Aesara Partners 

At Aesara Partners, our mission is simple: enable you to be the best version of yourself. We offer a range of focused services that unlock the potential of people, teams and cultures to maximise business performance. 

Collectively our Partners and Associates have decades of experience both in executive coaching and as board level leaders themselves working in multiple sectors across global markets.

Partner & Executive Coach

Doshisha University

Professor of Strategic Management, Global MBA Program

The CFO Coach K.K.

The CFO Coach K.K. is a boutique executive coaching firm specializing in developing High-Performance​ Financial Leaders and Teams.

Founder & Executive Coach

Kansai Gaidai University

•	Awarded President's Global Education Award (Teacher of the Year).

Professor of Leadership & Management

Benesse Holdings, Inc. (USD 4.5B; Tokyo Stock Exchange Code: 9783)

•	Member of the Board of Directors for Berlitz Corporation; Benesse Corporation; and Benesse Style Care.  Chairman of Audit Committee for Berlitz Corporation. Member of Benesse Holdings Pension Committee.
•	Global CFO covering all 40+ Benesse group companies
•	Championed and supported multiple cash generation initiatives including a CFO led "Save to Grow" initiative to improve Company Financial performance and to identify significant savings for business reinvestment
•	Enhanced Finance bench strength and hired a high potential team to start financial business consulting
•	Implemented several process and capability best practices to move group companies towards global standards

Global Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Senior Vice President

McCann Worldgroup Holdings

• Overall Responsibility for Operations (Finance, IT, Legal, and Administration - 10 legal entities) 
• Successfully turned around long term loss making lead agency by delivering double digit margin improvements within two years
• Delivered double digit margin improvements for all six MWG Group companies 
• Built a new Finance team and moved from Scorekeeping to Business Partnership and improved business performance
• Major projects within last two years include: 
  - Shared Service center creation/migration
  - New Financial System Migration
  - Acquisition & Divestiture
  - Business Turnaround
  - Retirement Plan consolidation/change
  - Office relocation/rent reductions

Group Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, and Member of The Board

Becton, Dickinson and Company

• Led Finance, Procurement, General Affairs, and Rebates teams (43 staff) to deliver multi-million dollar cash and profit performance improvement for first year and beyond. Exceeded all budget expectations.
• Engaged Japan Management Team and Global Finance Leadership Team on company objectives to deliver best outcome (Finance Transformation initiative, Sales effectiveness improvement, Key Account Management, Business Continuity plan, and strategy/selection of backup distribution center).  Led process for 2012-16 Business Plan development
• Developed and executed Finance department strategy and vision to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Implemented job rotation program and hired several high potential employees to improve bench strength.
• Championed multiple Finance and Procurement initiatives including definition and implementation of new 401k Retirement Plan; divestiture of non-core business; change of primary banks (reduced bank fees by over 30%); vendor reduction process, and new travel expense management system 
• Taught New Manager Essentials program and selected as leadership trainer for PEPFAR program in South Africa to teach Leadership and Change Management to African Health Ministry officials

Finance and Administration Director

Avon Products Inc.

•	Implementation project leader for Avon Sales Leadership Framework (ASLF) – Highest priority project for the Company to adapt to a new Sales Model.  Completed project implementation in record timing.  Awarded regional award as part of ASLF Team. Only person in Asia recognized for both Top-line and Bottom-line contributions in the same year.
•	Defined and executed new vision and mission and led Sales Support department to complete over 40 initiatives (within a six-month period) as part of Team’s new journey towards field motivational excellence. Incorporated new processes to deliver high impact incentives, and to create Sales energy and momentum for sales turn-around.    
•	Achieved highest employee engagement scores with Sales Support Department significantly exceeding country results in over 95% of categories.  Previously had also led Finance department to highest employee engagement scores.
•	Global Project leader for a high potential, multi-functional, multi-national team to study and recommend actions to improve Global Sales Incentive management/spending process.
•	Oversaw execution of a variety of Company and Public/Media events ranging from Sales Conferences to Philanthropic events including Annual Awards to Women, and Pink Ribbon Campaign support.

