadership which is simply this, “You are a leader as long as you have followers.” Which simply also means that once your followers cease to follow you, your leadership status has changed, I find that quite fantastic. I should say to you that only recently did I come across a series of observations that resonate very well for me and I think they’re important for anybody that’s interested in being a leader.

And so if I may, let me share that very short poem, if you would, or perhaps even in some cases a prayer for many. And it goes as follows, it says: “Take not away my happiness when you give me prosperity. When you give me strength take not away my sagacity. When you give me glory take not away my humility. When you give me humility take not away my dignity. And take not away my grace when you give me authority.” And that last piece I hope resonates for your listeners because leadership has a responsibility and this automatic authority, if there’s anything that should resonate for the audience is the importance of maintaining one’s grace with the authority and responsibility that comes with leadership.

Jim Rembach: Thank you for sharing that because one of the things that we’re trying to do at the Fast Leader Show is kind of redefine what leadership is in today’s society. And the fact is that we all have to lead, and that includes ourselves. And even what you were sharing with us there’s so many things associated with me being true to myself and the things that I have to do in regards to being graceful to myself and you have to do those things first before you actually could even have any followers. So, thank you so much for sharing that I think that will resonate with so many different people who is part of the Fast Leader Legion.

Now, when you talk about that quote, and again, many of the learnings that you’ve come to pass, there’s probably some really good opportunities were you can say this particular moment and that hump that I had to get over defined who I am as a person and really helped me go down a path that led to where I wanted to go. And so, can you take us back to a time where you’ve had a hump to get over and what actually happened?

Mohamed Latib: Jim if I may, can I vary your question slightly without losing the substance of what you’re looking for by sharing a thread of my life where there were seminal experiences that influenced who I am as a human being. And I’m sure you and your listeners would appreciate that in order to be an effective leader it begins with self, an awareness of who we are, an awareness of our values, an awareness of our disposition towards the rest of the world.

And I hearken back to my days as a teenager when I was in a boarding school in the Himalayan Mountains of northern Pakistan. I was there as a foreign student because I originate from South Africa. So I was as young lad at 14, at the end of the academic year when we were packing up our luggage and our clothes and the school was closed and we’re going to be on three months winter vacation. We drove down in the school bus from the mountains with all of my friends and colleagues and we arrived at the destination where every one of my friends family, friends, relatives if you would, were there to receive them with all the hugs and love and happiness. So there was this merriment about saying goodbye and it didn’t take long for me to realize that all of them had left and I was standing there alone at the bus parking lot with my luggage wondering what it is that I would do. It was an important experience because it forced me to begin to become aware of the urgency and importance of developing resilience, developing inner strength, coming to terms with one’s values being decisive because I literally packed up my staff, got into a cab and found myself in an inexpensive hotel to ponder further what my next day was going to be like.

Jim Rembach: Wow, that’s very powerful. And so, such of a lesson to learn at such a young an age, please share with me some more.

Mohamed Latib: I then go back to another, if you would, an aha moment that has reminded me ever since then that I need to always challenge my assumptions because unless one has validated one’s assumptions, the interpretation of the world that we’re in can be problematic. So here’s my story. I was moving around with some friends and we were having conversations and an old man with a white beard came to us begging for money. I responded with tremendous disrespect in English and made the heroic assumption that the individual I was being disrespectful to didn’t understand me, except to learn very quickly and much to my shock, when this old man turned around and said this to me, he said, “Sir, you have every right to say no to me but you have no right to disrespect me.” You cannot imagine how I wanted the earth below me to open up and just swallow me up because I had, in fact, violated such an important human principle by making the assumption that he didn’t understand English language and he clearly felt disrespected. I had vowed that the dignity of human beings should be fundamental to any form of leadership responsibility that I would have in my life.

Jim Rembach: Even here in the past couple years as you and I have had the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit more, it seems to me like you’ve also started to do that more for yourself meaning have more dignity for self and you share with us something a little bit more recently, I’m thinking about something specific but I don’t want to bait you, please bring us up a little bit more up to date.

