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Episode 4: A Journey of Transformation
250 Plays7 months ago
Tune in and discover how we’re making waves in the world of people development!
Sharing a journey of transformational moments, Shereen Tawfiq, Founder and CEO of BALINCA, recounts how she draws on the colour energies within her business and at home.
Sharing her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia, Shereen takes us on a journey of transformation as she explains how she set up her own business, created a supportive company culture and strengthened her colour “muscles”.
Conversing with Marcus Wylie, Head of Culture, Shereen discusses how she first found Insights Discovery and the impact it had on her.
She shares how the rental of a castle in Scotland and a chat with an Insights Practitioner led to her spreading the Insights message further.
Unwind and tune in…
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Transcript
Introduction to Voices with Insights Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello to our Insights community who continue to change lives around the world. My name is Marcus Wiley and welcome to the Voices with Insights podcast. I hope you're feeling colorful to your core today as you join us on a ride of discovery. We will chat with practitioners from across the globe to discover their fascinating untold stories. Whatever you are doing listening to our podcast, let's see if we can uncover an idea or two that will help you to create high-performing teams through awareness of self and others in a powerful and simple way.
Introducing Shireen Tofek
00:00:34
Speaker
So I am joined today by the wonderful Shireen Tofek, who's based out of Riyadh. How are you today, Shireen? Very well, thank you, Marcus. How are you? Oh, I am fantastic. Here in sunny Scotland, well, I'll say the sun is shining and our listeners will decide whether they believe me or not.
00:00:51
Speaker
It's fantastic to be talking with you today, looking very much forward to hearing your story.
Color Energies of Shireen Tofek
00:00:56
Speaker
And before ah you tell us a little bit about who you are and your day-to-day role within the Insights community, how would you describe yourself through the lens of the color energies? Or indeed, how might a person who knows you well describe their experience of your color energies? So my family and my close friends, they have always seen my my fiery red and a little bit of cold blue. However, ah since I've got to know insights and I've got to become ah an insights practitioner, I try to strengthen certain muscles that are naturally weak.
00:01:30
Speaker
and they don't show. So for example, my my husband leads with earth green. So you can imagine if I am fiery red and my earth green is very low, we at the beginning we felt like we complemented each other, but then at some point we felt we need to change. We need to adapt and connect a little bit more. So um I think like the last few years I've been trying my best to flex the muscles that I don't normally use, but especially use ah use them in situations and with certain people that I would love to build connections with.
00:02:04
Speaker
So, recently, with everything that is happening in my company and my company is growing, I feel that I need to ah lean into my fiery red to get things done, which is like my playground. I love it. I have so much fiery red energy that I have like i can give to ah many people. But then also, you know that culture eats strategy for breakfast, right? For sure. So in order for me to make sure that our culture in the company is intact and that people feel supported, I really wanted to practice, genuinely practice, earthgreen.
00:02:38
Speaker
So um at the beginning, like i I would say maybe five years ago or four years ago, people felt like I was not genuinely caring, you know, we just because they don't know that it doesn't come naturally to me. I need practice. I do care genuinely. It's just that the way I show it is not not not translated well to people. But I think recently, many people actually, when we did Insights and they didn't know my profile, many people thought that I have earth green above the line. So I thought, okay, that's great. It's like I'm actually practicing well. look at you getting that good feedback. And it sounds like you're drawing on the well of all the different color energies and different parts of your role and parts of your journey, which is great to hear. I did once hear one of our ah clients talk about the words on the little blocks that we have, right? And the earth green one says, show me that you care.
Role and Mission of Balinka
00:03:31
Speaker
And I think that other color entities do care, but sometimes forget to show it, right? So that's the muscle you'd be working on. Absolutely. Brilliant. um and so Based in Riyadh, in Saudi, and ah can you briefly describe a little bit about your role, your company, and what you do within the insights community just so our listeners can connect with you? Yes. so Right now, I am the CEO of a company called Balinka. Balinka is short for balance sheet income segment cash flow.