Executive Director and Member of the Board

•	Responsible for Financial policy making/implementation and reporting for Avon Japan as a public company (including statutory/public, and Board Meetings). All year-end financial documents audited with no comments/exceptions.
•	Defined and executed new department Vision and Mission, and recruited, trained and developed a completely new Finance team (80% new hires within a six month period) to move from scorekeeping to business partnership. Finance team formed core of country high potential list.
•	Consistently over achieved profit performance commitment under adverse conditions of sales decline by aggressively managing strategic business needs with cost cutting; Delivered zero overhead growth during all years; Japan winner of regional awards for best cost management performance, and for boldest transformation strategy.
•	Provided leadership and support for critical decisions and strategy development as Japan Leadership Team Member.  Actively led change management process within company.
•	Consistently achieved best internal control results in Asia-Pacific/Avon over a period of eight audits.  Japan one of only two countries with highest audit rating. Outstanding performance generated support to remove Japan from list of High Coverage countries.
• Co-developed strategic/financial business case, and obtained approval for number of campaign reduction in 2006 making Avon Japan only country ever in Avon to undergo campaign reduction. 
• Independently analyzed and provided strategic direction for Plant study which challenged and reversed previous recommendation by outside consultants on plant closure.
• Provided leadership in several restructuring initiatives by providing an achievable plan to achieve 12% people related cost reduction.  Played lead role in this study representing Finance, Supply Chain and HR 
• Consistently achieved highest performance rating and nominations to several high potential programs
• Elected (and re-elected) to Board of Directors

Executive Director, CFO and Member of the Board of Directors

Delphi

• Prepared Asia-Pacific regional messages / presentations for Delphi Strategy Board, and for Delphi Board of Directors.
• Supported development and implementation of critical Asia-Pacific strategies.  Performed competitive intelligence and other special studies to identify risks / competitive threats and outlined regional / corporate response.
• Provided Miller Heiman strategic selling process training to Asia-Pacific personnel to improve value propositions and increase sales effectiveness.

Director Asia-Pacific Planning

• Management responsibilities for Finance, HR, General Affairs, and Six-Sigma.
• Active member of the Japan Strategy Board and Japan management team.  
• Six-Sigma Deployment Champion for Delphi Japan.

Delphi Japan – CFO & Administration Director

Country Responsibilities:
• Managed all finance functions including accounting, budgeting / forecasting and treasury.
• Lead development of cross-functional and cross-divisional Internal Control Review Board.
• Lead and supported strategic initiatives including venture development support, site enhancement, competitive analysis, transfer pricing, and cost reduction studies.
• Represented Japan in Asia-Pacific Financial Task Team.

Regional Responsibilities:
• Coached country CFO and staff to implement common financial reporting processes.
• Supervised and provided training for engineering / commercial / plant / site analysts.  Coordinated regional financial training programs for the sector in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Coordinated the regional budget, business plan, and capital management process.
• Supported development of common financial practices among ventures including:  Loan monitoring, F/X and cash management, compliance with accounting principles, report submission, etc. Provided regional oversight of venture risk exposure.

Asia-Pacific Senior Finance Mgr.

Executive Coach | MBA Professor | Ex-Global CFO

I help senior leaders master complexity, elevate strategic impact, and lead with authentic authority.

I bring over 25 years of C-level and boardroom experience as a former Global CFO for a $5B publicly traded company, combined with a deep commitment to human-centered leadership development.

Today, I coach global executives, CEOs, and leadership teams — specializing in executive transitions, strategic leadership, high-performance teams, and Asian leadership development.

I am also an MBA Professor of Leadership and Strategic Management, blending research-driven frameworks with boardroom-tested insights to develop transformational leaders.

Based in Kyoto, fluent in English, Urdu, and Japanese.

Connect with me: arif@thecfocoach.jp

Website: www.thecfocoach.jp (please sign up on my mailing list to receive future announcements and newsletters)

Arif Iqball

🌍 Global Fintech Advisor | Scaling Businesses via Digital Transformation & M&A | $500M+ Deals Executed | Empowering CXOs to Drive 10x Growth | Architect of Hypergrowth Strategies

Transformative fintech executive with 20+ years of impact across global markets, steering digital growth, scaling business models, and enabling market leadership across 3 continents.

📈 $300M+ in revenue growth.
🌍 Product Launch & Expansion into 10+ countries.
🤝 $500M+ in strategic M&A.