Mohamed Latib: I’m not sure what you are going to bait me about Jim, I’d welcome that because then I’d know what to talk about. So, I’m going to take the license to interpret what you’re asking for [inaudible 11:27] and share with you what to me is very important these days despite my years of seasoning in various professional roles. I am seriously committed to very personal issues such as my health. I am particularly concerned about my health and so I exercise regularly. I eat exceptionally well and I am a fanatic practitioner of yoga. I think the combination of those habits, if you would, allows me to continue to ponder about excellence. And I think if I am ready to embrace the challenge of being a healthy human being both physically, emotionally and psychologically, I could continue to journey down the paths of leadership responsibilities.

Jim Rembach: You absolutely hit what I wanted you to share, so thank you so much for doing that. Alright now, what we want to do is pick up the pace a little bit and have a little bit of fun and get ready for the “Hump Day Hoedown.” Okay, Mohamed, the Hump Day Hoedown is a time where I ask you a lot of questions fast and you give us robust answers fast to help us move onward and upward faster. Mohamed, are you ready to hoedown?

Mohamed Latib: I think so Jim, let’s do it.

Jim Rembach: Alright. What do you think is holding you back from being an even better leader today?

Mohamed Latib: The opportunity to play a lot more golf so that I can interact with my friends and take their money.

Jim Rembach: [Laugh] I love it. Maybe I’ll get there someday. Alright, so what’s the best leadership advice do you feel that you have ever received?

Mohamed Latib: If you follow me, you’ll always get ahead because together we can conquer lots and lots of obstacles.

Jim Rembach: Oh, the togetherness, I love that piece. Alright, so what is one of your secrets that you believe contributes to your success?

Mohamed Latib: Discipline. I cannot emphasize the urgency and importance of engaging in a disciplined lifestyle.

Jim Rembach: What do you feel is one of you best resources that helps you lead in business or life?

Mohamed Latib: You know, I cannot hearken to any book or piece of literature because I think they all contribute tremendous value. I can simply go to the fact that I believe in awareness and continued exploration of who we are as human beings. So part of my ongoing discipline is to meditate every day.

Jim Rembach: So, meditations a good resource.

Mohamed Latib: Yes, Jim.

Jim Rembach: Now, I know you’ve talked about not necessarily having one book, but is there kind of one that kind of stand out that you would actually recommend for our readers?

Mohamed Latib: You know, I love to read Malcolm Gladwell’s books, even though they’re not particularly on the topic of leadership. But they offer you lots of stories and I think stories are very powerful metaphors where leadership lessons are woven.

Jim Rembach: We have on the Fast Leader Show.

Mohamed Latib: Yes indeed.

Jim Rembach: So we have some links to a couple of your favorite Malcolm Gladwell books on our show notes page which you’ll be able to find at fastleader.net/Mohammad Latib. Alright, Mohamed were down to our last question for the Hump Day Hoedown, so here go. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning and you were 25 years old again. You are supposed to begin a new job as a manager of a team that has been underperforming and disengaged but you have a blessing you’ve actually retained all the wisdom and skill that you currently have. Now your task, of course, is to turn this team around. So you get up, you get ready you head out to work, what do you do now?

Mohamed Latib: Wow Jim, how much time do we have you’ve just given me the license to dream and be wishful, which fortunately, we never have to pay for. And so indeed if I were to turn the clock back with all the wisdom I have and be a 25-year-old that’s going to oversee a bunch of disengaged human beings I would find that extremely exciting and I would bring the entire package of lessons that I’ve have been able to garner over years. And actually express my leadership style to get them engaged through all of whatever we shared which is to really begin to express my values around human dignity. People are fundamentally good and I think if you treat them well they will step up to perform.

Jim Rembach: So true. Thank you very much for sharing that. Mohamed Latib it is an honor to spend time with you today. Can you please share with the Fast Leader listeners how they can connect with you?

Mohamed Latib: Indeed. Please feel free to have your Fast Leader audience connect with me via email at mlatib@periscopeIQ.com, they can also go to our periscope IQ.com website where they will find me and all of my contact information and they’re certainly invited to reach out with me at any time. And of course, they can check me out on Linkedln where I actually extend an invitation for anybody to reach out to me.

Jim Rembach: Perfect. We’ll also put a link to those on the show notes page. Mohamed Latib, thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, the Fast Leader Legion honors you and thanks you for helping us get over the hump. Woot Woot!

Thank you for joining me on the Fast Leader Show today. For recaps, links from every shows, special offers and access to download and subscribe, if you haven’t already, head on over the fastleader.net so we can help you move onward and upward faster.

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