Q&A with Samir Jadid, Director @ Department of National Meteorology of Morocco

Exclusive Trusted Magazine Q&A with Samir Jadid, Director @ Department of National Meteorology of Morocco

How could you describe your career path in few words ? My career path has been somehow particular, unpredictable and a pleasant journey which I have been enjoying. After earning my engineer’s degree in Meteorology from Hassania School of Public Works (EHTP) in Casablanca, I got my first job as weather forecaster at the National Prediction Center. I was working there in different technical positions; short-term forecaster, long-term forecaster, and chief forecaster at general predictions and marine predictions services respectively. After that, I moved to Climatology and Commercialization Services in two different Regional Services respectively in Casablanca and in Laayoune, where I practiced climatological database administration and climatological services production and sales. In 2016, I was appointed Regional Director of the Southern Meteorological Region. This last position was for me the widest gate to the science and art of management. My career path have offered me a tremendous opportunity to learn and grow while progressing through different levels of my organization - the General Directorate of Meteorology- and in different domains such as data analysis, forecasting, databases administration, sales, quality management, leadership, project and portfolio management, and strategy. What was your most challenging experience and it has changed your mindset ? The most challenging experience that I met was when I was building the work team after taking the responsibility of the Regional Directorate. I encountered many difficulties throughout the entire team building process from setup-up to coaching members and delegating responsibilities. This process was necessary to clearly define roles and responsibilities of each member so that we could function as an effective and efficient team and for me to focus more on the responsibilities of my new role. This experience showed me that it wasn’t easy for me either to switch my mindset from doing the work and going through the tiniest details of it, to delegating it to team members and accepting the result as is with a view to continuous improvement. It was also not easy for me to accept as a technician my new role as Manager and then to accept that I have, for example, to spend 90% of my time communicating instead of doing the “actual” work. After embracing this new mindset and empowering the team, I was surprised by how productive and efficient my team becomes, and how clear and comprehensive the big picture of the organization becomes at my eyes and mind. I had seen then my attention and my focus shifting more and more towards the context, the culture, the strategy, and the objectives of the organization and the benefits of its initiatives. What’s the most important key success factor for you based on your experience ? In today’s rapidly changing context and its emerging challenges, the most important key success factor for me is to keep disrupting oneself every day to stay one step ahead and be ready for quick and wise responses; keep asking questions like kids do, keep seeing the world like kids do, and keep learning and accepting lessons from life. I think it all converge towards one thing: adopt a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. And, in my opinion, the most powerful tool that can trigger this mindset shift is the habit of reading; books offer learning and knowledge from other’s experiences and challenge one’s ideas and beliefs. Universal Standards such as ISO and PMI’s standards bring together and offer best practices in any industry. Professional communities contribute tremendously to advancing both the profession and the skills of its practitioners by insuring the dissemination of best practices. From my own experience, I have been so surprised by the positive effect of Project Management Institute community on my career and how PMI standards have been leveraging my knowledge and skills in my work.