I specialize in executive advisory, strategic planning, go-to-market strategy, digital transformation, and international expansion; helping organizations unlock scale, efficiency, and sustained competitive advantage.

From digital banks to embedded finance, I’ve led fintechs, NBFIs, banks, software firms, and telecoms through large-scale transformation and innovation. My approach blends boardroom strategy with hands-on execution, building scalable operating models, navigating regulatory complexity, and launching high-impact digital products.

I advise ambitious institutions and founders on how to:
✔️ Build and scale in high-growth markets
✔️ Design business & operating models that drive profit and resilience
✔️ Align vision with execution for long-term impact

If you're building the next wave of financial innovation or navigating inflection points in growth, I bring the clarity, playbook, and momentum to help you lead from the front and make it a success.

Nadir Ali

Obstacles don’t stop progress. 

Resistance does.

Challenges will show up daily in business and in life. 

What matters isn’t the obstacle, but how you move around it.

➟ Life will test you. 
➟ Business will test you. 
➟ Leadership will test you.

The lesson? Be like water.
➟ Not rigid. 
➟ Not reactive. 
➟ But calm, adaptable, and relentless.

Here’s how to apply the “water principle” when challenges hit:

1. Flow, don’t fight
↳ Don’t burn energy resisting every obstacle.
↳ Redirect that energy to finding alternate paths.

2. Stay calm under pressure
↳ Turbulence outside doesn’t mean chaos inside.
↳ Your tone sets the room. Steady leaders build steady teams.

3. Adapt faster than the problem
↳ Rocks don’t move, but water finds a way.
↳ Agility beats brute force in business and in life.

4. Play the long game
↳ Water doesn’t win in one strike.
↳ Consistency compounds into breakthroughs.

5. Turn friction into force
↳ Use the obstacle as leverage to refine strategy.
↳ Every constraint can sharpen execution.

Water doesn’t ask permission.

It flows until it shapes the landscape.

Are you fighting obstacles or flowing through them?

♻️ Repost if you believe adaptability beats resistance every time.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Anyone can announce change. 

Only a few can make it stick.

Because transformation isn’t about speed, it’s about sequence.

Most transformations fail not because of bad strategy,
but because leaders skip the human sequence of change.

Plans shift systems.

But people drive momentum.

After leading multi-market transformations, I’ve seen that sustainable change follows one clear rhythm, Kotter’s 8 steps, redefined for today’s execution reality 👇

1. Create a sense of urgency
↳ Change starts when people feel the cost of inaction.
↳ Lead with data and emotion not just memos.

2. Build a guiding coalition
↳ No leader changes an organization alone.
↳ Assemble believers with influence, not just titles.

3. Craft a clear vision & strategy
↳ A vague vision drains energy.
↳ Define a North Star that’s simple, compelling, and executable.

4. Communicate the vision
↳ Clarity dies in silence.
↳ Repeat the message until it becomes muscle memory.

5. Empower people to act
↳ Remove friction. Break silos.
↳ Equip teams with authority, tools, and trust.

6. Generate short-term wins
↳ Momentum feeds morale.
↳ Celebrate visible progress to build belief.

7. Consolidate and scale the gains
↳ Each win should unlock the next.
↳ Institutionalize learning and reinforce new habits.

8. Anchor change in the culture
↳ Culture isn’t what’s written, it’s what’s repeated.
↳ Embed new behaviors into how the organization lives and leads.

Transformation isn’t an event. It’s a sequence.

And those who master it don’t just adapt, they lead the next curve.

♻️ Repost to help more leaders build change that actually lasts.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution insights.

Most leaders don’t burn out from overwork.

They burn out from misaligned work.

Because burnout isn’t about hours. 

It’s about energy leakage across:
➟ Clarity.
➟ Recovery.
➟ Resilience.

After two decades building teams across 11 markets, I’ve learned this:
You can’t scale performance if you can’t sustain it.

Here’s the framework I use to lead at high output without paying the burnout tax 👇

1. Clarity → Work without burnout
↳ Vision: Know exactly what you’re building toward.
↳ Priorities: Ruthlessly filter what deserves your energy.
↳ Values: Let principles, not pressure, drive choices.
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲.