00:03:58
Speaker
And what we do is we gamify finance. So people who don't have any financial background, they will be able to understand the logic of finance. And like, for example, Marcus, if you, if I take you and let's say you tell me, I have no connection with finance. I don't know much about balance sheeting. In one day when, while you're playing a game, you will be able to analyze companies in one day. and That's the beauty of gamification because while you're having fun, you're learning a lot, but you're also basing your decisions based on facts and figures. Belinka has partners. Insight is a partner and we have other partners as well. and um The core value
00:04:45
Speaker
of us is that we learn by doing, we learn by experimenting and we want to enjoy the learning journey. Brilliant, that sounds fantastic. And how are things in Saudi just now? What's the what's the market seeing and doing? and What's the learning industry? What's happening there in that part of the world?
Societal Changes in Saudi Arabia
00:05:02
Speaker
So Saudi um is basically like, imagine if you're, if you're watching a movie about the history of a particular country, Saudi is going through this movie on like two times speed. You know, it's like, ah and it's a normal speed.
00:05:18
Speaker
I have a lot to share, but um ah from from my perspective, so growing up in Saudi, i i amm a I'm ah one of four sisters, and we don't have brothers. And growing up, and we were always looked at as, oh, poor you, you don't have a brother to take care of you. you know it's like um ah grew up So I'm 46. ah let's say 40 years ago, ah women were not participating in the workforce. And it was always expected that a man, either a father or husband or brother to take care of ah of women. And then 20 something years ago, 25 years ago, I was the first banker in the bank where I used to work. I was the first Saudi female bankers working with men. And um it was it had its own challenges, but also it
00:06:09
Speaker
helped me to grow a very thick skin. ah Because the perception and again, insights talks a lot about perception. Growing up, we all had the perception that women were not able to do things or like to work, you know, or forget about finance. So for me to enter the world of finance and be a banker and analyze companies on daily basis, I really had to fight that perception. Anyway, fast forward. Now, ah not only that, Saudi has surpassed its 2030 plan ah for women participation. Let me tell you how I feel the change in Saudi. So, for example, before COVID, if i want to make an if I want to have an appointment with a government entity, sometimes the government entity will say, sorry, we're not allowing women to get into the building.
00:07:00
Speaker
That changed dramatically during COVID and after COVID. not Not only that women have equal rights as men, not only in like work setting, but also socially. like Women have literally equal rights as men. That translates on so many levels. 10 years ago, men would not make eye contact with me, some men. Now, I'm treated with the same respect as men. It's a long answer to your question, but seriously, what is happening in Saudi is phenomenal. it's like it's I think we will go down in history as the country that transformed in five years.
00:07:44
Speaker
It does sound a phenomenal story and a real story of transformation. And you have been part of that. And I can imagine your own journey and awareness through the color energies and thinking about how you've drawn on different color energies to navigate in different moments. Has that been something that you've you've done over the years? Of course. Let me tell you a story about insights. So I met someone who promoted who told me about insights, who's a very dear friend. And she's ah an insights practitioner called Cheryl Shuttle.
Insights as a Valuable Tool
00:08:13
Speaker
So she she told me about insights, and she told me that this is like this ah the ah personality test, et cetera. And um I was very interested in in learning about myself and also learning of what what personality tests can can help us discover about ourselves. um And then when she told me, fire at sunshine yellow, blah, blah, blah, I thought.
