Lee and Elham discuss:

• Maximising opportunities at a young age

• Capturing a passion for contributing to the community

• The fulfilment to be found in helping others

• How Elham’s staggering corporate career helped create links for Migrant Leaders to thrive

• Setting ego aside and challenging assumptions of ourselves and others

Links & references

Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/

Elham Fardad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elhamfardad/

Migrant Leaders: https://www.migrantleaders.org.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/migrant-leaders/

Get in touch: lee@extrology.com

Episode highlights:

“What I recall is predominantly feeling hope and excitement of the possibilities, particularly because in this country at the time there were key female leaders, who I really found I could aspire to.” - 3:05 - Elham Fardad

“When we landed in the UK, my father told me this is a land of opportunity and information, things that you didn't have before. So pay attention, keep the good stuff in our culture, and learn the good stuff from their culture. That is, to this day, a formula that I follow with anyone I come across who’s different to me.” - 5:35 - Elham Fardad

“I found that focusing on myself and my own career was really unsatisfactory. It’s a bit like a drug. You progress, get promotions, earn more, and it feels good for a while. But it's just not enough. What I've found much more deeply satisfying throughout my career is helping colleagues and others to succeed.” - 11:40 - Elham Fardad

“I asked myself in designing the Migrant Leaders development programme, what was I missing when I was 16? That became the high level of design, but I recognised that you'd need some leading practice with the latest development programmes in it.” - 17:50 - Elham Fardad

“It's incredible how much value our egos destroy. If we don't listen to the customer feedback, we are constantly seeing decisions from our individual perspective, not the perspective of what derives value for everyone else.” - 20:45 - Elham Fardad

“We focused more at the beginning on building excellent programme policies, processes, procedures, and a really robust organisation, so that we can gain credibility an d a track record, and land corporate partners.” - 25:25 - Elham Fardad

“I never, ever judge anybody for their lack of achievement or lack of progression or for their disadvantages; I’ve realised that could happen to any of us. That has really shifted some paradigms in my mind. The other thing I've learned is that any one of us could achieve anything. A lot of success can happen in a short period of time, when the right opportunities are given to you.” - 30:35 - Elham Fardad

“Everyone has some biases, right? Some prejudices, assumptions that we make in order to function in our own heads, that's human. But if we challenge ourselves, and we really ditch our prejudices, and recognise that we could learn from a variety of people, we can really grow and succeed in life.” - 39:55 - Elham Fardad

“It's really good to challenge ourselves and be honest with ourselves. Many of the assumptions that we make about people are limiting us, and limiting others in some way. ” - 45:50 - Elham Fardad

“Your estimation of where your life is going to end up is actually very faulty. Your mathematical model in your head is really faulty because you don't know who you're going to meet. You don't know what opportunities will present themselves. Ditch the calculations for a while, and believe that anything is possible.” - 49:05 - Elham Fardad

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