2. Recovery → Perform under pressure
↳ Boundaries: Protect time like capital.
↳ Rest: Recovery is not a luxur, it’s leverage.
↳ Renewal: Redefine breaks as part of performance.
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿.

3. Resilience → Lead with confidence
↳ Beliefs: Replace control with adaptability.
↳ Self-worth: Measure progress by consistency, not speed.
↳ Response: Recover fast, learn faster.
𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀.

When clarity, recovery, and resilience intersect,
you enter the Sustainable Performance Zone,
where leaders execute hard goals without eroding themselves.

Because true leadership isn’t about output.

It’s about endurance.

Question:
If your success required you to slow down 10% but your team scaled 2x, would you do it?

♻️ Repost to help leaders trade burnout for long-term momentum.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Stop telling people to ‘dream bigger’.

Start teaching them to ‘execute better’.

Big dreams don’t fail for lack of ambition.

They fail because execution never catches up.

Your teams don’t need more inspiration.

They need more iteration.

Here’s how high performers execute bigger 👇

1. Turn dreams into systems
↳ Goals inspire, but systems deliver.
↳ Define who, what, and when for every big idea.

2. Build execution rituals
↳ Daily standups. Weekly reviews. Monthly retros.
↳ Rhythm beats random effort every time.

3. Shrink the time to feedback
↳ Don’t wait 90 days to find out what’s not working.
↳ Shorten loops. Fail fast. Fix faster.

4. Reward iteration, not intention
↳ Celebrate what shipped, not what was discussed.
↳ Action creates culture.

5. Audit execution capacity
↳ Track how much time your team spends doing vs. discussing.
↳ You’ll find your growth leaks in the gap.

The best leaders don’t sell bigger dreams.

They build bigger executors.

Are you scaling ambition or execution?

♻️Repost if you believe execution is the real growth multiplier.
🔔Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Most leaders talk about results.

Few build the culture that produces them.

I’ve seen this across fintechs, banks, and transformation projects that performance doesn’t come from pressure.

It comes from clarity, trust, and consistency.

Here’s the 7-step playbook I use to build teams that perform even when I’m not in the room 👇

1. Define Success
↳ Show what “winning” actually looks like.
↳ When everyone sees the same finish line, alignment follows.

2. Anchor in Core Values
↳ Set 3–5 principles that guide every decision.
↳ In one turnaround, clear values rebuilt trust faster than any KPI reset.

3. Set Clear Goals
↳ Turn vision into measurable outcomes.
↳ Every goal must have a name next to it, not a department.

4. Create Role Clarity
↳ Accountability dies in the gray zone.
↳ Define who decides, who contributes, and who’s informed.

5. Build Trust Before Speed
↳ Teams that align first, move faster later.
↳ Candor beats politics every single time.

6. Make Accountability a Habit
↳ Track progress weekly, what’s measured gets done.
↳ This shift turned my remote teams from reactive to reliable.

7. Invest in Growth
↳ Growth isn’t a perk, it’s a performance system.
↳ When people evolve, the whole team compounds.

High performance isn’t built in sprints.
It’s built in systems.

The question is: 
Are you managing performance or designing the culture that sustains it?

♻️ Repost if you believe culture drives performance more than pressure.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

You can replace a position.

But not passion.

That’s the real currency of performance and the hardest one to manufacture.

Across every transformation I’ve led, one truth stands out:
➟ People don’t quit jobs. 
➟ They quit indifference.

Here’s how leaders keep passion alive inside high-performance teams 👇

1. Connect role to purpose
↳ Don’t let titles define contribution.
↳ Show how every task ladders up to impact that’s where ownership begins.

2. Recognize effort, not just output
↳ Reward the behaviors that drive progress.
↳ When people feel seen, they give more than what’s measured.

3. Build psychological safety
↳ Passion dies in fear-based cultures.
↳ Let ideas breathe, innovation thrives where judgment pauses.

4. Empower, don’t hover
↳ Micromanagement breeds compliance, not creativity.
↳ Trust is the oxygen for initiative.

5. Model the energy you expect
↳ Passion is contagious.
↳ If you’re not inspired, no one else will be.

Leadership isn’t about filling positions.

It’s about fueling purpose.

♻️ Repost if you believe passion outperforms process every time.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Dreams don’t build success. 

Action does.