00:08:34
Speaker
Nah. At the beginning, I was like, it will not work in Saudi because the majority of my clients are men. men if If I'm coming with a perception, that and I'm talking about Saudi 10 years ago. Sure. If I'm coming in and pitching them fiery red, sunshine yellow, cool blue, earth green, they will just dismiss me. It's not going to sound serious enough. So she's like, no, but you can give it a chance to give it a chance. So so she got, she did the psychometric test on for me. And when I read it,
00:09:09
Speaker
I was blown away. you know like it's said it was i When I read it, I was like, okay, this is ridiculously accurate. like How did you do that? And then when I got my husband to read it and he read my blind spots, that was a defining moment in my life, not just with regards to insight. How did he respond to your blind spots? So we were, we had just gotten married. Yeah. And we had just gotten our first ah son and he was still, we're still in like somehow the stretched honeymoon period where, you know, you don't want to confront your other half by their blind spots. Right. So i like, ah because he was, he was skimming through my profile, but then when it came to the blind spots, he's,
00:10:00
Speaker
he was there for like maybe 15 minutes. So he's like, I couldn't have said it more eloquently. Oh my goodness. I bet that was an interesting conversation for you both. For sure, ah because I then realized all the things that I was doing that were hurting him without me knowing. and that like for somebody For your loved one, somebody you love so much that you though your way of communicating is hurting your loved one. It was a big wake up call. So ever since then, I fell in love and that's it. Been 10 years.
00:10:40
Speaker
A lovely story, and um and one that many of the people who are associated with the insights community around the globe have experienced as well, but you've you articulate it so eloquently. So your role within the insights community would be an insights partner, is that correct? Yes. Yes. And a very proud partner. A very proud partner. And so when did you, it sounds like 10 years ago, you were introduced to insights and that was a very early experience. But when did you start to become more officially a partner and start to work with the content? Uh, about, I think four or five years ago, I can't remember the exact date, but it was about, about four years or four or five years ago. I think insights is a gem and it should be shared with everybody. And I think.
00:11:24
Speaker
ah What I love about insights is that you use it at home, you use it at the workplace, you use it even how you how you if you want to develop yourself because we're on a development journey from like from existence to death, right? So people who are switched on, they know that there's it's a continuous journey that they have to go through and there's a lot to take in, especially for example, with making decisions. So even though that I am ah have very high fiery red and very high cool blue, but i and my my sunshine yellow and my my earth green don't come naturally to me. They're more like I have to pull them in order for me to put them in the mix.
00:12:11
Speaker
And I started like socially, i I started adapting them and genuinely adapting them without without looking like a fool, you know, like I'm trying to wear something with something that doesn't suit me. But then what I realized is that now that I am, I realized my mistakes and usually my mistakes are coming because I overused one color over others. And um again, that's ah that's an and like ah a journey, a continuous learning journey. And I think everybody has to infuse insights in their lives on and ah on every facet. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm reflective that ah you talked about
00:12:51
Speaker
being unsure 10 or so years ago about taking a message of colour into organisations and you're you're already in ah and an area of the world that is going through this phenomenal transformation and you're facing hurdles left, right and centre. What was it like some of the early experiences as you went in with your proposition and then discovery was part of it. How did how did your customers and clients respond? oh Actually, I have a very good story about that. so One of the things that we did and now we are starting restarting to do is ah something called a leadership bootcamp.
Using Insights for Leadership Development
00:13:25
Speaker
A leadership bootcamp was inspired by my experience at Wharton when we did military training with Quantico Marine Corps ah Special Forces and also I did a training in Antarctica.
00:13:36
Speaker
and really stretched my my potential, you know, that showed me what I can achieve. So we started ah to do the same our own in Scotland in Dumfries. Oh, you were in Scotland. You were in Scotland doing it. Oh, OK. I like that. Yeah, from 2014 until 2018 or 2019, we were um renting a castle in Scotland and we were doing our leadership bootcamp there. Fantastic. Yeah. ah so um so We did the first one, which was okay, but then I met Cheryl before we did the second one. and Then ah Cheryl said, we should infuse insights. and I said, oh, no, no, no. sunshine yellow like We're talking about 20 Saudi men.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, 20 Saudi men. And I was like, no, no, no, I don't want to use sunshine and earth green. And she's like, just trust me. And then we did it as part of the of the boot camp. And people were amazed, you know, like, they, you can see that because we did it at the beginning, maybe the second year, the first, sorry, the first or second day of the camp. And then we started, and and she started reminding them or like, you know, when they were in situations, especially when stress is high, this she started reminding them of this is the color energy you're using, how about you use another color energy, because it suits this situation better, or this person better, right? So it became a language. And that was for me, that was okay. that For me, I was like, I believe, you know, I've converted, now I know. And then I went to clients with a lot more confidence because I actually saw it in in practice.
