The Invisible Mentor

Archive for May, 2011

Last year, many people including bloggers were talking about Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This year, people will be talking about Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Both books are the first instalment in a trilogy. The Hunger Gamesis a science fiction book written for teenagers, but adults including myself, are gobbling up the book. It’s a page turner.

Image via Wikipedia

I liked the sixteen-year-old protagonist Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games a lot better than I liked Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo even though I enjoyed the trilogy and have seen the movies.

North America is no more!

It’s been destroyed by an apocalypse of sorts, and now the country Panem is in its location. Panem is divided into districts, and in a central city called the Capitol, a powerful government rules. Each year, the government hosts The Hunger Games, a televised event where a boy and girl from each of the twelve districts compete in a blood sport where only one of the 24 contestants survives. It’s a brutal sport where you kill or be killed.

People are gathered to see which boy and girl will be sent to compete in The Hunger Games in the Capitol. Katniss Everdeen is sure that her little sister Prim is safe, after all she has only one entry. Primrose Everdeen’s name is chosen, and while she is walking up to the stage in a daze, her older sister shouts out that she will take her sister’s place. She loves her sister unconditionally and knows that 12-year old Prim will never survive the competition. In fact, the last time that anyone from District 12 won was three decades earlier.

The boy and girl from District 12 are usually among the first tributes (contestants) to die. Most of the people from District 12 are grossly underweight because they never have enough food to eat.

They finally choose the boy tribute from District 12 and it’s Peeta Mellark, a baker’s son. Five years earlier Katniss’ father died in a mining accident and her mother withdrew into herself. At age 11, Katniss had to take control and find a way to feed her family. One day she was weak and hungry, and Peeta burnt a loaf of bread so that he could give it to Katniss. His mother beat him for burning the bread because now they couldn’t sell it. When Peeta’s mother is not looking, he throws the burnt loaf of bread in Katniss’ direction. She was very grateful for the bread, but she also felt badly because she felt like she owed Peeta, and she never repaid the debt.

Katniss and Peeta get the opportunity to say goodbye to their family and friends because they have to leave District 12 in the next few hours. The Hunger Games is mostly about the preparation for the game and the actual competition. I have used five great ideas to discuss the novel.

To watch The Hunger Games movie trailer, click here.
Five Great Ideas

The difficulties in our lives are often disguised opportunities: When Katniss’ father died, her mother was so distraught that she mentally left her two daughters, seven and 11 years old at the time. Eleven year old Katniss had to grow up very quickly and become the breadwinner for the family. Her father often took her hunting, which was illegal, but those in charge looked the other way because they benefitted. They bought the meat for themselves. Katniss was able to use this skill to feed her family. Her father taught her to use a bow and arrow, and she became very skilled at it, which allowed her to survive The Hunger Games.

Working together each of us achieves more: In the early stages of the game, the more affluent tributes formed alliances to quickly eliminate tributes from the poorer Districts. After they eliminated the less skilled and weaker tributes who were often those from the poorer Districts, they would start eliminating each other. Katniss formed an alliance with Rue who was also from one of the poor Districts because Rue reminded her of Prim. It was an alliance which helped both until Rue was killed by a spear. Rue was from an agricultural district so she knew plants and was able to apply a poultice to the wasp sting to pull out the poison. Katniss was grateful for this. Rue also knew a lot about edible berries and grains. Katniss was able to trap and kill game for them to survive on. Before Katniss left to compete in the game, she teamed up with Gale to hunt and gather food for both their families. At the end of the day, they would split the food. They made good partners because they watched each other’s back and Gale taught her how to trap animals.

Focus on your strengths: Katniss slept in the trees during the nights to protect her from animals and the other tributes. She was trapped in the tree, as the more privileged tributes waited for her below because they wanted to eliminate her. In the practice session before the actual competition, she received the highest score and they hated her for that. She was from the lowly District 12, so they didn’t expect much from her. Before forming the alliance with Rue, the little girl pointed out the wasp nest. Katniss knew that if she could get to the nest and throw it in the direction of the other tributes she would be safe for another day. Stings from that specie of wasps were deadly. With great care, Katniss used her knife to carefully saw away at the tree branch where the wasp nest was located. The nest fell down and attacked everyone in sight including Katniss. Fortunately for her, she knew to take out the sting which saved her life. Two of the tributes who were part the alliance died from the wasp bites. The others who were also stung raced to the lake for relief. With the after effects of the sting they were out for a couple of days. In addition, Katniss’s mother was an apothecary so she had a book on healing plants, which proved useful knowledge for her. Katniss was also a survivor and knew how to hunt, so that gave her an advantage over the more affluent tributes.

