Dr. Sandrine El Khodry Senior Vice President at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise for the EEIMEA region (Emerging Europe, India, Turkey, Middle East &amp; Africa), was NileFm's guest at the "CEO Women" Conference, and she told all about her 30 years of Leadership in the global market.&nbsp;
With over 30 years of experience in senior executive roles across major global corporations including Airbus EU networks, British Telecom, and currently Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Sandrine El Khodry brings a wealth of experience to her professional Journey.
She is French native Egyptian and has lived in Paris for more than 30 years, Sandrine relocated to the UAE 6 years ago for her previous role as vice president of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (Middle East and Africa region). as of April 2024 she has taken the role of senior vice president for the newly formed emerging countries region of Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Middle East, Africa, India, and South Asia, bringing in her wealth of expertise and strong dedication for achievements
What does "CEO Women" stand for or mean to you in your incredible career?
For a woman or a man, it's similar, the same criteria need to be applied, to achieve and to be successful in that position.
First of all, this is what I usually do, to lead with your heart. We are all human, and whatever brand you are working for, it is people who are making a difference. The brand is something but it is people who are building this brand and making it grow, so you need to be human and lead with your heart.
You need to be a leader, and being a leader is not a title, being a leader is something that needs to be acquired on a daily basis. It's not because you have the title of the CEO that you think that I made it, I'll step back and I'm just giving orders. A leader is somebody that people trust, believe in, and follow. It doesn't mean that they love the person or like the person but at least they feel that they can refer to, and they can follow this person, inspiring them, having solutions, and being hands-on. So you can be a very good leader and suddenly step back and be in your comfort zone and lose credibility in the eyes of your people.
Also, you need to have a vision, and when I say a vision, it's a business understanding vision, and this is not given. A CEO cannot know everything, this person relies on several competencies and needs to have a vision and a global understanding of the business in which he or she is operating to be able to give the right guidance, and the right understanding of the market in which they are operating.
What I discovered, and what I saw all over my 30 years of career is that when people reach such a position, they take it personally, I need to defend this chair, but they totally forget that there are ups and downs, and my main slogan is that; it is not the title, it is not the chair it is the impact that you are doing, because one day you will leave the chair, and my wish is that whenever I leave a position people remember me with good things, and remember that I changed their life, or contributed for their growth, or I did something that they learned from and they are applying in their lives.
In your career you were able to combine your love for business and your love for people, what inspired you to combine those two and focus on inspiring young entrepreneurs?
When I started my career I didn't have all of this in mind, but I have a small gem that needs to be cleaned up all over, and what I consider a gem is the soft skills, the willingness, the perseverance, the stubborn sometimes, to never give up.
I had a dream when I started my career, to become somebody, I wanted to be somebody influential, that people can remember my good acts, and I can help others, and so grew with me all over the 30 years.
My career was really hard because I was in France, an Eastern woman in a Western world in a man's business, so if you look around the maximum that a woman can achieve in the Western world is the PA of a Chairman, not a decision-making position. So I have been through a lot, lots of roadblocks, lots of challenges, lots of races, and especially the challenge to prove myself against my peer men who had everything easy, but as a woman you need to work 10 times harder.&nbsp;
I have been through all of it, so I know when I look to young people, women or men, it's not easy, especially for women, so whenever I can help, I help because I know what it takes and that you can suffer a lot from injustice, those people need somebody to guide them and help them, so I put it in the back of my mind whenever I can help somebody or support them.
I don't say that I know it all, nobody knows it all, but at least I have a career and a life experience that allows me to be able to be a good adviser, to support, to guide, to motivate, I'm passionate about this, I'm passionate about three things people, culture and business.&nbsp;
Have you seen in your 30-year career difference a stride that we've made as women in business?
Of course, I'm not generalizing but it is my understanding that now it has become the trend to push women into leadership positions, so, this is good, but are we doing it right? I don't think so, because what happens now is that men don&rsquo;t find jobs in leadership positions&mdash;they are completely excluded from the same position, if two CVs arrive, one from a woman and one from a man, they&rsquo;re no longer looking at the skills; they&rsquo;re looking at the gender. This is not the equality we were asking for. We were asking for people not to look at gender, but to have skills on both CVs and then take the best in class.
But what&rsquo;s happening now is different. For leadership roles, we have a quota to fill at the executive level, so we&rsquo;re choosing women. But is this woman always the most skilled? Sometimes, no. And what we&rsquo;re creating is a situation where the person is in a decision-making position but lacks the skills to take on such a role. She&rsquo;s not raising her hand to say, 'I would like this or that.'
What it creates is a snowball effect where any woman approaching her feels threatened. It&rsquo;s biased, but I am confident we will reach a balance because every transformation needs a trial period to accompany this shift. We are at the other extreme right now.
I&rsquo;m not generalizing or saying all women in leadership positions aren&rsquo;t worth it&mdash;not at all! Especially here in the Middle East, in Egypt, I see brilliant women, and when I speak to them, I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;Wow!&rsquo; You feel proud. So, I&rsquo;m not generalizing, but from a worldwide perspective, this is the situation. Sometimes, you have women in leadership because they come from wealthy families, or for other reasons, and this isn&rsquo;t helping the equation. We&rsquo;re in a transition period; we&rsquo;re not there yet, but we&rsquo;re moving in the right direction. We need to be vigilant because we&rsquo;re now making men suffer, which is the opposite of what we actually intended.
&nbsp;

Dr. Sandrine El Khodry, Senior Vice President At Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise For EEIMEA Region, On Leadership, Legacy, And Empowering The Next Future Business Leaders

On Air Now

Non-Stop Music

You May like

Schedule

Non-Stop Music