Today, we speak with Kamel Alsaadi (Iraq, Norwegian Refugee Council), a current Scholar from our 2024 Cohort of the Hilton Humanitarian Prize Virtual Leadership Institute (VLI). Thank you, Kamel, for sharing with us about your personal and professional growth! We wish you the best of luck with the rest of the VLI and with your career!
I am Kamel and I am originally from Diyala, Iraq. I am working with Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Norway as a business analyst adviser with the digital community hubs. I am passionate about socioeconomic inclusion because I believe everyone should have access to a livelihood opportunity. A fun fact about me is that I love baking and hope to open a bakery in the future.
Learning is a never ending journey and leadership is an essential part of the career path. I was delighted to know that NRC is one of the winners of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize , and I knew that this opportunity will make me improve my skills while learning from experts and growing my professional network.
Leadership involves setting a positive example for others to follow, guiding your team to reach their full potential, and collectively growing in the process. It involves fostering a strong connection within the team that enables it to overcome any challenges.
My career is just beginning, and I aspire to one day lead a team toward success. Working in the nonprofit sector often means operating in high-risk contexts, which can significantly impact team morale and relationships. The leadership program has been instrumental in enhancing my understanding of leadership, even in areas I thought I already knew. It continues to provide me with valuable insights and strategies to become a more effective and resilient leader.
In the first lesson of the first module, it explained that leadership is not just about what you do, but why you do it. When leading a team, it’s not only about completing tasks to achieve a project, but the team needs to understand the ultimate purpose of the project and how their tasks contribute to that purpose. Human beings are emotional, and leadership involves creating an emotional connection to prevent team members from becoming like robots. This will not only help me in the workplace but also in leading in my community or the communities I work with.
The program is planned carefully, you get one month to complete the assignments for each module. That is more than enough with the right planning. The cohort is also very interesting and includes people from different organizations around the world and it is a great opportunity to engage with the cohort, not to mention the expert staff members and instructors in every launch call. The best plan is to set a monthly target for the minimum assignments and the cohort meetings to attend every month.