Formulate a plan on how to approach a task: Tributes from the more affluent Districts usually won The Hunger Games competition because they were stronger and bigger. They didn’t know what it felt like to be hunger, to go to bed without supper. They were well fed, and the few times they lost The Hunger Games their food was taken away from them. When the competition begins and they form alliance, they secure all the food for themselves to starve the other tributes. Katniss knew that for her to have any chance of surviving she had to take away their food to make then vulnerable. They didn’t know how to hunt for food. When these tributes left to hunt the other tributes, they left one person – someone from one of a less affluent District – behind to guard the food. Katniss asked herself why? Why would they align themselves with someone poor, and why would they only need one person to guard all that food. Each District specializes in certain industries, but the government likes to control information so that each District does not know much about each other. Katniss thinks about what she knows about the District where the boy who is guarding the food is from and remembers that his District produces explosives and realizes that they are using land mines to guard their food. She carefully formulates a plan and uses three of her arrows to blow up their food source.

Be likable: Katniss had to grow up too quickly because her family’s survival was in her hand. Besides having Gale, she believed that she had to rely on herself. At the games, before the human hunt begins, tributes are interviewed, and there is also a parade. During that time, tributes have to win over the audience to get sponsorships, so they have to be likable and memorable. Sponsorships are critical because if a tribute gets into difficulty, their sponsors send them exactly what they need. When the interviewee asks Peeta (the male tribute from District 12 where Katniss is from), about his girlfriend he says he doesn’t have one. But when the interviewer persists, Peeta talks of a girl that he really likes, but she doesn’t pay much attention to him. The interviewer tells him he has to win so he can return to District 12 and let her know. Peeta laments and says it’s impossible because the girl he likes came with him. Everyone realizes that he is speaking about Katniss and the camera focuses on her. Peeta is likable and he wins over the audience. He is facing a predicament because their is only one winner, and the audience feels his pain.

In the middle of the games, the Gamekeepers change the rule so that at the end if there are two people from the same District, both will be winners so they won’t have to kill each other. By the time the rule changes it affects only two Districts. But at the end, when Peeta and Katniss are left standing, the Gamekeepers reverse the rule change and now Katniss and Peeta have to battle each other. They instead decide to pull a Romeo and Juliet, by placing some poisonous berries in their mouth, which was Katniss’s idea. The Gamekeepers once again change their minds, so the two teenagers spit out the deadly berries.

The government is not pleased because they are made to look very stupid. Katniss and Peeta must prove that they are really love struck. The Hunger Games – Library Edition is an excellent book which I highly recommend. I finished reading the first book in no time and I plan to read the other two books in the series – Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The Hunger Games is full of action and you see good and bad strategies unfolding. You see people thinking, planning and questioning things. This book may have been written for young adults, but it’s a great read for adults as well.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Related articles

• Book Review: Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• New ‘The Hunger Games’ Trailer: Katniss Everdeen’s Journey (screenrant.com)
• ‘Hunger Games’ Trailer: Katniss Everdeen, The Girl Who Was On Fire, Enters The Capitol (news.moviefone.com)

When you think of ING DIRECT, you think of that bank without branches and tellers. But did you know that in Toronto ING DIRECT offers a collaborative workspace at the corner of Shuter and Yonge Street in downtown Toronto? The ING Direct Downtown Cafe is very open, orange in colour with free wireless internet service. The space offers high tech facilities for entrepreneurs to come together and share ideas.

I got a tour of the facilities at 221 Yonge Street and I was very impressed. As someone who works from a home office I could see myself having a client meeting there. You can rent a workspace for $20 a day or $100 a month and there are two small offices where you can have meetings with about five people to each room. There is also an open area which sits about 40 people. The place is fully equipped with the latest technology and you can have presentations there.

There is also a cafe that serves fairly traded coffee and organic food. Every day, whatever food is left over, the ING Direct staff delivers it to shelters so that the food is not wasted. And they also swing by the offices of Google, not too far away, and other places nearby to collect their perishable food as well.