Ideas, plans, and strategies mean nothing until they’re executed.

Because movement, not intention, is what separates achievers from dreamers.

Here’s how to turn ideas into impact 👇

1. Shrink the goal to a move
↳ Don’t wait for perfect timing.
↳ Start with one small, visible action that creates momentum.

2. Systemize your progress
↳ Build routines that make action automatic.
↳ Discipline outlasts motivation every single time.

3. Bias for execution, not approval
↳ Stop asking “Is this the right step?” and start testing.
↳ Data beats opinion. Every. Single. Time.

3. Track output, not activity
↳ Doing more isn’t progress. Creating results is.
↳ Measure what moves the needle, not what fills the day.

4. Build reflection into motion
↳ Review what’s working every week.
↳ Adjust fast, act faster.

Action turns potential into proof.

Without it, even brilliance is wasted potential.

Are you acting on your goals or just thinking about them?

♻️ Repost if you believe action is the real key to success.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution frameworks.

Success isn’t the goal. Integrity is.

Most people chase outcomes at any cost.

High performers do the opposite.
They protect the one thing that compounds forever: their values.

Here’s the real equation behind principled leadership 👇

1. A compromised win is a hidden loss
↳ If you sacrifice values to hit a target, you’re not winning.
↳ You’re trading long-term credibility for short-term approval.

2. A principled miss is strategic integrity
↳ Falling short while staying true isn’t failure.
↳ It’s proof your standards survive pressure.

3. Values matter most when they cost you
↳ The right choice is rarely the easy choice.
↳ Character is revealed when the stakes rise.

4. Principles compound like reputation capital
↳ Consistency builds trust faster than performance alone.
↳ People follow leaders whose values don’t fluctuate with outcomes.

Because at the end of every goal, one question always remains:
Did you win the right way or just win?

Choose the version of you you’ll respect in ten years.

♻️ Repost if you believe winning without integrity isn’t winning at all.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Mastery is multi-disciplinary.

The best leaders borrow from every profession.

Because peak performance isn’t about knowing more, it’s about thinking better.

Here’s the multi-disciplinary playbook behind better judgment and execution 👇

1. Speak like a Lawyer
↳ Articulate with precision.
↳ Win arguments through clarity, not volume.

2. Express like a Philosopher
↳ Simplify the complex.
↳ Ask better questions, not longer ones.

3. Analyze like a Psychologist
↳ Understand motives before making moves.
↳ Influence begins with empathy.

4. Observe like a Detective
↳ See patterns others overlook.
↳ The smallest clue often hides the biggest truth.

5. Decide like a Judge
↳ Separate fact from feeling.
↳ Wisdom is balanced reasoning under pressure.

6. Create like an Artist
↳ Connect dots, don’t copy them.
↳ Innovation is discipline in disguise.

7. Work like an Engineer
↳ Build systems that scale.
↳ Reliability beats brilliance every day.

8. Lead with the balance of them all
↳ Leadership is integration, not imitation.
↳ Mastering perspective is the ultimate leverage.

Great leaders don’t stay in one lane.
They borrow the best mindset from every lane.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: versatility is the new intelligence.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

92 % of people quit the race before crossing the finish line.

Because they never burned the boats.

Last week I found myself staring at my team’s whiteboard.
We had a bold outcome: launch a new revenue stream in 30 days.
32 ideas on the board. Two backup plans. One safety net.

That night I asked: “What if the net was cut?”

What if failure isn’t an option?
➟ Suddenly the language changes. 
➟ The energy changes. 
➟ The entire team shows up differently.

Because when “do or die” truly matters:

People stop saying “if” and start asking “how.”

Meetings shift from status updates to problem-solving sprints.

Guardrails vanish; only the path forward remains.

Here’s how I flipped the switch and you can too.

1. Declare your must-win metric publicly.
↳ Pick one number that matters. Announce it internally and externally.
↳ When it lives in the open, excuses shrink.

2. Cut the fallback routes.
↳ Remove Plan B. Lock in Plan A.
↳ Comfort is the enemy of urgency.

3. Build relentless accountability loops.
↳ 15-minute stand-ups, visible dashboards, live updates.
↳ When progress is public, commitment deepens.