00:15:14
Speaker
Brilliant. I just love the thought of you, the 20, 70 nationals in the castle in Scotland, experiencing this transformational moment that's given you energy. And as a practitioner, then, have you come up against some challenges, even though you've had confidence to take take the message of discovery into your organizations? so The challenges that ah usually come is that you know that when clients are used to one tool and they just believe in it and they like it, it's very hard for them to shift because they just have this affinity towards this tool. Now, the that was a challenge for me to express to them that insights is superior. But then it wasn't that much of a challenge because I was that. you know like i Before i went i I saw I witnessed insights,
00:15:59
Speaker
I experienced almost all the top names in in the same field. chair So I know how to position it and which one, how to how to express why insights is is sticky, stickier. you know So it's, um I wouldn't call it a challenge per se. like I think insights is one of those ah tools that sells self but itself because people forget, it people don't forget it. They remember that that their color energies. They remember the experience. They actually, when we put them in situations where they have to practice,
00:16:35
Speaker
something that doesn't come naturally to them, that's a really big aha moment and it sticks with them. and know So just to recognize their shortfalls, but also their strength. Brilliant. So it sounds like through your own story of how you've come to Insights and Discoveries, you've you've used a part of that, but then also the stickability And then perhaps maybe in the example in Scotland that you talked about where it it created a language for conversation and a dialogue to help face into challenges would be a couple of strong ways that you have used it, correct? For sure, for sure. Beyond the black about without doubt. but Also, one of the things that um that highlights my journey with insights is ah understanding when you have conflict, you know, with ah with another person, for example, I'm very strong in sensation. yeah
00:17:20
Speaker
So when I communicate, I pick my words of how my words mean, not necessarily how they are said. So ah when I'm facing somebody who's more intuition than sensation, then that person is picking up on how I'm saying it, not necessarily what I'm saying. And that creates a lot of um miscommunication and potential conflicts that in under stress could actually be like close to diabolical, you know, and especially when you're growing in a company. So my company just recently doubled in size, actually tripled in size in the last
00:17:58
Speaker
14 months. but So when you're hiring many people and the communication is so key, but then you can't control communication because you're you're talking to 15 people. It's very hard to talk to 15 people on a daily basis. You really have to, as a leader, you really have to be very aware on how the receiver is taking your cues. Are they taking your tone or they're taking your words, you know, because that makes a huge difference. So for me, that was also like um something that I highlight to leaders all the time. I love that story. And for leaders with large groups of people, or even with your own partner at home, right sometimes actually seeing things written down and having a conversation about
00:18:41
Speaker
where the where the positive points and the other points are. And the growth comes in the blind spots, of course, right for for our relationship. But I can imagine that story that you talked about with your own husband playing out in and the and the workplace with your clients as well. and I guess being a partner of insights and a practitioner is full of surprises in a way. Has it led you to any opportunities or environments that you didn't expect to be in? Beyond Castles in Scotland, of course. There is one story that pops to mind when you ask this question, because I honestly didn did not experience it at all.