ING DIRECT is also working with local businesses helping to promote them. For instance, while I was on the tour, they had some bicycles on display from a neighbourhood cycle shop. ING DIRECT purchased the bikes for over $600 and are selling them to customers for $200 less. The money will be donated to help underprivileged children.

So whenever you feel like you need a change from you home office, or are feeling stuck and would benefit from meeting other people, drop by the ING DIRECT Downtown Café at 221 Yonge Street, and experience the new wave in collaboration. And it’s a great way t expand your networks.

Is this collaborative workspace a wave of the future? If it’s as affordable as The ING Direct Downtown Cafe, it may very well be at that price!

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

To make it easy for you in case you missed our posts this week, here is what we talked about on The invisible Mentor Blog.

Mondays at the Salon

The right books make excellent mentors. When was the last time you read a good book? And what made that book so memorable?

The Book as Mentor.

Booked on Tuesdays

We reviewed Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence. The book was banned in the US and Britain for over 30 years. Publishers feared being charged for obscenity, but this was back in the 1920s. The book is about social class but it could also be considered vulgar with the sexual activity. Despite that, it’s a good book with lots of lessons.

Review: Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence.

Wisdom Wednesdays

We profiled legendary aviator Amelia Earhart. In this profile, you’ll learn some surprising things you didn’t know about the most famous aviator and some of the mistakes she made.

Amelia Earhart, Legendary Aviator (and the fatal mistakes she made)

Perspective Thursdays and Workshop Fridays

From conducting interviews over the years, one of the things I have learned is that we can learn from the experiences of others. This week we interviewed Kamel Hothi, Director, Lloyds Banking Group. Here are Part One and Part Two of Kamel Hothi’s interview.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Interviewee Name: Kamel Hothi, Director

Company Name: Lloyds Banking Group

Website: http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kamel Hothi: I’ve been working for 32 years in the banking world. I’m a Director at Lloyds Banking Group. I’m married, I have two children and I live in a very strict Indian traditional family.

Avil Beckford: How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

Kamel Hothi: The way that I integrate work and life, is that the things I learn at home I bring to work.  I do a lot of cultural training, I’ve trained over 500 executives, which I’m hoping that those nuances of explaining what the culture is, how to do a handshake, the name, the eye contact, all of those things will help them improve their business relationships with the community. And what I’m doing at work is networking with the community, going out to a number of events. And for the last couple of years, my husband has accompanied me to a number of these events and my children come along so they can have an insight into what I do. The first time I invited my husband to a black-tie event with 700 people, mostly men, I knew my husband was very uncomfortable but now he’s part of that and he enjoys coming with me and supports me as well.

Avil Beckford: What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

Kamel Hothi: That I didn’t go to university. I wasn’t able to go at that time, but I wish I had. I knew having an education would have helped me to fast-track up the career ladder faster than I have so it’s always a feeling of weakness in my chink of armour. I’m doing that with my kids and I’m pushing them forward – one is graduated and the other is going through it now.

Avil Beckford: What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

Kamel Hothi:

1. Believe in yourself.
2. Always think of the bigger picture.
3. Seek to get a balance and do not get hung up on your career but to also look at your personal life. Yes there’ll be times you focus on your career and not the home life, but I do believe that they need to go hand-in-hand.
4. Count to 10. If you have an email or something that’s impacted you, sleep on it, do not fire back a response immediately, you always think differently in the morning when something has upset you.
5. Make sure that you review the task at hand, plan everything as much as you can, and leave room for flexibility.

Avil Beckford: When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Kamel Hothi: The reason why I’m smiling is that I have so little down time. The thing I’ve given up for my career is downtime, but we tend to get downtime when we go away on holidays. I love reading and if I can I do like painting, but it’s very, very rare. The easiest form of downtime is gardening during the weekends. I love it and do it as much as I can.

Avil Beckford: What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Kamel Hothi: I love teams especially new people, I love asking them what their first impressions are for things. No matter what the grade of the individual I think ideas generated first time to capture them when their minds are not clogged at all with the work routines. That’s what I try to do.

Avil Beckford: What’s your favourite quotation and why?

Kamel Hothi: Treat people like you would like to be treated. It’s something that I’ve always tried to live with. It’s what my mother used to say. To me that’s humanity, everybody likes to be treated fairly, everyone likes to be loved and everyone likes to be treated with respect. That’s how I want to be treated and if I can do that to others hopefully it will come back. People do return how you treat them.