4. Build micro-victories every week.
↳ Small wins fuel proof that you’re on the path.
↳ Share them. Celebrate them. Amplify belief.

5. Turn failures into data-points, not defeats.
↳ Missed a target? Log it. Analyse it. Reset the aim.
↳ No shame. Only insight. Only refine. Only move forward.

Success doesn’t reward the hopeful. It rewards the committed.

When you quit making choices and instead demand execution, the only question left is: “What’s next?”

♻️ Repost if you’re ready to burn the boats and make success inevitable.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Patience isn’t passive. 

It’s performance in slow motion.

Most leaders confuse urgency with impatience.
➟ The first drives momentum. 
➟ The second destroys it.

Across every transformation I’ve led, one pattern stands out,
Impatient teams burn out early.

Patient ones build systems that scale.

Here’s how to turn patience into your execution edge 👇

1. Detach speed from progress
↳ Moving fast is easy. Moving right takes discipline.
↳ Measure trajectory, not tempo.

2. Master the lag phase
↳ Every breakthrough looks like failure before it compounds.
↳ Stay steady when results are invisible.

3. Build process endurance
↳ Systems take time to stabilize.
↳ Don’t switch paths mid-learning curve.

4. Play for depth, not dopamine
↳ Quick wins feed ego. Long games build legacy.
↳ Choose substance over speed.

5. Reflect before reacting
↳ Reflection sharpens direction.
↳ Stillness is a multiplier of clarity.

Patience isn’t waiting.

It’s executing with composure when others chase noise.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: patience is strategy in disguise.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution insights.

Most people sit in the stands.

Only a few step into the arena.

The critic has opinions.

The doer has evidence.

In two decades leading transformations across 11 markets, I’ve seen this first hand.
➟ Progress doesn’t come from those who analyze risk.
➟ It comes from those who absorb it.

Here’s how to lead from the arena, not the balcony 👇

1. Build before you’re ready
↳ Action reveals clarity faster than analysis.
↳ Perfectionism is fear disguised as planning.

2. Measure scars, not applause
↳ Growth is a byproduct of failure, not comfort.
↳ Every stumble is tuition for mastery.

3. Play long games
↳ Visibility fades; credibility compounds.
↳ Stay the course when others chase novelty.

4. Choose courage over consensus
↳ Great work always looks wrong before it’s right.
↳ Innovation starts where approval ends.

5. Reflect, don’t retreat
↳ Learn the lesson, not the emotion.
↳ Iterate until momentum replaces motivation.

The world remembers builders, not commentators.

Because history favors the ones who dared to show up.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: progress belongs to those in the arena.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution insights.

Most leaders manage people.

The best ones develop leaders.

And from two decades working with top-performing CEOs, I’ve seen one pattern:
➟ They don’t just talk about culture.
➟ They model it daily.

Here’s what the best leaders consistently do 👇

1. Reflect
✅ Stay aware of how your emotions shape your leadership.
🚫 Don’t ignore your emotions or their impact on others.
Tip: End your week asking, “How did I show up as a leader today?”

2. Listen
✅ Validate others’ perspectives before responding.
🚫 Don’t dismiss concerns or feelings.
Tip: In meetings, speak last, you’ll learn more than you expect.

3. Empower
✅ Delegate outcomes, not just tasks.
🚫 Don’t micromanage or withhold trust.
Tip: Define what success looks like let your team decide how to get there.

4. Feedback
✅ Be specific, empathetic, and solution-focused.
🚫 Don’t give vague or harsh feedback.
Tip: Use this frame: “What worked → What to improve → How I can support.”

5. Integrity
✅ Own your actions even when it’s uncomfortable.
🚫 Don’t shift blame to protect yourself.
Tip: Admitting a mistake publicly builds more trust than a perfect track record.

6. Adaptability
✅ Adjust based on new insights and changing contexts.
🚫 Don’t cling to outdated plans or processes.
Tip: Ask your team quarterly: “What should we stop doing?”

7. Purpose
✅ Link daily work to bigger goals and values.
🚫 Don’t rely only on rewards for short-term motivation.
Tip: Start projects with why it matters, not what to do.

8. Composure
✅ Stay calm under pressure.
🚫 Don’t let panic ripple through your team.
Tip: When uncertainty hits, your tone sets everyone’s temperature.