Impact of Insights on Personal Lives
00:19:13
Speaker
We were delivering this large program for a bank in Saudi, and one seat quite senior guy was attending the training after we finished. So he leads with fiery red, and then ah cool blue, and then there's like, imagine a huge gap, and then there is ah yellow and green. I don't think we need to imagine a huge capacity to describe, you know, it's understandable sometimes. Exactly. ah So he, ah he was very attentive, very, very engaged, etc. was, was going really well. And then on the last day, he came to me and he said, I just want to tell you that
00:19:51
Speaker
you might have saved my marriage. So I looked at him and I didn't know what to say because he said, and he's he's a kind of person who does not open up to people easily. So he just took me aside and he said, now I understand that my my wife has a lot of earth grain and very little red. And I I compensate her lack of redness, basically. So I over overdo my my red with her. And then with this has kind of like unfolded. ah they They were married for like something like nine years or so. And and he said it just it kept on getting worse and worse and worse. so
00:20:30
Speaker
But now they understand that just because what I'm saying is not translating, like how I'm loving her is not translating to which how she wants to be loved. We were actually thinking about going ahead with a divorce, but now I want to give it another chance. I cried. I just I couldn't handle it. You know, it was like, for me, it was like such a defining moment because it goes beyond corporate training. And it goes beyond like leadership training and learning and development. It goes beyond it's like saving a family. You know, so for me, that was definitely a surprise I didn't see. And but it's like a wonderful surprise.
00:21:09
Speaker
is a wow story. And it speaks to your earlier point about the fact that the content touches people in all parts of their life and through creating an awareness of yourself and others, it creates better leaders and better relationships within organizations and structures, but also in all parts of life, which is really phenomenal. Shireen, it's been an absolute pleasure to talk with you today and hear your story as a woman who's changing the face of things in in Saudi. It's part part of a phenomenal transformational journey. I guess if ah if if I think about the other practitioners around the globe, if you had one wish for other practitioners of insights discovery around the world, what would that wish be and why?
00:21:53
Speaker
So but actually, like I must say, uh, so i'm I'm very well connected with many practitioners and honestly, they're all really phenomenal people. And I i want to again, thank Cheryl shuttle for introducing me to insights. and and teaching me how to be a a better practitioner. and and and Also, because you guys have like such a strong network. and you know it's ah like For example, if if I want to design a new a new activity, I know that I can reach out to many people to help me design. like Even you know ah like um a few years ago, I was delivering in Arabic ah to ah to a group of people. and um i just got but it was we were delivering something that I never delivered before so I was a bit nervous and I just called Jennifer who's like the the Jennifer Carl who's the head of EMEA and and she just sat with me for like I think three hours and she told me everything she told like I don't have more wishes you already granted all my wishes so I mean I'm i'm genuinely speaking you know because
00:22:58
Speaker
it's not like i I honestly don't have any more wishes. I just enjoy it very much. I just i think my wish is not for the practitioners. I think my wish is for more people to see that this tool exists. I love that, Cherine. That's fantastic. it's ah but It's a brilliant wish. And maybe if I can have a little wish, what Cheryl did for you, if our other practitioners around the globe can do that, right? And introduce the person at the right time to this content. And it feels like Cheryl maybe gave you a little shove in a castle in Scotland in the direction as well. So there's maybe something you're just about a little nudge here and there for other people, right?
00:23:34
Speaker
Actually, yes, actually I want to, I want to go back to my wish list. I would love for senior practitioners to teach new practitioners to give them a bit more experience. So I owe Cheryl a lot in, in how to command the room, how to deliver the message, how to, how to get people to discover rather than us telling, you know, them. And I think more of sharing the the tricks, you know, the tricks of the trade actually will make us all much better as a unit, as a one unit in like insights practitioners all around. I love it. And touch the lives of leaders around the globe, not only for in the workplace, but also for who they are in their in their own lives, and the relationships that they hold. Shireen, you are definitely an entrepreneurial winning woman in Saudi. It's been an honor to spend some time with you. Thank you for sharing your story. And that's it for today, folks. thank
00:24:34
Speaker
Thank you. Well, that was a truly fantastic story we shared together today. I love the fact that our community of practitioners make such a huge difference across the globe. That's all for today, folks. Thank you for listening to our Voices with Insights podcast. Look out for the next story in our series.