Avil Beckford: How do you define success?

Kamel Hothi: Success for me is very much about being a parent, my children are happy, they are established and have made their own mark in feeling that they’ve achieved something, that would be success at home. And at work, I would say that it’s to leave my legacy with an organization of this size, I’ve changed their thinking, and helped them to achieve something that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Avil Beckford: In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Kamel Hothi: Determination and having that burning desire, that there is no other option but to succeed, and just chipping away at it. You will come across loads of barriers and hassles and people trying to get in your way, but it’s believing in yourself and constantly chipping away at it.

Avil Beckford: What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Kamel Hothi: For me, it was really understanding the psyche of what’s in it for me. That’s very cynical, selfish thinking, but that’s how people tend to live in the corporate world. It’s using that thinking and putting it into my strategy. When we were building the Asian strategy it was very much what’s in it for them, what’s the business case, what would they achieve, would they pay attention? So once you can show them what the case looks like and get their juices flowing then it’s mapping that out and how it can be realized. That’s what I would say is what I have done in my field.

Avil Beckford: What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Kamel Hothi: As soon as you get in, think about what is your next goal. Yes you might have landed in a new role, you want to do well in it and you want to understand it, but always have with you next steps. So once you know where your next step is, you know what you have to achieve in this particular role in order to get to the next one. It’s constantly looking at the next step, how to get there, and the people you need to network with to make that happen.

Avil Beckford: If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, who would you choose? And what would you say to them?

Kamel Hothi:

1. I’d love to meet Gandhi, his way of influencing people, bringing cultures together and doing it so peacefully, I’d say his wisdom would be so powerful.
2. I’d love to go and see Mandela to understand how he coped in prison all those years and still have the courage and strength to come back peacefully and to continue where he left off.
3. I’d love to meet Mr. Ratan Carter in India, the executive for the Carter Group. From what I’ve heard he’s a great entrepreneur, but also his thinking, his wisdom in the way he is steering the company, I really admire him and certainly where he had to take the organization forward is something unique that I have not seen before.
4. If the opportunity arose, I’d love to meet Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico. I’ve heard her speak but did not get the opportunity to meet her face-to-face. When I heard her speak and how she has taken over that company, an Asian woman is absolutely fabulous. I’d love to spend more time with her, listen to her, find out what has driven her to get to where she is, and how she could help other women.
5. I’d love to meet my mom again, and just be able to have a conversation with her and have her views, feelings and what she would say about me, my children and what I’ve achieved so far.

Avil Beckford: Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply?

Kamel Hothi: I think for the context of this interview, I love the The One Minute Manager. It’s a simple book, but the messages in there are still valid and a great reminder on the basic foundation of management. I dip in and out every now and again to remind myself of the seven rules of management and I think it’s a great book to have on a side table.

Avil Beckford: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why?

Kamel Hothi:

• I love fiction books because I like to escape from the world that we are in sometimes. I think this is a great way to be engrossed and cleanse your mind. Any good thriller books would be great, so I do enjoy them.
• I do like talking about philosophy and deep thinking and The Rising of a Thousand Stars [Note from Avil: I think she meant A Thousand Splendid Suns] is about two women in the Taliban, which was so emotional. It was a culture that I didn’t know anything about and I read that book, and I would love to read it again because it brings home the friendship between two women in such a difficult situation.
• I also do tend to like healing books to heal yourself. You are constantly going as a woman and it’s important to find time to focus on yourself, see what’s going on, and what makes you tick. I like to analyze myself and see how I can be a better person.

Avil Beckford: What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

Kamel Hothi: I like Kishore Kumar, he’s an Indian singer. I love his traditional Bollywood songs, they are very romantic and slow but the words are absolutely amazing and they cut you to the core and there is usually one song that brings back some sort of memory in my life, so I’d love to take his music with me. I love the new Gladiator movie that came out. I love history so that brings history back to life again. It’s about the struggle about this one man and making his mark and standing up for what’s right. Romance is spread right through it.

If you cannot view Kishore Kumar Romantic Songs YouTube video.

If you cannot view Gladiator trailer YouTube video.

Avil Beckford: What excites you about life?

Kamel Hothi: My children, I love spending time with them. I love watching them grow, seeing how they have turned out. I love enjoying some of the stuff that they do. Last year, they took me quad biking (a quad bike is an all terrain vehicle – ATV) in the jungle in Mexico. I just enjoy life with my children.