9. Conflict
✅ Address tension early and openly.
🚫 Don’t avoid tough conversations.
Tip: Reframe conflict as problem-solving not personal friction.

10. Burnout
✅ Promote balance and spot fatigue early.
🚫 Don’t overlook your or your team’s limits.
Tip: Protect energy like capital, recovery drives results.

Leadership isn’t about control. 
It’s about creating systems where trust, clarity, and accountability do the work.

♻️ Repost to remind that leadership evolves when behavior outperforms position.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Most people quit when they fall.

Champions sprint harder because they fell.

In 2008, Heather Dornadin was leading a 600-meter race.

With 200 meters left, she was clipped, fell hard, and the race seemed over.
➟ But she didn’t stay down.
➟ She got up, chased, and won.

The greatest comeback in race history, powered by mindset, not luck.

Here’s what her comeback teaches every high performer 👇

1. Recover fast
↳ Don’t analyze the fall: react, reset, resume.
↳ Speed of recovery decides the size of your comeback.

2. Refocus your energy
↳ Pain is information, not interruption.
↳ Channel emotion into execution.

3. Rebuild rhythm
↳ Momentum isn’t found, it’s recreated.
↳ One strong stride reignites flow.

4. Refuse self-pity
↳ Falling isn’t failure, staying down is.
↳ Champions don’t seek sympathy; they seek the finish line.

5. Redefine victory
↳ The real win isn’t first place, it’s finishing stronger than you started.
↳ Comebacks build character trophies no medal can match.

Because resilience isn’t about avoiding the fall.

It’s about racing through it.

The fall doesn’t end the story, the rise rewrites it.

♻️ Repost to remind your network: recovery is the real measure of greatness.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

The problem isn’t that success is hard.

It’s that most people suffer for goals too small to matter.

Every meaningful goal has a cost.

The trick isn’t avoiding pain, it’s choosing pain with purpose.

Here’s how high performers turn discomfort into direction 👇

1. Accept the entry fee
↳ Every goal taxes you, time, energy, focus.
↳ Stop wishing for ease. Start preparing for endurance.

2. Pick goals with meaning, not noise
↳ If the struggle feels empty, the goal’s probably wrong.
↳ Align ambition with your “why,” not the world’s applause.

3. Convert pain into feedback
↳ Every obstacle carries data.
↳ Reflect after every hit: what did this teach me about the process?

4. Build systems that outlast motivation
↳ Discipline doesn’t feel good, it feels consistent.
↳ Automate your grind so emotion stops dictating effort.

5. Redefine success as staying in the game
↳ Winning isn’t crossing the line, it’s refusing to quit before it.
↳ Progress belongs to those who persist through the boring middle.

You’ll suffer either way, through growth or regret.

So pick a goal that makes the suffering worth it.

♻️ Repost if you believe comfort is the real competitor, not failure.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Your team loses 2.5 hours per day to distraction.

Over a year, that’s 5+ weeks of lost execution.

On your watch.

And the fix isn’t more hours.

It’s better systems.

In my career on several executives positions, these 9 time frameworks have helped me and my teams.
➟ Unlock focus.
➟ Reduce friction.
➟ Scale results.

The Time Management Cheat Sheet for Leaders

1. Timeboxing
↳ Block focused work like meetings. Treat it as non-negotiable.

2. Eat That Frog
↳ Start with the task you’re most likely to avoid.

3. Eisenhower Matrix
↳ Prioritize by urgency and importance then act accordingly.

4. 80/20 Rule
↳ Double down on the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of results.

5. 3–3–3 Method
↳ Design your day: 3 deep work, 3 urgent, 3 maintenance tasks.

6. MoSCoW Method
↳ Classify tasks into: Must, Should, Could, and Won’t.

7. Buffett’s 25/5 Rule
↳ Identify your top 5 goals. Ruthlessly ignore the other 20.

8. $10,000/hr Work
↳ Focus on strategic tasks that create leverage. Delegate the rest.

9. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints
↳ Find and fix the one bottleneck limiting your output.

You don’t need to master all 9.

Pick 2. Apply relentlessly.

You don’t scale by doing more. You scale by choosing better.

Which system do you need to start?

♻️ Repost if you believe time isn’t managed, it’s engineered.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for strategy, leadership & productivity insights.

