Today was the first day in the Virtual Women Championship organized by 360 Experiential Solutions under the Auspices of the National Council for Women & in partnership with Exxon Mobil. The day has started with a motivational talk by Dr. Maya Morsy the president of the National Council for Women & Sandra Farid as the host for the speech. Followed by break-out rooms where we played a kind of escape room games solving some logical riddles all-together as a team.
Dr. Maya Morsy started the day on a good note as a graduate from Political Science, Journalism, and Theatre; who have worked in the UN hoping to be the youngest female UN Secretariat one day. She worked on women empowerment & the gender file. Which led to nominating her in 2016 as the president of the National Council for Women under the new political strategy took place in Egypt starting 2014 & the focus on empowering women & choosing female minsters & so on. Dr. Maya took the opportunity working on empowering women through the National Council for Women. For a person who is interested in public policy since a young age working on the women needs & the gender file, this was a step closer to help her.
Dr. Maya Morsy emphasized the high importance of studying theater, acting, or staging to enhance your negotiation & convincing skills in business or public services specifically. As loud voice or being angry or tweeting on social media is not helping in reaching goals however lobbying, being data-driven, and finding several solutions will support you to reach your goals eventually.
Sandra shed the light on the statistic that states that if we do face 10 battles every day, usually we win 6 battles & lose 4 battles. It might be different or more difficult to women in conservative cultures like ours as well. So, the question to Dr. Maya Morsy was how is she overcoming the frustrations that she faces. And the tips were:
Be resilient.
Don’t surrender.
Take all of the needed steps till you reach a dead end. And continue the fight.
Understand the lobbying.
Don’t take “NO” as an answer.
When Dr. Maya was an intern in the UNDP back in 1995, she asked why not all of the generations are represented in the Beijing conference that they were traveling to. Back then the answer to her question was that “It is not her time yet.”. So, Dr. Maya has devoted her life to work hard & never to say “NO” for youth or interns, moreover to never tell them that it is not their right time yet. And on how to deal with the “NOs” we do face in our lives, below are here top tips:
Write a medium-term & long-term plan to turn the “NO” to a “YES”.
Always question why the answer is “NO”.
Feel your worth.
Stop the Queen Bee Syndrome that prevents you from helping others.
Utilize the technology that we do have at the tips of our fingers.
Learn from the lessons & learn from others’ lessons too.
Don’t keep your success secrets to yourself.
The next article will be about work-life balance. Stay tuned.