Avil Beckford: How do you nurture your soul?

Again, talking to my children, that is very much listening to them and being there for them So when they have problems or difficulties or questions, the fact that they come to me, that in itself reassures me that I still play a part in their lives, and that they still see me as someone that they still need. I also ensure that my husband is still there and that our relationship is still healthy. After 28 years, touch wood, we still get on really well, and he still wants me so that’s really important.

Avil Beckford: If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for?

Without being a cliché, it would be helping the people in the Middle East to communicate better and if there is a way to make that happen. I’m really worried about the future of the world and what’s happening there, and it has an impact on myself, but on my children’s future. That worries me and I wish I had some way of supporting that.

Avil Beckford: Complete the following, I am happy when…..

Running in the field with my children.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Video Credit: Uploaded by UltraHindi on Nov 29, 2010, Uploaded by JosPeters on Oct 15, 2006

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Interviewee Name: Kamel Hothi, Director

Company Name: Lloyds Banking Group

Website: http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Kamel Hothi: I’ve been working for 32 years in the banking world. I’m a Director at Lloyds Banking Group. I’m married, I have two children and I live in a very strict Indian traditional family.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Kamel Hothi: Very, very busy. To be honest, there is no me-time. I tend to leave the house at about 6:30 to get into the office in London (UK). It’s about an hour and a half’s drive. I look after three remits – the Asian market, as well as the world’s internal infrastructure between us and corporate banking, and I also support the procurement for supply to the Group so we work on those, then tend to go home around 7:30, 8:00 pm. I arrive home at about 9 pm and head straight to the kitchen, and see what needs to be done. I get to bed around 12:00 am and I’m back again in the morning.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Kamel Hothi: I think that’s a difficult one. One goes through the peaks and troughs of life and I divide my life very much at work and home and I suppose at work I like to be very structured. I need to know exactly what I have to achieve at the end of the year, what success looks like for me, and see if I can carve that down into bite-sized chunks and monitor and track that. I’m a bit of a control freak, so as long as I know what I need to achieve that keeps me motivated because I know I’m achieving the bits that I need to do.

And at home, it’s making sure that the family gets attention, that they are on track. I’ve got two children so I ensure I’m giving them my time and that’s important to me so I try to do that on the weekend as much as I can, trying to find a couple of hours to make sure that I stay in touch with them. And if I know about their life that keeps me motivated that they are doing the right thing.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Kamel Hothi: Coming from a very different culture, we came from India to the UK without speaking a word of English and being brought up in a very traditional household where the females didn’t really have a career. So I was very fortunate to get into banking and convinced my parents to allow me to continue. But I had other aspirations and I wanted to go to university and I wanted to do further studying but I was very nervous about approaching those subjects with my parents because it’s such a complete no-no area. Now looking back, I wish I had the confidence to address these issues and have a conversation with them, partly to reassure them that I wasn’t going to rock the traditional boat, it was just that I had these burning ambitions that maybe my other siblings didn’t have. But certainly better communication with the family I think would have been much better for me when I was younger.

I feel I’ve still got so much more to give and I’m at a crossroads in my career now after 32 years in banking. I love educating people. I love mentoring and I’m certain that’s the route going forward in the future. I’d like to get involved with some charity. So I like bringing people together, and I work better in collaboration with businesses and business units, that’s where my skill is really, so I don’t work very well in silos. I think that’s where I want to go and develop further in my next stage of life.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Kamel Hothi: I suppose in banking I would say it’s IT (Information Technology). It has completely changed the way that we work, whether it’s from emailing to the online banking system, that’s certainly made the pace so much faster and much hungrier and somewhat easier to communicate. It also has some negative downfalls because when people are on holidays the Blackberry is constantly on, you’re always in touch, it’s a good thing but also a bad thing that the pace of change is so fast that you have to constantly be on the run. So I would say that IT is the biggest change in our industry.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Kamel Hothi:

1. For banking I would say it’s what’s happened in the financial world. The world is shrinking so an impact in America or Asia will have a huge impact on our business so that’s something that’s even more crucial as we speak now.
2. Regulation is getting really tight and very difficult to operate in the areas that we do.
3. And now with times changing with acquisitions and mergers, I’ve gone through three in my lifetime in a huge organization. You never know what’s on the horizon with Asia growing so fast. Some of it is exciting but certainly it impacts the business and the branding and therefore lots of changes are happening.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Kamel Hothi: What I’m really good at is building strategies, so it’s really understanding what the business case is for a particular strategy, what are the barriers, how can these be overcome, finding and implementing the solution. That’s what makes me unique and that what I bring to the forefront. And that’s what I’m known for. I was the architect behind the Asian strategy for Lloyds Bank and I’m really proud of the legacy that I’ll hopefully leave behind.