Most CEOs talk about values.

But markets feel culture.

After advising CEOs across GCC and enabling 11 global markets, the pattern is clear:
➟ Values set intention.
➟ Culture drives performance.

Here’s the simple diagnostic:

1. VALUES = What you say
↳ They live in handbooks, onboarding, internal messaging.
↳ They reflect beliefs and aspirations not behavior.

2. CULTURE = What actually happens
↳ It’s shaped by who gets promoted, protected, or removed.
↳ It shows up in daily trade-offs, meetings, and how teams act under pressure.

If your values say one thing but your culture rewards another:
↳ You don’t have an execution problem.
↳ You have an alignment problem.

The CEO lever is simple:

Make culture deliver the results your values only promise.
➟ Model it.
➟ Reward it.
➟ Remove what contradicts it.
➟ Align hiring, promotion, and incentives with it.

Everything else is noise.

♻️ Repost to sharpen how leaders diagnose culture vs. values.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

They said he was too young. 

Too early. Not ready.

That’s what people say when they can’t see your pace.

Because most people confuse timing with readiness.

Here’s the truth 👇

1. Readiness is built in motion.
↳ Waiting to feel ready is disguised fear.
↳ You don’t earn confidence first, you earn it through doing.

2. Speed is useless without direction.
↳ Progress isn’t about moving fast; it’s about moving right.
↳ Discipline sets your lane, not emotion.

3. Belief compounds faster than talent.
↳ The mind crosses the finish line before the body does.
↳ Doubt slows execution long before fatigue does.

4. Critics measure by comfort. Winners measure by effort.
↳ Most people project their limits, not your potential.
↳ You don’t need approval; you need consistency.

Cole didn’t wait to be ready.
He became ready by running anyway.

Because performance isn’t about age, timing, or permission.
It’s about pace, purpose, and proof.

Execution reveals what validation never will.

♻️ Repost to remind your network that readiness is a decision, not a milestone.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

When a Fintech crosses $30M–$50M ARR, the problem shifts:
Execution isn’t the constraint, leadership systems are.

Every stalled scale-up I’ve advised in GCC or SEA showed the same five blind spots months before numbers flattened:

1. Fragmented Focus
↳ Multi-market bets too early.
↳ Diluted execution kills momentum.

2. Regulatory Neglect
↳ Compliance gaps destroy investor trust.
↳ Rebuilding confidence costs 3x more.

3. Leadership Lag
↳ The org scales faster than its leaders.
↳ Alignment cracks before execution does.

4. GTM Copy-Paste
↳ One-size-fits-all launches flop.
↳ Local nuance drives true adoption.

5. Cultural Blindness
↳ Ignoring local norms slows velocity.
↳ Behavior beats translation every time.

Before your next funding round or market expansion:
✅ Stress-test leadership capacity before capital capacity.
✅ Map compliance readiness like you map customer journeys.
✅ Localize GTM not just in language, but in decision behavior.

Structure creates speed.

Speed compounds into valuation.

♻️ Repost to raise the bar on how Fintech CEOs scale without stalling.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Most people wait for life to get easier.

The top 1% learn to get stronger.

A few years ago, during one of the toughest quarters of my career, a mentor told me something I never forgot:

“Don’t expect the path to smooth out. Earn your ease through effort.”

At that time, I was leading a team through missed targets, long nights, and rising pressure.
Everyone was tired. Morale was slipping.
And I realized, the problem wasn’t the workload.
It was our mindset.

We were chasing comfort in a season that required commitment.

So we made one shift:
Instead of asking “When will this get easier?”, we started asking “How can we get better?”

Everything changed.

➟ Execution sharpened.
➟ Accountability returned.
➟ Wins compounded slowly but steadily.

Because progress doesn’t come from waiting for easier days.
It comes from showing up on the hard ones.

Here’s the truth:
You can’t control how tough the journey gets.
But you can control how you show up for it.

Earn it. Every day. Every step.

Because the journey only becomes worthwhile when you’ve earned your way through it.

♻️ Remember resilience isn’t built in comfort, it’s built in consistency.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

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Arif Iqball

Nadir Ali

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The Battle

Arif Iqball

Nadir Ali

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Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nadir Ali's LinkedIn Performance

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