Avil Beckford: What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Kamel Hothi: It is really two things. Working in a huge organization you do find that divisions tend to work in silos, and it’s very much about them and their particular business, whereas our customers only obviously see the whole brand. It’s ensuring that these divisions are working together, I would say that’s what I’m very good at. I tend to work with the whole group and think of the whole group as a whole and I totally empathize with the customer, and our customers are at the forefront of everything that I try to do.

This also leads to the second thing in that sometimes I get frustrated with my colleagues with the follow-through — when you are networking, making sure that the commitments that you’ve made, that they are followed through right to completion, and it’s the speed of follow through. I’m proud of myself to make sure that my credentials say that I’ll get back as quickly as I can once I’ve met all the promises that I’ve made.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Kamel Hothi: I come from a very Jekyll and Hyde lifestyle, that I live at home in a very traditional culture to the corporate world that I operate in, in the daytime job. That is the biggest challenge, balancing those two different worlds and keeping both of them content and the people that are my key stakeholders both at work and at home, and that they are aware of what I do and are appreciative of what I try to deliver.

It is a totally different world, from one end I’m standing and having a board meeting with a room full of men, and then going home and being the daughter-in-law in a very different household where it’s still a quite sexist environment, but it’s the culture I was brought up with. I would say that my biggest challenge is constantly battling with the differences and helping both of them move slowly forward into the world.

One of the things that’s helping me and helping others around me to understand the cultural differences and if I look at myself earlier, at my first 15 years in banking, it was hugely challenging. I felt I was really delivering the results, I felt I worked hard but just couldn’t understand why my colleagues were either promoted above me or quicker, and it wasn’t until later in life that I realized that it was really those first impressions and things and the subconscious behaviours you bring to work.

As I’ve said before, I come from a very traditional background where it is seen as keep your voice very feminine, behave very feminine and you don’t challenge back and shouldn’t be assertive, and you respect your elders. And so subconsciously you bring those behaviours into work and although I was working hard and producing 200 percent of my results, but because I was so respectful, and my voice was quite timid, my manager translated that to being, she is not hungry, she is not assertive enough to be a leader and therefore why move her, she is doing the results for me and not giving me a hard time. I won’t promote her.

So it’s really understanding what is in fact the opposite, and a number of times when I was early in my career would result in me becoming bitter and rather than challenging back, would either move divisions or find another role. Now I coach other ethnic minorities across the organization to help them understand their own differences, and then once you’ve understood what the differences are then you can make an informed choice, but I also educate line managers, mainstream managers that they may have a burning star amongst their employees, who may not be shining in their eyes as they see them but actually once you give them the empowerment, give them the go ahead, they could be one of their biggest talent pool amongst their employees.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Kamel Hothi: I would say my biggest break was from my line manager going back three lines ago, a gentleman by the name of Arif Mushtaq. He was parachuted in from another company into Lloyds Bank. I encountered him when I was setting up the effort for the Ethnic Minority Network, and he was the one who sponsored the event. It was great to meet Arif. When we started discussing the event and he heard some of my views and ideas he really encouraged me to take a risk. He had faith, he saw something in me that I suppose other people didn’t see and so that encouraged me to take a risk from the position. Yes I could have lost my job. He gave me a blank sheet of paper and said he would support me, and to be honest, that empowerment was the best gift I have ever had. It increased my confidence and since then I have never looked back, so I’m really grateful to Arif.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Kamel Hothi: Going on the personal front, both at work and at home in the early stages of my career was having the courage to stand up for myself. I knew that I had a burning ambition in my stomach and didn’t really know how to articulate it. That actually took me several years to get the strength to talk about it or to demonstrate that I wanted to do this, which wouldn’t rock the boat at home. But also at work, there were a number of promotions that I allowed to pass me by without questioning and challenging the lines, why they made the decisions. I had no information on their outcomes, so I would say that my biggest failure in the beginning is not talking up and giving myself the confidence to do that so that’s certainly something I’ve learned over the years and I’ve learned something about myself . And I learnt that when I’m contributing I’m adding value to the organization that I’m working for so that’s given me the confidence to be much more confident in what I do. And I found that therefore the people around me accepted what I do, and certainly at home my family where they were uncomfortable in the past now see it as something they are really proud of.

Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Kamel Hothi: One of my biggest disappointments is that my parents passed away many years ago, so they haven’t witnessed the change in myself and seen the achievements over the last decade that I have done both at work and at home, so that’s always going to be something that you can’t really undo. However, that also helped me to understand that every day is so precious, for me it’s making sure that my children are part of my journey, and they are certainly involved in my career. They encourage me, I encourage them. We talk a lot, I seek their advice on what I’m doing, the next steps I should be taking, so they actually feel they’re the ones that’s been supporting me so they are part of the whole equation.

So for me, my children are very important and we stick together and I want to be a part of their future. We talk a lot, we talk about their future, it’s something in the Indian community that’s not done often. Coming from a first generation where my father was very dominating, discussions that were open were very rare. That’s something we’ve hopefully undone in our family and that we’ve given our children the empowerment to say what they need to say but at the same time we are guarding them and steering them to what’s best for them as well.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Kamel Hothi: I think it’s taking the new role in corporate banking. The previous role I had to this one was very comfortable, and one that I was very familiar with. I had been working in that division for a number of years. I got a lot of kudos and people knew who I was and in coming into a division that I had never worked in before, hardly knew any of the executives there, it was a huge jump and starting from scratch again and having to prove myself. It was a tough decision, do I want an easier life or a tough life and I took the tough path but it was a challenge I was prepared to take because I could see the opportunity in that division to help them understand the market that I was being asked to come and help and support them in. That’s where I started the architecture of the Asian strategy and was delighted that it got embedded because it could have easily been thrown out. They accepted it and to this day they are still supporting it.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Kamel Hothi:

1. I got married at the age of 19 and it was an arranged marriage, which completely changed my life. I was the youngest of six children from a very protective family and all of a sudden parachuted into a very tough environment at the tender age of 19, and in our culture you are married into the extended family, you do not marry an individual.
2. The second was having my children. Balancing work, life, home and children was a huge, difficult task but at the same time it was one of the most rewarding things.
3. The third was coming into corporate banking. I love the role, I love the division, and it has empowered me and opened so many opportunities. Networking in the Asian community, I have met so many special individuals through my daytime job. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t made that particular decision.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Kamel Hothi: I would say that it’s writing the Asian strategy for Lloyds Group. It’s wonderful to educate a huge organization like ours to help them understand the Asian market, how to reach out to them, what products we need to develop, the cultural differences, and how to communicate with them, and now we’ve seen leaders in our field in the UK and to know that I was the architect behind that, and am now seen as an ambassador for the company, having attended hundreds of events each year. But at the same time, the reason I’m so proud is I think the community has done so much for the UK, achieved so much, many coming here with no money, working without speaking a word of English then they are now running multimillion pound companies and it’s wonderful through the work I do, through the events that I sponsor to be able to give them a platform to showcase these entrepreneurs who have done so much, and added so much to the UK.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Kamel Hothi: I have had a number of mentors I would say, and some were good and some were bad. Most were not what you call formal mentors in the beginning, but certainly people who you admire who you see can add value in different ways. My mother was a huge mentor to me, she helped me to shape my personal life, helped me to focus on the core things to look at, how to overcome when things are not quite going right. And at work, Arif Mushraq was a huge mentor to me, he helped me, and he understood what other people thought were weaknesses, were strengths and he had a real influence on my career.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Kamel Hothi: Believe in yourself and listen to your gut feelings. More people believed in me than I believed in myself. They could see that there was something there, the decisions I made through my career, were very well thought out and balanced. Believe in myself is the message that has come out over and over again.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Kamel Hothi: Really understand yourself. We can all get on this conveyor belt of pushing for a career, but step off the conveyor belt for a minute and assess where you want to get to. Where do you see yourself in five year’s time? And how do you get there and carve your path both at home and work. I do believe they go hand-in-hand because one can’t do without the other. So have two paths, one for work and one for home, and see them together. Do they match up? Is one conflicting with the other? Life will change accordingly but if you have some visible path to guide you then you can divide that into small chunks on how you are going to get there.

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